Lawmakers Refuse to Listen to Public

Column by Brendan Williams, who served in the Washington state House of Representatives from the 22nd District of Thurston County from 2005 through 2010. He is the former director of the Washington Health Care Association.

OLYMPIA, Washington -- In 2000, a jury found three men with developmental disabilities were physically and sexually abused, from 1994 through 1996, in a Bremerton adult family home. The jury awarded $17.8 million from the state.
The trial record reveals the men’s disabilities were so severe they could barely communicate through gestures, let alone articulate their torture. The state licensed their caregiver despite the fact he was previously fired for alleged abuse.
Washington saves considerable money through residential care of vulnerable Medicaid clients who formerly would have been in nursing homes. Yet it does so with what often seems to be little regard for care quality or safety, giving rise to episodic legal settlements, verdicts, and media exposés. These, in turn, are followed by public pronouncements of concern, and feel-good bills, largely leaving underlying problems unresolved.

Tennessee Gov. Defends Group Homes

WINCHESTER, Tenn. — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam is defending the decision to cut back home care for people with developmental disabilities despite a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the move to group homes.
Haslam said after a ribbon-cutting event in at Tims Ford State Park on Thursday that the group homes save money while still delivering personalized services.

Man Losing Aid That Lets Him Live at Home

DUFF, Tenn. -- For 17 years, Christopher Hughes' body held his mind prisoner.
Most of his teachers labeled Hughes "profoundly mentally retarded." The athetoid cerebral palsy that wracks his body with involuntary movements also prevents him from speaking words. Hughes, 34, cannot sit up unassisted. He cannot scratch an itch, bathe himself, eat, drink, go anywhere on his own, even across the room.

Girl Scouts Redecorate Home of Men with Down Syndrome

UNION GROVE, Wis.- Rudy Garcia loves pencils. There's just something about them.

Garcia, who is 58, has Down syndrome and the mental age of a 3- to 5-year-old. He carries pencils with him all the time. He twirls them in his hand, taps them on nearby surfaces and sneaks them into his pockets.

So this weekend when a Waterford troop of high school-aged Girl Scouts performed a makeover of the home where Garcia lives, they made sure pencils were part of his bedroom design. The girls mounted a custom-made 6-foot tall pencil on one wall and arranged new packs of pencils on the bed.

When Garcia saw them Sunday during a makeover reveal, his face formed an "oh" of surprise, then a wide smile.

"Nice work," he told the girls, already ripping into the new pencil packages.

Tennessee Limits at-Home Services

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee is limiting the amount of home-nursing and personal assistance services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to reduce budget costs, an approach that could push more people into community-based homes.
The Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities has been notifying families who use the at-home Medicaid waiver programs of the new limits since March. The department has been looking to make the changes for two years and got approval in February from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.