State must improve on services for developmentally disabled

 In News & Articles

California’s community of individuals with developmental disabilities is in crisis, but few outside that community are aware of it. That needs to change quickly, before things get even worse.

Support for the state’s roughly 280,000 developmentally disabled individuals has declined to such a state that some are no longer receiving levels of service that are mandated federally, much less what a civilized society owes its most vulnerable members. The decline is wrenching not only for those individuals, but for their loved ones and those who help care for them and support them.

The problem is a lack of money — as it is in so many areas. But this is different in both quality and degree from, say, public employees wanting a raise.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s frugality has been necessary and welcome, but services for the disabled have been declining since the 1990s, long before the Great Recession. Then, during that downturn, funding was slashed by more than $1 billion. State reimbursement rates for services have barely budged in two decades, while costs to provide services have grown steadily. Case loads have shot up for the state’s 21 regional centers that are responsible for managing the services. The nonprofits that are supposed to provide services like skills development and job training have been reduced largely to caretaking in some cases, because they can’t hire and retain qualified professionals when they can’t pay more than minimum wage.

We’re talking about our most vulnerable fellow citizens — those whose quality of life is dependent on state funding to a large degree. They usually cannot help themselves when services fall short.

A report prepared by the Association of Regional Center Agencies (ARCA) is bluntly titled “On the Brink of Collapse: The Consequences of Underfunding California’s Developmental Services System.”

In that report ARCA urges the governor and Legislature to adopt the Lanterman Coalitions’ three-pronged approach to rebuilding the state’s community-based service system for those with developmental disabilities:

  1. An immediate 10 percent boost in funding per person served to halt the decline. That’s about $517 million, of which $357 million would come from the state general fund, garnering $160 million in matching federal funds. That’s serious money, but would amount to rounding error in, for example, the state’s $65.7 billion budget for K-12 education.
  2. Reform of funding for service rates and regional center operations to make them adequate and sustainable.
  3. Annual 5 percent increases until those funding reform strategies are implemented.

These three steps are meant to counteract statistics like these:

  • Since mid-2011, 435 residential homes for adults with developmental disabilities have closed, representing a loss of nearly 2,300 beds.
  • In the same period, 57 day and work programs closed their doors, affecting 1,200 people.
  • And 15 supported employment programs ended, a loss of 176 opportunities to work in community settings.
  • It goes beyond the numbers. Anecdotally, conflicts have grown as more and more family members are infuriated by inadequate services.

The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, passed in 1969, established that Californians with developmental disabilities (and their families) have a right to get the services and support they need to reach their full potential and to live as independently as possible. It made California a leader — a position long surrendered as our per-person outlay has fallen below that of most other states.

It’s time to change that. Legislators and the Brown administration should ensure that 10 percent funding hike gets incorporated into next year’s state budget.

 

Original Articlehttps://www.chicoer.com/opinion/20150322/editorial-state-must-improve-on-services-for-developmentally-disabled

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