From the Lawrence [KS] Journal-World, WDAF Kansas City, KWCH-TV Kansas City:

Kansas disability rights advocates pleaded with state lawmakers to roll back a planned 10 percent cut in Medicaid funding, saying that the $22.7 million reduction would put the lives of vulnerable people at risk.

At a Capitol news conference Friday, advocates said the proposed cuts would end up costing more because they would force the state to place people in more expensive nursing homes.

“It’s just mind-boggling that we would cut those services only to force people into institutions which are going to cost taxpayers more dollars,” said Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Disability Rights Center of Kansas.

He said policymakers don’t understand that the cuts “are real and are devastating people’s lives, and without restoring those cuts, it’s only going to get worse.”

In a column in the Oakland [CA] Tribune, Washington insiders Cokie and Steven V. Roberts call for approval of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act. The measure, part of the health care bill, would allow workers to pay into a fund that would then pay a stipend if they become disabled.

CLASS, they say, could “make all the difference” for families facing the economic and emotional stress of long-term disability. It could allow an elderly person to pay for care at home instead of being forced to go into a nursing facility, or for a family caregiver to get help at home that would allow them to keep their day job. Presently, the Roberts’ say, many elderly and disabled people must impoverish themselves in order to qualify for government assistance. An excerpt:

How can pushing people into nursing homes be better than letting them stay in their houses? As a caller to a public radio program on the CLASS plan asked, “Why not try something where I can exercise my own responsibility for my future?”

Why not, indeed?

Cokie Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News and a senior news analyst for National Public Radio. Steven V. Roberts appears regularly on CNN, PBS and the ABC radio network, and hosts Voice of America’s “The Roberts Report.”

From the Chicago Tribune:

A convicted felon has been charged with the murder of a dementia patient at an Illinois nursing home, exposing the dangerous mix of violent and vulnerable residents at residential facilities in that state.

Ardyce Nauden, 62, has been charged with homicide in the beating death of 72-year-old Andres Cardona, who wandered into Nauden’s room and began eating his lunch. Nauden, who has a history of felony drug convictions and aggressive behavior, was described as “psychotic.”

Illinois is an outlier among states in its reliance on nursing homes to house adults with mental illness, including thousands of felons such as Nauden whose disabilities qualify them for Medicaid-funded nursing care.

A recent Tribune investigation documented numerous cases when elderly and disabled people such as Cardona were assaulted and even murdered by fellow nursing-home residents. The governor and state legislature have held hearings in response and are considering a series of reforms aimed at making the facilities safer and overhauling how Illinois houses and treats the mentally ill.

See also:

Convicted felons are regulars at sheltered workshop for the disabled — Salt Lake Tribune

Sheltered workshops in Utah serve the dual role of providing second chances for felons and jobs for people with developmental disabilities. Most states avoid mixing the two populations, but Utah officials said they have had no reports of clients being harmed.

A supervisor at a sheltered workshop said the ex-offenders are needed to keep such programs afloat because they bring the skills needed to attract manufacturing contracts.

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.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A handful of protesters were arrested in the courtyard of the Sam Nunn Federal Center in Atlanta Tuesday during a demonstration calling for better long-term care options for people with disabilities.

Representatives of the Office of Homeland Security refused to disclose how many had been arrested and whether they were being temporarily held.

The protest was part of a five-day campaign by members of ADAPT, a national coalition of disability advocates, to seek state compliance with the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead decision. The ruling has been interpreted as directing states to provide community-based supports for people with disabilities rather than continue unwarranted segregation in institutions.

See also: ADAPT Action Report

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Some 200 disability advocates rallied at the Georgia state capitol Monday, dispersing only after securing a meeting with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s chief of staff. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

The protesters are seeking state compliance with the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead decision, which directed states to provide community-based supports for people with disabilities rather than continue unwarranted segregation in institutions. They are members of ADAPT, a national disability rights organization.

“It’s a shame that 10 years after Olmstead, more people are going into nursing homes than before, “said Bernard Baker, an organizer with ADAPT’s Atlanta chapter. “Living in the community isn’t a privilege, it’s a civil right, and we are being denied our civil rights.”

Earlier post here.

From the New York Times:

A growing number of states are teaming up with Medicaid to help elderly people and those with disabilities move out of nursing homes and back into their communities.

Walter Brown, 72, says the transition to his own home has dramatically improved his life. Brown, who had a stroke two years ago, said living in a nursing home was “like being in jail.” Now he says he is “more confident in my future.”

The new programs in 29 states are a sharp departure from past practices, in which Medicaid practically steered people into nursing homes. Each participating state has designed its own program, called Money Follows the Person. The federal government provides extra funding for the first year.

“Medicaid has had an institutional bias in favor of nursing homes,” even for people who do not need them, said Gene Coffey, a staff lawyer at the nonprofit National Senior Citizens Law Center. “Federal law requires states to provide nursing home services. They don’t have to provide home or community-based services.”

(Photo from the New York Times)