Philosophical Approach, or Financial?: Providing for adults with severe disabilities
Yesterday’s Wisconsin State Journal reports on changes in how the budget for severely developmentally disabled adults in Dane County is allocated, and how these affect individuals and the services they receive:
…….as more clients enter the system, the dollars are being spread thinner, with $76.5 million spent in 2007, the last year for which complete spending is available. On average, each adult client was allotted $49,196 in 2007 for housing, care, job assistance and other needs. Adjusted for inflation, the amount is down nearly $7,000 from seven years earlier.
Less purchasing power means less staff care for each person and even, as parents such as Kathy Karklus, of Madison, fear, a greater risk of injury for the vulnerable population.
Karklus’ son Ryan, 28, suffers from severe seizures and must be sedated and confined to a wheelchair. With the county’s proposed 3 percent average cut for existing clients next year, Ryan could receive fewer dollars, which means Madison Area Rehabilitation Centers receives less money for keeping him as a client.
That cuts into the rehab center’s budget and over time has meant fewer staff members, frozen salaries and reduced hours of care for clients.
It’s noted that Dane County was an “innovator in creating a community-based approach” in the 1970s and 1980s, when developmentally disabled individuals were moved out of institutions. This approach emphasized people living in group homes rather than in institutions and working with a caregiver alone, rather than in teams. However, this very approach has proved to be more expensive and “the county has promoted ‘efficiencies’ to save money, resulting in more situations where four or five people may live together in a duplex.” As the Wisconsin State Journal notes, it is financial needs and an emphasis on tight budgets that are now driving the program, rather than “a philosophical approach, emphasizing individual choice and human dignity.”
I think I know which approach I would prefer for my son: How to make it a practical reality?
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POSTED IN: Disability Rights, Education, Living Arrangements, Philosophy, Work
4 opinions for Philosophical Approach, or Financial?: Providing for adults with severe disabilities
mayfly
Oct 21, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Both group homes and institutions are needed. Some can only get the care they require in an institution, others will do much better in group homes.
Regan
Oct 21, 2008 at 3:41 pm
That still leaves the conundrum of the the financing of, and quality of life and care in, either setting.
It reminds me of the oft quoted statement–placement is a set of services, not a place.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Oct 21, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Just have to emphasize the point about quality and oversight—-these instances of suicide and sexual assault at a residential school in southern New Jersey should be noted, and also the death of Matthew Goodman at the same place.
Asthmagirl
Oct 22, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Your assertions are accurate, at least in my state. The state has mandated a “path to employment” for everyone of working age. This policy does not recognize long term use of sheltered workshops, they want folks with disabilities out in the community, fully intergreated. While most service vendors agree in theroy, the fact that policy doesn’t increase funding per client means that clients get fewer hours as vendors try to balance their budgets. As further budget cuts take place, parents move their adult children from vendor to vendor trying to get more and more hours.
I could go on and on, but the need for a dependable funding stream that doesn’t put vendors at rish is huge.
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