Mental illness and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Understanding the fundamentals

1. With an increasing emphasis on psychiatric rehabilitation, psychiatric nurses must understand the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the application of the legislation to the mentally disabled. 2. The ADA applies to all who are disabled physically or as the result of emotional or mental illness, and is intended to promote equality of opportunity, full participation in society, and economic self-sufficiency. 3. Because much of the ADA was drafted from the perspective of the physically disabled, it sometimes is a challenge to apply the regulations to people with mental illness.