On Monday, February 17th, Senator Arlen Specter (R) met with over 20 members of ADAPT at Liberty Resources Inc. The theme of this meeting was My Home--Not A Nursing Home. The Senator spent an hour hearing from people how CASA (Community Attendant Services Act) would give people with disabilities a real choice between community services or going into nursing home. Specter seemed genuinely moved listening to survivors of nursing homes as they told their stories of abuse and neglect. They also told him how much better it is to live independently in their communities.
What really impressed Specter was the inequities of funding that exist. It costs $50,000 - 100,000 a year, just to keep people in institutions. Community services average $15,000 a year. Yet nationally we spend six times as much on nursing homes as on community services.
Specter asked local ADAPT activist Spitfire where she got her shirt (an ADAPT sweatshirt that said My Home--Not Nursing Homes with the ADAPT logo.) He wanted one to hold up while on the Senate floor when speaking about meeting with ADAPT and the issues of community services. Specter said he could not commit to CASA yet, although he seemed very interested. He will be getting in touch with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and has assigned a Washington liaison to stay in communication with ADAPT.
Since the meeting Specter has contacted Philly ADAPT several times, and asked some questions of Secretary Shalala for ADAPT at a recent meeting with her.
FREE OUR PEOPLE!
Empire State ADAPT has freed one of their brothers from the clutches of a county owned nursing facility. Samir, who comes to the US from South Yemen, entered second class citizenship as a para when he was shot during a hold up.
Samir survived voo-doo rehab. With no alternatives available in the community, Samir was dumped at the steps of the county nursing home. This force an end to contacts with his family, an end to his high school education, and an end to friends and any involvement as first class citizenship in the community.
I met Samir while there to visit another person. Samir asked if I was that ADAPT guy he had heard about. Loud and clear, Samir said that he wanted to get out of there.
We had never actually freed anyone. Thinking the local CIL knew what to do, we called them. They were clueless. The CIL told us "freeing people was not part our mission, nor was the funding ... blah, blah... finite resources... we can't serve everyone who's disabled, blah, blah, blah."
We phoned ADAPTers nationwide. They told us what was involved. People gave Samir items for his apartment. Attendant services were set-up. Things came together. A few times the helping professionals lost forms, turned something in late, used the wrong form, etc. We all learned.
On January 31, 1997 Samir moved into his new apartment. "It's mine!" Samir exclaimed as he unlocked the door to his new home. "The best thing is, I don't ever have to go back to that place."