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 "We're here because the National Governors Association has promised to meet with us many, many times......We're here just to get a meeting with them and it has come to this," explains Indianapolis resident, Karen Vaughn, of the American Disabled For Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT). ADAPT advocates for home and community-based alternatives to nursing homes and other institutionalized care for physically disabled people. In-community care is 2/3 the average cost of nursing homes or other equivalent institutions.
 | | Karen Vaughn of ADAPT
August 17, 2003, Indianapolis, IN | | | "It's against the law to keep people in nursing homes when they can be served in the community. If they are able to get out, they've got to let them out and it's not happening.... and Indiana is the 5th worst...." Karen Vaughn on compliance with the Olmstead Decision | | |
Four years ago, ADAPT was promised to be on the agenda for the National Governors Association (NGA) meeting after 22 States asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court's ruling that Title II of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), which gives people with disabilities the right to care in the "most integrated setting," applies to long term care. ADAPT's goal then and now is to get the NGA to endorse legislation that allows more flexible use of Medicaid funds so that people with disabilities actually have the means to live and have care in their homes or through other community-based programs. The current legislation is called MiCASSA (Community Choice Act). At the 2002 NGA annual meeting in Boise, Idaho, ADAPT members, using their wheelchairs, blocked several of the courtesy SUV's that the Governors were using, and forced the local police to close the road. ADAPT promises continued protests and direct actions. Additional Information: I'd Rather Go to Jail Than to Die in a Nursing Home What Does ADAPT Want and Why Do They Want It? |
