The editorial board of the Baltimore Sun says Maryland lawmakers should make people with developmental disabilities a top priority this year. An excerpt:

Maryland, despite its wealth, has lagged for years in services for its most vulnerable residents and those who give over their lives to care for them. The system is fast approaching a breaking point, but the state, caregivers and advocates should use that crisis as an opportunity to make sure Maryland lives up to the promise that all its citizens can live a life of freedom and dignity.

Writing in the Kansas City Star, Lisa Cannady says Kansans like her son Pierce must endure years on waiting lists before they can get the government services they’re entitled to receive. An excerpt:

There is something, collectively, in us that has allowed us to ignore the most vulnerable among us. From the waiting list that thousands of Kansans with disabilities have to negotiate, to comments earlier this year by President Obama about the Special Olympics, it is clear that disabled people remained largely disenfranchised. This is the last taboo, the group that it is still acceptable to marginalize.

The ugly truth is that when the needs and rights of people with disabilities are not upheld, when indignities — the big ones and the little ones — are allowed to go unchecked, it tells this vulnerable population that they don’t deserve better. It tells them substandard care and consideration are all that special needs people are worthy of.

As the mom of a special needs child, I am not prepared to accept that as my child’s due. I am not raising my son to sit at the back of the bus.

Lisa Cannady is a social services counselor at Lakemary Center in Paola.

From the Clarion [MS] Ledger:

More than 1,800 people with mental or developmental disabilities are receiving home and community-based services in Mississippi, but almost as many — nearly 1,600 — are enrolled on waiting lists for the services.

Ed LeGrand, executive director of the state’s mental health department, said he expects that the number of waiting families will exceed those served within the next year.  LeGrand recently asked the legislature for a 25 percent increase in funding for the next fiscal year, but said he “did not really think the request would be looked upon favorably.”

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

A New Jersey plan to open a state Office of Autism Services has drawn mixed reactions from disability advocates. While parents express enthusiasm, experts in the disability community say the state is creating a two-tiered system that favors one diagnosis at the expense of people with other disabilities.

The governor’s Adults with Autism Task Force recommended that the state also make improvements in housing, job training, education, transportation and financial security for people with autism after age 21. Experts said such improvements are needed for all adults with disabilities, not just people with autism.

It is estimated that some 8,500 people languish on waiting lists for disability-related services in New Jersey.

Nationally, “autism is the disability that’s getting the focus right now in a lot of sectors,” said Barbara Trader, executive director of TASH, a Washington nonprofit that lobbies for equity and inclusion for people with disabilities. “But the entire disability community needs a lot more services.”

From the Houston Chronicle:

World War II veterans face a special urgency as the nation’s oldest generation of veterans are added to a growing backlog of disability claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Even as the numbers of aging veterans dwindle daily, the VA adds their claims to a waiting list that can take months or years to process.

Family members say the problem is particularly vexing because aging veterans are not Internet savvy and can easily be confused by VA’s complex forms.

One 91-year-old man was told by the VA Call Center that his wait on an appeal could last seven months to 30 years.

(Houston Chronicle photo)

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.

From the Birmingham News:

Alabama has agreed to settle a nine-year-old lawsuit over the state’s lengthy waiting list for services for people with intellectual disabilities. The settlement does not force the state to spend more money on services, but will provide families with more information about what services are available and where they stand on the waiting list.

An attorney with the Alabama Disability Advocacy Program said the settlement agreement will make the system more “consumer friendly.”

Thomas Holmes, president of the Arc of Alabama, Inc., said he is concerned the waiting list is climbing. The waiting list numbered about 1,600 in 2006 and was 2,100 in July.

“All we can do is bring this to the attention of legislators and say this is a big problem,” Holmes said.