The Kansas City Star Editorial Board writes that people with developmental disabilities plead for help in the state Capitol annually, but keep getting pushed aside. More than 4,100 Kansans are on waiting lists for residential and home-based services — waiting lists that didn’t exist as recently as the 1990s.

Waiting means delayed therapy for children whose social and physical developments depend on services. It means idleness for young people who have finished school and are shut out of job programs. It means unending stress for families seeking a group home placement — or even respite care — for a disabled adult. Many Kansans have been on hold for more than four years.

“If we had a 4,000-person waiting list for kindergarten this year, someone would do something about it,” said Tom Laing, executive director of InterHab, a statewide advocacy group for people with disabilities.

… A state’s character is defined by how it treats its weakest citizens. By that measure, Kansas has much work to do.

Mark Brown, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, says the Illinois legislature hurt some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens when it approved a “bogus stopgap budget deal” that included deep cuts in human services programs. The budget is a “lousy outcome for people who already get short shrift in this state,” he says.

Hurt the most, he says, are people like 35-year-old Tom Morissette, a man with Down syndrome whose day program was forced to close. Now Morissette is stuck at home, watching television or sitting on the porch swing. “It’s truly been a devastating loss,” his sister says.

From the Boston Herald:

The Westwood Respite Center, which provides support to 68 families of adults with disabilities in eastern Massachusetts, is expected to close its doors next weekend. The reason: massive cuts in the budget of the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services. The center offers a place for adults to develop independent-living skills and socialize with peers.

People like Ellen Burns, who has been visiting for the past 15 years, are devastated. “I need a life,” she says. “I get lonesome.”

Her mother is outraged.“The zoo has gotten funding back. People with disabilites are not on the same level?” said Peggy Burns. “Where are their priorities?”

See also:

A wild idea: Help needy — by Peter Gelzinis in the Boston Herald

An excerpt:

“Look, I was happy when the governor came out and said that no animals were going to die,” Cheryl said. “I happen to be an animal lover, too. But I just think it would be nice if people, who find themselves in the same situation as my daughter, could get a little of the same attention.

“But then, I suppose that only happens in a perfect world, doesn’t it?”

– Quote from Cheryl Perry, whose daughter Ava was shut out of a Massachusetts adult services program because of budget cuts. Ava is blind and has Down syndrome.

(Photo of Cheryl and Ava Perry from the Boston Herald)

By Clark Kauffman in the Des Moines Register:

Faced with a $900,000 fine for the alleged exploitation of its mentally retarded workers, the owners of Henry’s Turkey Service say the company is not subject to Iowa’s labor laws.

Iowa Workforce Development imposed the fine in May after alleging that Henry’s parent company, Hill Country Farms of Goldthwaite, Texas, had paid 34 mentally retarded men less than the minimum wage to work in the West Liberty Foods plant in eastern Iowa.

An attorney for Hill Country Farms said that the company is subject to Texas laws rather than Iowa laws, and workers  who lived for decades in a bunkhouse in Atalissa, Iowa, were technically residents of Texas.

Earlier posts here.

From the Sacramento Bee:

Parents and disability advocates say they’re worried about the tidal wave of young people with autism who are moving toward adulthood in a society unprepared to meet their needs.

Nationally, it is estimated that some 380,000 people will need extensive adult autism services by 2023, and the pricetag for their care will be in the billions of dollars.

“The financial impact will be huge,” said Dr. Robert Hendren, director of the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. “Many, many people will be living impaired lives, and where are they going to go? Who will take care of them? The challenge will fall largely to family members. As those parents age, they are asking, ‘Who is going to take care of my autistic child after I am gone?’”

See also: Book review of ‘Boy Alone’, by Karl Taro Greenfeld — Paul Collins in the [Portland] Oregonian. An excerpt:

Society makes some strange demands upon autism. We expect a cure: something you rarely hear mentioned next to conditions like Down syndrome or retardation. For them, a sensible emphasis has been placed upon prevention in the future, and respite and amelioration in the present. (more…)

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News,  a co-owner of Henry’s Turkey Service defended his company against allegations that it exploited and neglected 21 workers with intellectual disabilities in Atalissa, Iowa.

Kenneth Henry said he and his company followed the law. He said critics underestimate the cost of the 24-hour care required to supervise the workers — a cost that he says was legally deducted from their paychecks.

“These boys cannot take care of themselves,” said Henry, 68. “The constant care is the part that nobody wants to talk about.”

… “We haven’t tried to hide from anybody. We’ve had 1,500 boys go through the program. It was a lot better than letting them rot in a state institution.”

Federal and state investigators are evaluating charges that the firm underpaid workers, improperly deducted money from their paychecks, and violated their civil rights.

From the Chicago Tribune:

For students with disabilities, the prom and graduation at the Blue Cap Instructional Center in Blue Island are bittersweet events.

Once they turn 22, these students will no longer be eligible for public education, and will find few adult services available. Many will end up staying at home all day, and will likely lose the educational gains they worked so hard to achieve.

“Thinking about it puts a cold chill up my spine,” says Carl Wanzung, whose daughter Vianey will age out of the Blue Cap program in a few months. She’s been on a waiting list for adult programming for more than two years. If she doesn’t get in, her parents must decide between hiring a day-time aide on their own or one of them quitting work to care for her.