Independent Living For People With Disabilities Gets $7.5 Million Boost

By Michelle Diament January 7, 2011 Text Size  A  A

Nearly 1,000 Americans with disabilities will be able to leave institutions and move into the community, federal officials said Thursday, thanks to a first-of-its-kind initiative providing both housing assistance and support services.

The program is the result of a unique partnership between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Health and Human Services. Together the agencies will provide $7.5 million worth of rental assistance vouchers in addition to health care and support services to ensure that community living is truly possible.

Katie Bekett - Independent Living

It started with a 3-year-old girl in a hospital and the president who was angered when he learned that federal rules prevented her from going home.

By what sense do we have a regulation in government that says we'll pay $6,000 a month to keep someone in a hospital that we believe would be better off at home, but the family cannot afford one-sixth that amount to keep them at home?

- President Ronald Reagan, Nov. 10, 1981

The president was Ronald Reagan. The girl, Katie Beckett, had contracted viral encephalitis, a brain infection, when she was just five months old. She'd gone into a coma for ten days, and when she came out she suffered a paralysis that left her unable to breathe without the help of a ventilator most of the day.

After more than two years living in St. Luke's Methodist Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the family reached the limit of what its private insurance would pay for Katie's care. Medicaid, the state and federal health insurance for the needy, started picking up the cost of that expensive breathing machine and other care.

But Medicaid would pay only as long as the little girl lived in the pediatric intensive care unit at the hospital.

Beckett's parents, Julie and Mark, said they wanted their daughter at home. The girl's doctors agreed, saying she needed to grow up in a more normal environment than a hospital room.

Independent Living - Alternative Options

The following is an article from NPR:

What do you think -  Should a 22 year old be living in a Nursing Home???

After a year in a nursing home, Mathew Harp got his wish and moved out. He now lives in an Atlanta neighborhood with a woman who provides his attendant care.


Click "read more" to read article

Home Help Services for the developmentally disabled

HOME HELP SERVICES

Are you concerned about taking care of yourself and continuing to live in your own home?

Are you eligible for Medicaid?

This program may let you hire someone to help you with your essential daily activities.

Kabuki Syndrome Camper... A Place to Live??

What are the living options available for a special needs adult with Kabuki syndrome, who is medically fragile, has behavioral issues and is as capable of taking care of himself as a 5-year old?

Is adult foster care or living at home the only options for people with special needs. What happens when neither of these options is acceptable?

Kabuki Syndrome Mom and Dad were faced with these issues when their 18-year old, Nathan with Kabuki syndrome felt the need to be independent.