On September 26, 2024, CPR and law firm of Foley Hoag, LLP were honored by the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health (MAMH) with its Friend and Leader Award for their ongoing partnership with MAMH, using systemic litigation to transform the Commonwealth’s disability service systems.
Established in 1913, MAMH’s longstanding mission has been to advance mental health and well-being by promoting prevention, early intervention, and effective treatment and research to address social, emotional, and mental health challenges, to eliminate stigma and discrimination, and to ensure full social, economic, and political inclusion in all aspects of community life for the residents of the Commonwealth. The Friend and Leader Award acknowledges and celebrates organizations and individuals whose work contributes to MAMH’s mission.
With hundreds of friends, family and colleagues in attendance, Joseph Kennedy III presented the award to CPR & Foley Hoag at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. Kennedy noted that the collaboration between MAMH, CPR and Foley Hoag has spanned nearly five decades, and began with the 1976 filing of the Brewster v. Dukakis class action lawsuit. The case culminated in a landmark settlement agreement in which more than 1,000 individuals transitioned from the Northampton State Hospital to community homes with support services. The hospital closed in 1992.
CPR and Foley Hoag have furthered their collaboration to oppose budget cuts to community mental health programs (McNamara v. Dukakis (1990)), challenge legislation that sought to keep people institutionalized in developmental centers (Healey v. Weld and Mahoney v. Weld (1994)), and to require community alternatives for people in nursing facilities (Rolland v. Cellucci (1999), Marsters v. Healey (2024)).
Steven Schwartz, CPR’s founder and lead counsel in these cases, accepted the award, noting that CPR’s vision, from its beginning, was simple and straightforward – to bring people home. MAMH and Foley Hoag have shared this vision over the years and, through their partnership, have successfully litigated cases, “so that everyone can come home to their families, their loved one and their communities,” said Schwartz.
As a result of the Marsters v. Healey settlement agreement, the Commonwealth will transition at least 2,400 individuals from nursing facilities to community settings, once again realizing what CPR’s mission has been all along – to bring people home.
On behalf of the thousands of people who are still segregated in facilities in Massachusetts, Schwartz thanked MAMH for its Friends and Leader Award, saying it was “an inspiration to never give up and never to leave anyone behind.”