(click headline for ChgoTrib) or http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-18/news/ct-met-autism-clinic-20110418_1_west-side-clinic-clinical-director-uic
Chicago Tribune:
Quinn's spending plan threatens lifeline for many struggling families
Clinics for people with disabilities could fall victim to cost cutting:
April 18, 2011|By Rex W. Huppke, Chicago Tribune reporter
About five years ago, Maria Limon brought her daughter to a clinic at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Eileen Limon has autism and, at the time, was nonverbal. Her mother couldn't afford the kind of therapy Eileen needed, but doctors at the publicly funded West Side clinic said they could help.
Now, at 9, Eileen speaks beautifully, is getting straight A's in third grade and has made progress her mother never dreamed possible.
"Without the clinic, she probably wouldn't even be talking," Maria Limon said. "She wouldn't have had much opportunity in life."
For two decades, the Developmental Disabilities Family Clinics at UIC have been serving low-income families in the Chicago area, but the future of this service is now in doubt. Nearly 90 percent of the clinics' funding comes from a $1.2 million state grant, one that has been written out of Gov. Pat Quinn's current budget.
"This program came into being because the state said there was a need for it," said Linda Sandman, clinical director of the UIC clinics. "But it's small and, unfortunately, it becomes easy to eliminate these types of services."
As politicians at the state and federal levels wrestle with rising debt and a push for greater fiscal austerity, many social service programs like the UIC clinics find themselves in danger of being wiped out.
"They're on the governor's proposed budget to be eliminated — it gets no more serious than that," said Tony Paulauski, executive director of The Arc of Illinois, an advocacy group for people with developmental disabilities. "What's unique about the UIC clinic is it's one of the few resources available for a large number of minority children and adults in that area to get their specialized services."
But the role of social service operations like the family clinics must now be weighed against the sizable fiscal crisis Illinois is facing. It remains to be seen what value lawmakers will put on programs like this, but already in the federal budget deal reached by Democrats and Republicans, many services for the poor are being eliminated.
In total, the proposed 2012 Illinois budget cuts $76.3 million from community services for people with developmental disabilities, according to The Arc of Illinois. That includes defunding the UIC clinics and a program that provides respite care for parents of children with developmental disabilities, and slashing $56 million from group homes, day centers and employment programs.
Advocates for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities have long asserted that early intervention — which requires a large front-end investment — saves taxpayers money in the long term, as it cuts down on the need for institutionalization. According to The Arc of Illinois, the average cost to support one person living in the community is $50,000 per year compared with $192,000 per year in one of the state's eight institutions.
"The data all show that early intervention has an impact, not just in terms of economy, but in terms of the person's quality of life," Sandman said. "People tend to think so short-term. It doesn't always make sense."
During the last fiscal year, the family clinics at UIC helped conduct initial evaluations on 855 clients and provided clinical and therapeutic services to 1,260 clients. Almost 90 percent of the families that use the clinics are either uninsured or on Medicaid or Medicare, and 70 percent come from minority populations.
"Where do these families go?" Paulauski said. "When there is no place to go, you get in the crisis mode. They show up at the emergency room and families start to look at institutionalization, and even that's limited. The families really have very few options."
The clinics offer bilingual services for Spanish-speaking families of children with disabilities, a rare service in the region. They also have the state's largest Hispanic autism support group, Grupo SALTO.
Limon, who lives in Little Village and speaks primarily Spanish, said the support group helped her immediate family better understand and help Eileen.
"Many people in my community don't really understand autism," she said. "But when they came to these sessions, then they understood what was happening with the child. You can find services in English, but for those who struggle with the language, this is the best place that can be found."
Also at UIC is a group called the Assistive Technology Unit, which travels across 12 northern Illinois counties helping people with motorized wheelchairs, communication devices for people who are unable to speak and an array of other services. About 70 percent of the unit's annual funding — $567,405 — is set to be cut as well.
A mobile team from the technology unit was at a facility in Oak Park on a recent morning helping several clients, including Lakeshia Knight, a 24-year-old with cerebral palsy who relies on a computer attached to her wheelchair to communicate. With the help of physical and speech therapists, Knight has learned to manipulate her computer using head movements.
Through the device, she talked about her favorite television show — "Smallville" — and her love of horror movies. The team has worked with her for eight years and has been able to tailor the devices she relies on to her specific needs and environment.
Jim Graham, a fabrication specialist who repairs and modifies many of the assistive-technology devices, said loss of funding would put many of the hundreds of clients the team works with in a difficult position.
"The most immediate impact would be a delay in getting services," he said. "But in addition, all the people we work with would have to find other ways of accessing or even transporting themselves to other services, which for our clients can be a tremendous obstacle."
That would be the case for Lorraine Phifer, 81, of Chicago, who cares for her 54-year-old son, William. He was born with cerebral palsy and has been helped by people from the technology unit since 1996. Just recently, members installed a lift in his room so his family can get him in and out of bed.
"I have a wheelchair van, but I can't get him in all by myself anymore, so the fact that they come out to the house is a lifesaver," Lorraine Phifer said. "I'm not sure what we'd do without them."
rhuppke@tribune.com
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