Chicago Tribune : Letter to the Editor : June 01, 2011
Time for a change in state disabled care
The only thing I would change about the recent Chicago Tribune editorial titled "Unkindest Cuts" would be the title itself. "Unkindest" is too kind. The proposed cuts to community services for children and adults with disabilities is unfair and cruel. There is really no solid argument to keep investing in large, costly, archaic dinosaurs called State Operated Developmental Centers that warehouse people. It's a shame our governor was too focused on keeping his job and forgot to actually do his job when he signed a labor agreement promising not to shut down any institutions or lay off staff.
Based on recent data, the State of Illinois plans to pay an average of $168,000 per year to house more than 2,000 people with developmental disabilities in these state run institutions. This amount per year buys people with disabilities the opportunity to live at a place like the Shapiro Developmental Center, built in 1877, where you get to live with 575 other people all day every day in a ward-like setting. To put it in perspective, Mary Todd Lincoln lived there. For that amount of money, you could stay at a five-star hotel on Michigan Avenue 365 days per year. But even better, for the same cost, Illinois could fund four people in community residential services, or 8 people in home-based services, or 145 families could receive respite, or people could receive more than 6,800 hours of job coaching.
In fact, if everyone in our state institutions were transitioned and moved to a community-based residential setting, a $200 million savings would be realized. Then our state could serve nearly 4,000 more people who are in critical need of community-based residential supports or more than 9,000 people could be awarded home-based services that are designed to support people to craft meaningful days and keep families intact. This would make a substantial positive impact on many of the 20,000 people in need of community-based services waiting in line today. Illinois needs to seriously analyze the return on their investment. It is not about needing more money, it is about responsible spending.
-- Kim Zoeller, president and CEO, Ray Graham Association
# For the Ray Graham Association, go to: http://www.ray-graham.org/
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