Time to phase out Illinois institutions : Letter to the Editor

Three down, seven to go. Now that the Health Facilities and Services Review Committee has approved Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close the Jacksonville Developmental Center, Illinois can continue to re-balance its service system for persons with developmental disabilities.

Just about every state is moving in the direction of ridding themselves of the warehousing of people in such outmoded and costly institutions and providing the supports they need in smaller, more normalized homes that are integrated into communities. Illinois is finally catching on.

In the past few years, similar facilities have been closed in Lincoln and Tinley Park with the great majority of their residents being successfully transitioned into group homes.

We sincerely hope the momentum will continue and that the institutions still operating in Dixon, Waukegan, Dwight, Anna, Centralia, Park Forest and Kankakee will also downsize and close so that their residents can also experience more normal living conditions to which they, as citizens of Illinois, have a right to receive.

Don Moss
Executive director
United Cerebral Palsy of Illinois

As posted in;
The State Journal-Register
Posted Nov 07, 2012
http://www.sj-r.com/opinions/x2053820426/Letter-Time-to-phase-out-institutions