Federal Officials Join ADAPT in Nashville for National Hearing on Long-term Care Services

For Immediate Release:

March 3, 2006
For Information contact:
Bob Kafka 512-431-4085
Janine Bertram 503-504-9787
ADAPT

Nashville, TN---In a virtually unprecedented national forum sponsored by ADAPT, officials from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Council on Disability (NCD), the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), ADAWatch, and the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) will hear firsthand testimony documenting the institutional bias in America's long-term care system. The hearing will be held in Nashville's Hilton Hotel Volunteer Ballroom on Sunday, March 19, 2006, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

"People have been asking me 'Why Nashville' as the site for this hearing," said Randy Alexander, Tennessee ADAPT Organizer. "I tell them, where better? After all, Tennessee has a history of being the site of some of this country’s seminal civil rights demonstrations. And, sadly, Tennessee is also known for being consistently ranked as one of the worst states in the country when it comes to long-term services. It's been a perfect example of the failed national Medicaid policy-even before the Governor's heartless cuts to TennCare. Do you know that we had to develop a sort of 'underground railroad ' helping people with disabilities move to other states so they wouldn't be institutionalized here? All the cuts just make the situation worse."

As many as one hundred people with disabilities who have been or are currently in nursing homes, developmental disability facilities, or residential hospital facilities will be testifying on life in an institutional setting. Their testimony is also expected to share details of how they managed to leave the institutional environment, and what life is like living in their own homes in the community. People who are still trying to move into the community from a facility will be testifying about why they want to leave and the barriers they have encountered.

"As people talk about the barriers they have encountered, or are running into now, we expect to hear a lot about being forced into nursing homes and institutions because that's all Medicaid would pay for..it wouldn't pay for community services. However, there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel both in Tennessee and nationally," added Alexander. "Here in Tennessee there is a bill called the Community Choices Act of 2006 just introduced in our state legislature. When passed, that bill, like the new national Money Follows the Person, will let people take the money that would have paid for them to be in a nursing home, and use it to receive services to stay in their own home in the community."

One of the people expected to testify at the hearing is Lois Curtis, subject of a landmark case, often referred to as the "Olmstead Case" in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided that forcing people to stay in institutions was tantamount to discrimination, and was therefore illegal. Curtis now lives in the community and has become a celebrated artist. In addition to being heard by federal officials, the testimony on Medicaid's institutional bias will be recorded for later distribution as a written report, a film, and as a photographic essay, and will be web cast live at www.ilru.org, beginning at 2 p.m. EST / 1pm Central.

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