“This is the room where direct-support professionals like Vicky Haschek and George Earley worked their magic,” said Jerry McNesby, Michael’s brother. “They worked their magic with these individuals through caring, enriching their lives.”

McNesby died in March at 58, and his friends and family gathered at the Wilmington facility Tuesday morning to celebrate his life and a new law designed to support the work of Elwyn and similar direct-service providers. The Michael McNesby Act requires the state to pay 100 percent of the funding for service providers by fiscal year 2021.

“His name, his life, his energy, the people that he touched, it gave life to this bill,” said Elwyn executive director Kendra Johnson.

Delaware currently pays 75 percent of the market rate for service providers, according to a 2014 study by the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services.

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It’s difficult to determine exactly how common emergency room stays have become for adults with intellectual disabilities who have lost their group home placements or been unable to use one of the state’s dwindling number of crisis beds in the midst of a dangerous behavioral crisis. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has failed to produce data on the frequency of emergency room stays and their costs — for the BDN when it made a public records request in March; for the Maine Developmental Services Oversight and Advisory Board, which is specifically entitled to the information under state law; and to service providers interested in diagnosing problems with the state’s system of services.

But service providers, hospital officials and family members have all experienced an increasing frequency of such emergency room stays.

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lawyerly wranglings over who should be granted summary judgment.

But included in last week’s papers are five declarations by caregivers and family members about flaws in the new care budget system created to replace the old secret, arbitrary algorithm determined by the court to violate due process.

Rebecca Curtis, IDD Waiver manager for the Jackson County Development Center, said she’s noticed several trends.

One, most individuals are receiving budgets lower than 2017. People living at home — rather than in Intensive Support Setting (ISS) sites — have seen the steepest reductions. Four clients have had to stop or reduce day habilitation services, which are services to allow the client to pursue skills and interests outside the home.

Three family caregivers speak to the problems of service caps — typically caps on the amount of hours for a particular service such as direct care or respite time.

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operating multiple large institutions for disabled

individuals. It also said most of those in state facilities had little or no interaction with those who are not disabled, lacked privacy, were denied freedoms such as choosing what to eat or watch on television and were often physically restrained.

The training center near Hillsville, about four hours southwest of Richmond, is Virginia's third to close. A fourth is slated to shut down by 2020 while the state's fifth is to remain open.

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Related Story (with more detail)

It would have an immediate impact on the estimated 105,000 people in the Memphis area who have a disability, a population that over the years has been largely overlooked and underserved.

Providing better health care opportunities and options to the thousands of people with an intellectual and developmental disability is vital to improving the well-being of this community.

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Link to the bill here

“HUD is committed to making sure people with disabilities have a decent, safe and affordable place to call home,” said Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson. “Working closely with our local partners, we help residents with disabilities live independently and fully enjoy the use of their homes.”

The money will go to public housing authorities in 47 states and Washington, D.C. and is expected to provide vouchers to nearly 12,000 individuals.

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