‘Developmentally disabled adults tied to system that doesn’t work’
February 24th, 2009
From the Chicago Daily Herald:
Chip Davis lives in his parents’ basement, and has been on a state waiting list for housing of his own for nearly 15 of his 32 years. Davis is among some 16,000 people with intellectual disabilities in Illinois who wait on such lists.
Tight budgets mean state services are limited to those in emergency situations — who have abusive or neglectful caregivers, for example. People like Davis, whose parents are healthy and supportive, might never receive services until their parents get ill or die.
Even if Davis got emergency status, he’d have to fall in line behind 2,671 other people with similar designations. And then there’s the problem of finding the housing itself: there’s a serious shortage of housing for people with disabilities in the Chicago metropolitan area.
Says Joyce Helander, executive director of a local disability service coordinator:
“The number of people waiting for care is just ridiculous. We spend a whole lot of entitlements on education for the developmentally disabled up to age 21. Then what? All that just pours out of their ears because there isn’t state funding to help these people continue on with meaningful programs.”
Earlier post here.
Our RSS Feed
February 28th, 2009 at 6:17 am
I respect your opinion Kathy. However, I completely disagree with you. I believe that she is reporting the news of the disabled community as a whole.
I am a parent of an Autistic son and also another son with Down Syndrome. As parents, organizations and professional of those who work with our children and who are reading her blog…I think she is aware that we already know the difference between each disability and can sort it ourselves.
As a community of the disabled, regardless of disability, we suffer the same discrimination, the same financial hardships as well as similar challenges and we all need advocates like Patricia Bauer to make us more aware of what’s happening in our nation, not just our neighborhoods.
I greatly appreciate this blog as well, and as a Moderator of an online support group, the owner of another and a member of several, we have found your blog extremely informative and useful!
February 26th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Disregarding for a moment any discussion of a disability hierarchy, I’d like to share an observation an early intervention program director shared after she injured her leg in a skiing accident.
She said that since she started using a cane, people spoke more loudly to her, as if her hearing had been affected. I thought of that a few years ago, when I used a cane for a few months. People still seemed to think that the leg bones are connected to the ear bones, because even clerks in stores would practically shout at me.
Mainstream people often display their own intellectual limitations and real, pure ignorance when discussing intellectual disabilities; and show a prejudice, lack of self-awareness and insensitivity when discussing the differences between developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Our sons and daughters are their own best ambassadors mainly because even we parents don’t always figure things out quickly enough to know why we are advocates for all children when we are advocates for one.
February 24th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I’m also a journalist and parent of a child with a developmental disability, and I have great appreciation for your blog. I am saddened to see that you collapse intellectual and developmental disabilities into one category. Not everyone with a developmental disability has an intellectual disability — for example, most people with cerebral palsy do not, and many people on the autism spectrum do not. Although I’m sure this was not at all your intent, collapsing these categories plays into societal assumptions that everyone who looks, thinks or acts differently must be intellectually disabled.