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FREE OUR PEOPLE MARCH |
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The ADAPT Community |
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STOLEN LIVES:
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| The Honorable George W. Bush President of the United States The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President: The long term care policies of this country have unnecessarily segregated people with disabilities, regardless of their age or disability, from the rest of the community by placing us in nursing homes or other institutions. This segregation has a long history, beginning in the mid 1800's when asylums for those with mental and cognitive disabilities began to spring up all over the country. In general, the 19th century was the period when schools and institutions for persons with physical disabilities, deafness, blindness, mental illness and intellectual disabilities took root in the United States as well as the rest of the world. The 20th century continued the repression, discrimination and segregation of people with disabilities with both forced institutionalization and also forced sterilization. Disabled people have survived through these indignities by relying on our tenacity and resourcefulness and through support from family and friends. In more recent times we have won a community support services network, but it has been underdeveloped and under funded while institutional models continue to be funded at 2-4 times the cost. In fiscal year 1997, $108.8 billion was allocated for long-term care services and rehabilitation, housing and veterans activities by government in the United States. Over 50% of these funds went to keeping hundreds of thousands of persons with disabilities in segregated settings such as nursing homes, sheltered workshops and mental institutions (Braddock, 2000). Medicaid, the largest funding source for long term care, has had an institutional bias since its beginning in1965. In 2001 $75.3 billion was spent on long term care services. 71% of these funds ($53.1 billion) were spent for nursing home or other institutional services. Only $22.3 billion (29%) were spent for all community long term care services. (MEDSTAT) While showing the bias in funding, these statistics do nothing to reveal the true devastation that the long term care policies of this country have inflicted on people with disabilities regardless of their age. Millions of people have had a portion of their lives stolen from them because of these long term care policies. Your Administration has begun to address some of the inequities that exist in the long term care system through your Olmstead Executive Order and some of the proposals in the New Freedom Initiatives. These proposals, however, do not address the effects these polices have had on the individuals who have had years of their lives stolen by being warehoused in nursing homes and other institutions. Nor do they go far enough to prevent present and future generations from similar treatment. Many of these individuals will be in Washington, DC from May 10th through 15th and would appreciate it if you could do the following during this week:
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