Utah's Disability Law Center says Down with Institutional Care

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) The President and the Federal government are strides ahead of the States when it comes to protecting the rights of the developmentally disabled. One way Utah can catch up, says Fraser Nelson of Utah's Disability Law Center, is to close down the forty million dollar a year Developmental Center in American Fork and use some of that money for community based care.

"I think one thing that the Federal government is recognizing, and I am hoping that the Medicaid interim committee will also recognize this, is that institutional based services, be they nursing homes for the elderly, or institutional services for people with developmental disabilities, are not cost effective," says Nelson. "They are very expensive and they also violate the core sense of American freedom and independence."

Nelson is a proponent of President Bush's New Freedom Initiative, which advocates more choice for developmentally disabled Americans. Utah's continued institutionalization of the disabled, Fraser claims, does not conform to this new Federal standard.

"People don't make choices. You can paint the walls pink and you can put flowers in the beds in they yards, but it is an institution, you don't have free choice," Nelson says. "That is exactly a polar opposite reality from what the President is suggesting in his New Freedom Initiative, which says that every American has the right to live in their community."

Nelson floated the idea of the closing American Fork's Developmental Center at the Medicaid Interim Committee meeting earlier this week. Nelson says she will follow the proposal into the next legislative session. To hear more from Nelson, go to the Midday Metro page at kcpw.org.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2009 KCPW