Disabled kids illegally warehoused in nursing homes, lawsuit claims

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/14/2694159/disabled-kids-illegally-warehoused.html#morer

Hundreds of children who could receive care at home remain in nursing homes because it is less expensive, violating federal law and a Supreme Court ruling, the suit states.

Florida needlessly and illegally warehouses about 250 severely sick and disabled children in nursing homes rather than pay to help them live at home or in the community, families said in a lawsuit filed this week.

The denial of home nursing care and other services has left the children living for months or years in institutions even after doctors have cleared them to go home with their families, according to the suit, filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

A second group of families filed a separate suit saying about 3,300 at-risk children still living at home fear the lack of services by Florida Medicaid will force them into nursing homes in the future.

Florida’s practices violate the Americans With Disabilities Act and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that require states to provide services that can keep people in the least-restrictive settings, including foster care or group homes, the suits argue.

Officials of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which runs Medicaid, and the Florida Department of Health, which oversees many of the children, declined to comment.


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I recently watched the doco about Willowbrook, and then some other videos that featured Bernard Carabello and Dr Mike Wilkins on YT.

I was so inspired by Bernard and his continued work in advocating for people with disabilities.

At the 30th anniversary event, Bernard made a statement about how just because Willowbrook was closed down, doesn't mean the problem doesn't still exist. This article is proof of that.

I sent Bernard a link to this article through FB, because if anyone can make noise and create change, he is the one to do it. He rocks!! :rocker:

Unfortunately there is also a flip side to this. Many of those families want their kids/adults home.

But if they get the law changed, it tends to allow one or the other. At home or in nursing home. So what happens to those whose families don't want and won't take care of their family members? If the law forces those families to take their family members, there will be more abuse and neglect.

mysteriew said:

Unfortunately there is also a flip side to this. Many of those families want their kids/adults home.

But if they get the law changed, it tends to allow one or the other. At home or in nursing home. So what happens to those whose families don't want and won't take care of their family members? If the law forces those families to take their family members, there will be more abuse and neglect.

Click to expand...

The way I understand it, there is already a law and SC ruling that the states have to provide the services to the families for the ones who can live at home.

The families are suing the state because they won't provide the services (money) to do so.

I certainly hope and think that only families who want and are willing to provide for their relative/child to be in the home would be approved for the service. But, as you say, this should be carefully considered before letting them go to the home, and followed up on.

Kids don’t belong in old-folks homes

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/17/2698061/kids-dont-belong-in-old-folks.html

..........The lawsuit, brought by Paolo G. Annino, director of the Health Care Access Project at the Florida State University law school, Miami disability rights attorney Matthew W. Dietz, and the North Florida Center for Equal Justice, charges that Florida has unnecessarily institutionalized some 300 medically fragile children.

A second, companion lawsuit holds that the state is simultaneously attempting to force another 5,000 medically fragile children, now living at home with Medicaid-funded medical assistance, into institutions.............

But the crazy thing about this inhumane and probably illegal practice is that nursing home care for these children likely costs more than in-home health care. Not only are the kids better off with in-home nursing, Annino said Friday that he expects the state records, drawn out through discovery, will show that home-based services would save Florida money.

So why would the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration opt for a legally suspect, more costly mode of care? The reason’s crass, but most of you, accustomed to a regime bent on giving over education, health care, corrections, transportation and other state government responsibilities to special interests, won’t be shocked.

Last month, the Pompano Beach-based Florida Association for Medically Fragile Children issued a white paper (http://www.fragilechildren.org/documents/FAMFC_White_Paper.pdf) charging, “The number of older men and women in nursing homes in Florida is decreasing. So owners of geriatric facilities are now competing to take fragile children in order to remain profitable, without regard to their special needs.”............

The report stated, “With their eye on their shrinking bottom lines, geriatric facilities are lobbying to fill their empty beds with medically fragile children and young adults. But they are not equipped to do so. Even worse, they are lobbying to provide reduced levels of care.”............

She badly wants him home with his family. Which is exactly what the law prescribes. But the state won’t pay for the level of in-home treatment needed to keep the child alive.Here in the new Florida, the problem’s pretty obvious: None of the lobbyists who run Tallahassee give a damn about little Andi.

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