'People Will Die Waiting': America's System for the Disabled Is Nearing Collapse
- Politico, Aug. 10, 2022 . 'People will die waiting’: America’s system for the disabled is nearing collapse.' Ed.
Providers for intellectually and developmentally disabled struggle to recruit and retain staff amid soaring inflation, pandemic burnout. Private agencies that provide services for the intellectually and developmentally disabled have long warned that, without fresh state and federal funding, they would be unable to provide housing and staff support to the growing number of Americans who need care.
Over the last 12 months, the Covid-19 pandemic’s lingering effects and once-in-a-generation inflation have turned dire predictions into sobering truths, and agency directors, who for years hobbled along on shoestring budgets, have done in 2022 what not long ago would have been unthinkable: closed their doors.
Todd Goodwin, CEO at the John F. Murphy Homes in Maine, has closed 4 group homes over the past 18 months. Until this year, residents of a home that was closing would be transferred to another home with open beds. But in Feb., he couldn’t make the staffing ratios work — 2 residents, who have come to rely on the care his agency provides, would have to be sent back to their families. “These are people who have been with us for years; we love them,” he said. “They are losing their homes through no fault of their own. We have just run out of options.”
In Connecticut, one provider has closed 10 group homes; in Oklahoma, dozens of residential units sit empty for want of staff; & in Texas, budgets are running increasingly in the red. Two decades after the Supreme Court ruled states must provide care for the disabled in the least restrictive setting possible, home- & community-based service providers are floundering. Many states, flush with cash thanks to a juiced economy & federal stimulus, may need to act following years of inadequate funding that left an already fragile system on the verge of collapse...
https://politico.com/news/2022/08/10/americas-system-for-the-disabled-is-nearing-collapse-00050713