7-24-00 Email to Secretary Linda Baker
from Chicago ADAPT
by Tom Wilson, Access Living

Secretary Baker,

I have included the written agenda for the meeting we just completed. We are willing to meet with you at any time as soon as it is possible for you.� Let me know a date.� We have lots of suggestions for improving long term care options in Illinois and know many of the shortcomings of the system.

Agenda for July 21 meeting

1.�Our Olmstead� message is we are watching you and expect you to implement the full scope of Olmstead; meaning that all consumers have access to comprehensive high quality services in the community, that the funding follow the individual, and that the institutional bias of the system is entirely eliminated.�We want ADAPT, People First, MAD LIB, Metro Seniors, other advocates and consumers involved in the process. We will fight for the rights of our people to live in the community.

We can give you many testimonies from nursing home survivors and people currently stuck in them about how awful institutional "living" can be.

2. There is a great need to increase funds for deinstitutionalization�now!� The large number of people in institutions that want out need to have more resources supplied to aid them.�Currently seniors do not have access to any deinstitutionalization services. Many people become depressed and give up hope when placed in nursing homes and die quickly in the institutional setting but would�fare better if they could go home ( studies show this).� People are dieing� while we discuss the issue.

3.�The collaboration that we spent over a year working on to develop�a counselor sensitivity training was a fiasco.� We have identified a significant problem with some counselors that treat� consumers with no respect and are even hostile,�plus�all the counselors would benefit from disability awareness done with people with disabilities. We asked for this collaboration with ORS.� We worked hard on this effort.�� It was creative and bold.� We wanted honesty in the presentations and�to have direct consumer input at the training.� But the process was side tracked & blocked by ORS.

There is still a great need for sensitivity training for social workers, doctors and administrative personnel through out the DHS system, especially concerning the mental health system.

It is imperative that DHS begin hiring more people with disabilities.

4.�Improve PA wages and benefits.� Health care benefits are needed.

5.�Some people need 24 hour service in the community and Olmstead means that there needs to be equivalent supports available in the home to those that exist in an institution.� We know neglect and understaffing is common in nursing homes but in theory there is 24 hour care available.

6. Sign language/ tactile communication.�� PAs should be paid extra for the required communication skills to work with deaf or deaf-blind consumers.� Training should be available to have more people with these skills available.

7. Emergency Backup PA services� are a needed�addition to protect consumers who have a PA leave suddenly or fall ill.

8. Consumer control is at the heart of what makes the ORS Home Service program so valuable to consumers and provides for the maximum independence.