| MCIL Journal | FreeOurPeople.org | ADAPT Action Report | Home |
|
|
| MCIL News Release Archive |
| National ADAPT |
| M C I L |
| Tennessee ADAPT |
| Not Dead Yet! |
| B F M S |
Contact: Tim Wheat
(901) 726-6404
(Nashville) Nine organizers of Tennessee ADAPT were arrested demanding de-segregation of Tennessee's long-term care programs.
Tennessee ADAPT was simply asking that the Department of Health and Commissioner Nancy Menke comply with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Menke's failure to evaluate Tennessee's long-term care to ensure that services are provided in "... the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities," unnecessarily segregates people with disabilities into institutions.
Menke's negligence, likewise, does not allow the state to take advantage of less expensive alternatives to institutional care. "People should have a choice of where they want to live," said Melvin Douglas of Memphis. "I want nursing home administrators and Governor Don Sundquist to live in a nursing home for a day. They would change their minds about home options..."
Commissioner Menke refused to meet with ADAPT in her office and had the Tennessee State troopers physically remove all nine advocates. The State officers warned the group that they would be arrested for criminal trespass if they re-entered the Cordell Hull Building. Advocates were blocked from re-entering the single accessible door of the headquarters of the Department of Health and rallied at that door to end the segregation of long-term care.
As ADAPT demonstrated outside, the Long-Term Care Planning and Advisory Councils were meeting within the Cordell Hull Building. In their five months of work to develop a "comprehensive plan for the future funding of long-term care in Tennessee," the Councils have failed to produce anything that could even minimally meet the most basic requirements of the legislative mandate.
As the Councils finished, ADAPT members were being dragged away from the accessible door and taken to Metro Jail.
"By continuing to give 99 percent of the money to nursing homes, they've shown where their commitment is, to the nursing homes and not to people with disabilities," said Dawn Russell of ADAPT. "All we want is for people to have a choice as to where they want to live and receive services."
ADAPT of Texas: (512) 442-0252
adapt@adapt.org
The Memphis Center for Independent Living
1633 Madison Avenue,
Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-6404 v/tty (901) 726-6521 fax
mcil@mcil.org
MCIL is a United Way of the Mid-South member Agency
Return to the top of this page
MCIL would like feedback on the accessibility of this website. Please send your comments and concerns to webmaster@mcil.org