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Contact:
Melvin Douglas and
Tim Wheat (901) 726-6404
(Memphis, June 22) ADAPT of Tennessee joins people with disabilities across the nation to declare a victory for integration as the Supreme Court today announced it's decision in the lawsuit Olmstead v. L.C. No. 98-536.
This ruling will dramatically change how the civil rights law, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), can be used to assure that people with disabilities and their families have the right to choose where they live and receive support services.
"This is a day that we will all remember as the day that the Americans with Disabilities Act roared out loud and people with disabilities were heard," said Deborah Cunningham, organizer of Memphis ADAPT and the Executive Director of the Memphis Center for Independent Living. "Tennessee can no longer deny a place in the community for people with disabilities."
The ruling upholds a key civil rights provision in the ADA, known as the "integration mandate," which maintains that individuals with disabilities must be offered services in the "most integrated setting." Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist and Attorney General Paul Stevens had signed on a amicus brief supporting segregation of people with disabilities.
The high court, in upholding the mandate, has reinforced the fundamental intent of the ADA, which is to prevent discrimination and promote the integration of people with disabilities into our communities. Specifically, the Supreme Court ruling supports lower courts rulings that Georgia's Department of Human Resources may not segregate two women with mental disabilities in a state psychiatric hospital long after the agency's own treatment professionals had recommended their transfer to community care.
This Georgia appeal to the Supreme Court has mobilized disability advocates, who have compared the lawsuit to Brown v. Board of Education. Last month, nine members of ADAPT of Tennessee traveled to Washington, D.C. There they joined 4,000 people in a march to the Supreme Court, organized by ADAPT,. The rally and march demonstrated unified support in the disability community for the ADA integration mandate.
"The rally showed that people with disabilities are powerful, and that we are getting things done," said Melvin Douglas of Memphis ADAPT. "I hope that people will start to listen to us and not turn their heads."
While the high court clearly reinforced what Congress intended when it passed the ADA nearly a decade ago, disability rights activists recognize that Congress also needs to ensure that community integration is in the public policy of this country. ADAPT has drafted the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA) which will focus our public policy on community services. This national initiative is critical for Tennessee which spends more for institutional care than any other U.S. state, leaving people with disabilities and the elderly no choice in long-term care.
"Today's decision is a critical step in changing how and where people with disabilities receive services necessary for everyday life," said Mike Auberger, national organizer with ADAPT. "It tells states that segregated services will no longer be tolerated. But our fight for REAL choice continues." Auberger, who both uses and provides attendant services in Colorado, has worked with ADAPT for nearly a decade to push for a national program of attendant services.
ADAPT's legislation, MiCASSA, will change federally funded Medicaid which currently only requires states to provide services in segregated institutions and nationwide spends 80% of its long term care funds on these segregated services. Tennessee, the worst state, gives 95% of public funding to the nursing home industry. In May, the General Assembly failed to fund an increase in home and community-based services for the next budget. ADAPT vows to change this, declaring Integration NOT Segregation.
ADAPT "On-Line" press package
Recent news articles on long-term care in Tennessee, ADAPT, and nursing homes.
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
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