The editorial board of the Macon [GA] Telegram writes that people with developmental disabilities have been hit hard by budget cuts, yet they are largely invisible in the debates over health care and social services.

… due to funding shortages, 7,000 Georgians are on waiting lists for essential services. Many are housed in nursing homes or hospitals settings unable to go home because of physical barriers, from doors not wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through to steps that can’t be navigated due to a lack of community-based services. And many with disabilities are turned away from the work force because of myths that are constantly being perpetuated based on prejudice not fact.

So what to do? First, citizens must be aware of the issues surrounding the developmentally disabled. Those issues are only growing larger as the population climbs from 10 million today to an expected 15 million by 2020.

And before looking in the mirror and thanking God that you are not among the developmentally disabled, think about this: the Baby Boom generation is moving toward retirement. About 2 million elderly and those with disabilities are living in nursing homes now, and somewhere between 10 percent and 40 percent of those don’t need to be housed that way.

If we continue to do the same old thing the same old way, the weight of the Baby Boom generation will crush the system and have long term impacts on more than the elderly and those with disabilities.

From the New York Times:

Families express mixed emotions over a recent court decision that is pushing New York State to move people with mental illness from institutional homes to less restrictive settings. A federal judge ruled last month that New York was illegally discriminating against 4,300 people with mental illness by holding them in privately run institutions.

In interviews, relatives expressed both happiness and fear over the verdict. While they didn’t defend the adult homes, many worried that their vulnerable relatives could be physically in danger if they aren’t adequately supervised, or helped with their medications.

Earlier posts here and here.

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 Omaha World-Herald:

Nebraska’s troubled Beatrice State Developmental Center has moved a step closer to losing $25 million a year in federal Medicaid funds. The state has received word that its appeal of Medicaid decertification has been denied.

The Beatrice Center’s funding has been in jeopardy since September 2006, when it failed seven of eight federal standards and received two federal citations for problems that endangered residents. Earlier this year, state inspectors found that problems at the center had led to the death of an 18-year-old woman.

The center, which cares for about 185 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, has also been cited by the U.S. Justice Department, which found that its practices had violated residents’ constitutional and legal rights.

Earlier posts here.

From the Contra Costa [CA] Times:

Respite care is the latest state-funded program for people with disabilities to face substantial cuts in California, with care now limited to 21 days of service per person annually. Advocates say the cuts threaten to isolate families, possibly forcing them to place loved ones in institutions.

State officials say the cuts were necessary to help the state manage massive budget problems.

Jordan Lindsey, director of policy at the California Association for Health Care Services at Home, estimates recent budget actions have cut $3.5 billion in a variety of services to people with disabilities. State officials put the number closer to $1.5 billion.

“They are being cut 10 percent here, 10 percent there, and people may not understand if you add it all together all of a sudden you are taking away a huge portion of the individual services that allow them to live in the community with a meaningful, productive life,” Lindsey said.

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.

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey writes in the New York Post that a federal court ruling issued earlier this month which calls for releasing people with mental illness from group homes into more integrated settings will “mean disaster for New Yorkers.”

Torrey says many group homes are snake pits, but says at a minimum they do provide assurance that patients receive their medication. He says Judge Nicholas Garaufis should have ordered an overhaul of the state’s group homes, complete with a program of unannounced inspections by an independent state agency. Instead, he says, the judge “threw residents out on the streets.” An excerpt:

… So what is likely to happen from Judge Garaufis’ ruling? The state will close down the worst of the group homes and place the residents in situations where they will no longer receive medications. Many will then relapse, be rehospitalized, become homeless, and/or end up in jail.

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey is the founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Va., and author of “The Insanity Offense.”