Advocates: Bush failed to guard civil rights in institutions
April 2nd, 2009Last-minute settlements were inexcusably weak, they say
From National Public Radio:
In the waning days of the Bush administration, the Justice Department announced settlements in six cases involving the civil rights and physical safety of people in mental hospitals, institutions and nursing homes.
Disability rights organizations are now challenging those settlements. They say the hurried agreements fail to protect the civil rights of people living in institutions, and don’t require states to assure that institutions meet even basic standards of care.
Their suspicion: that states hurried to reach agreements with the Bush administration because they feared more robust enforcement efforts by the Obama administration.
“They all involve situations where people are dying,” [says Ira Burnim, legal director at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, D.C.] “In the cases of a couple of nursing homes, people are being denied adequate food and hydration. There are problems with food and restraint. They’re all very serious issues. And in none of the settlements can you tell what is going to happen over the next month, the next six months, the next 12 months to improve the situation.”
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April 7th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
It seems as though budget cuts will be a more devastating challenge for people with developmental disabilities than anything, and the global economic crisis disproportionately affects families of children and adults with disabilities like Down syndrome.
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Down’s syndrome adults face cut in services
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/apr/06/learning-disabilities-funding-cuts
Funding shortfall is creating ‘a ticking timebomb’, say charities
John Carvel, social affairs editor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 6 April 2009
Services for adults with Down’s syndrome and other learning disabilities are underfunded by at least £200m a year, a consortium of 12 charities will tell the Treasury this week.
The Learning Disability Coalition has compiled a dossier of cuts to local authority services for this disadvantaged group. About 34% of people whose needs are severe enough to qualify for social care have experienced a cut in daytime services.
The coalition said the number of adults with learning disabilities will increase by 3-5% a year over the next five years. The forecast is based on evidence from school censuses showing the number of children with learning disabilities who will reach adulthood before 2014.
Dame Jo Williams, chair of the coalition, said the combination of growing need and service cuts was “a ticking timebomb”.
She acknowledged: “Arguing for better funding in the middle of a recession is an unenviable position to be in, but this is ultimately a matter of human dignity and – sadly, for some people – a matter of life and death.
Williiams added: “Unless the government makes a significant amount of money available to councils to fund good quality social care, we are worried about the impact on people who rarely voice their concerns.”
The coalition’s appeal comes after a report last month from the health and local government ombudsmen criticising NHS and social care staff for an appalling catalogue of neglect of people with learning disabilities.
The Treasury is considering the future funding of social care and is due to publish a reform plan later this year. The coalition said an increase in the care budget could be funded by switching a tiny fraction of the NHS budget.
Andrew Lee, director of People First and co-chair of the coalition, said: “Social care – and particularly social care for people with learning disabilities – just isn’t a priority for the government. Look at the difference between NHS funding going up by 4% and social care going up by 1% per annum.
“We are tired of the lip service paid to preventing harm to people with learning disabilities. Finding the £200m we need from the NHS budget of £106bn must be possible. And, in the long run, it would save money by preventing people needing more expensive care due to neglect.”
The coalition estimates there are about 800,000 adults with learning disabilities, of whom about 137,000 receive social care services.