Families are fearful. Unions promise to fight.

From the Los Angeles Times, San Gabriel Valley Tribune:

California officials this week announced plans to close one of the state’s largest institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona houses 400 people on 302 acres, and employs more than 1,300 people. “It’s just not economical for us to continue it,” said Terri Delgadillo, director of the state Department of Developmental Services.

State officials promised to arrange for residents to get proper care in community-based settings. Family members expressed dismay, saying they feared their loved ones would not be adequately cared for if they left Lanterman.

“It’s devastating for us,” said one woman, whose brother has lived at the institution since 1969. “People like Bobby are more confined in the community. At least [at Lanterman] he can wander the grounds safely.”

The closure requires approval from the state legislature. More than 2,000 people remain in California institutions.

Related story: Toxic Rosewood raises ire, by Jennifer Bishop in the Baltimore Brew

A Maryland state senator has sent a mass email to his constituents warning them that the site of the former Rosewood Center is now considered a dangerous environmental and health hazard. The institution for people with disabilities was closed last year.

Disability advocates reacted angrily. An excerpt:

“The State’s assessment found Rosewood to be so dangerous as to recommend that no one trespass on the property,” said Cristy Marchand, executive director of the ARC of Maryland. “The real question is the response that will be made to the hundreds of children and adults with developmental disabilities whose health was threatened by toxic conditions while living for decades at Rosewood Center.”

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

While finding employment opportunities for people with disabilities is a nationwide problem, New Jersey and Pennsylvania social support programs are trying to create jobs by competing for piecework contracts. That’s getting more difficult as the recession goes on, and waiting lists for jobs continue to grow.

It’s estimated that more than 70 percent of working-aged people with disabilities are not working, said Bill Ditto, New Jersey’s director of disability services, and about 90 percent of them live in poverty.

Among the barriers to employment faced by people with disabilities: Social misperceptions that they are not capable of working, and fears that a paycheck could jeopardize their federal benefits.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Mental health advocates in Illinois are seeking a major overhaul in the way the state manages patients with mental illness, arguing that the state should not be placing people in nursing homes when they could be treated more cheaply and effectively in community settings.

The volatile mix of felons, mentally ill people and seniors in Illinois facilities today serves none of those populations, advocates said, and records show elderly and disabled residents have been assaulted, raped and even murdered in the homes.

A decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead that unjustified segregation of individuals with disabilities in institutions is a form of discrimination prohibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The case was interpreted as directing states to provide community-based supports rather than continue unwarranted segregation in institutions.

Sue Jamieson and Talley Wells of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society write in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Georgia, the state where Olmstead originated, is still “woefully out of compliance” with the court’s mandate to move people out of its psychiatric hospitals. At the same time, the state continues to undergo federal scrutiny for systemic violence, neglect, and abuse in its hospital system. An excerpt:

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From the AP/Chicago Tribune:

A new “premise alert program” allows families in some areas of Illinois to share information about medical problems and disabilities with local police and fire departments. Advocates say the information will allow emergency responders to act with greater speed and sensitivity.

The point of the program is to prepare officers approaching a person with a disability during an emergency and to understand, for example, that they may fear loud noises or be unable to hear spoken instructions. Firefighters would know if a burning home is likely to contain someone who can’t get out. Advocates say Pennsylvania is the only other state to offer the service so broadly.

Itasca deputy police chief Dean Myles, who serves on the board of the Autism Society of Illinois, said the service could help prevent potentially fatal encounters between police and disabled people, including one in 2005 that killed Hansel Cunningham of Des Plaines.

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From the San Francisco Chronicle,  Oakland Tribune, Ventura County Star:

A federal judge in Oakland has ordered California to halt cuts to the state’s Adult Day Health Care program, which serves about 37,000 poor, disabled and elderly people. U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong found that cutting services could force thousands of Californians to be institutionalized.

Rachel Cameron, spokesperson for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the state is planning to appeal the decision.

“The governor understands how difficult these cuts are and sees the real Californians and the real consequences behind them, but had to make difficult and necessary decisions to cut spending in light of the state’s multibillion-dollar deficit,” she said.

The program provides nursing care, meals, and psychiatric, social and other services.

From the Oakland Tribune:

An 86,000-square-foot disability center is scheduled to open next spring in Berkeley, California, with universal access via mass transit.

The idea behind the campus — a first of its kind in the world — is to allow disabled people to get off a BART train and get as many services as possible in one place. Organizations will provide housing services, disability benefits assistance, parenting support, health and fitness support services, job training and development and educational services.

It is expected to serve roughly 30,000 people annually in the Bay Area, center officials said.

The Ed Roberts Campus is named for the pioneering advocate who helped start the independent living movement in Berkeley and paved the way for disabled student services at UC Berkeley.