Advocates urge Mills administration to quickly resolve federal lawsuit over care for disabled children [Video]

It’s time for Gov. Janet Mills to get “personally involved” in finding solutions to long-running deficiencies with state services for disabled children, a key Democratic lawmaker said Tuesday, one day after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was suing Maine for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The DOJ, in its lawsuit, said that Maine’s failure to provide community-based care has resulted in children staying in hospital emergency departments for months waiting for a placement. The Long Creek Youth Development Center, Maine’s only youth prison, has been used as a “de facto psychiatric facility” according to the lawsuit.

State Sen. Joe Baldacci, a Bangor Democrat and co-chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, said in an interview with the Press Herald on Tuesday that the lawsuit sends a “serious message” that the issue is not going away, and that the system needs to be overhauled.

“The governor needs to be personally engaged,” Baldacci …