The state Department of Human Services will close two of four remaining state centers for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, officials said Wednesday.

The closure of the Polk State Center in Venango County and White Haven State Center in Luzerne County will take about three years.

“The closures reflect the Wolf Administration’s work to serve more people in the community, reduce reliance on institutional care, and improve access to home- and community-based services so every Pennsylvanian can live an everyday life,” Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller said in a statement.

The move was praised by disability advocacy groups, but was decried by some family members whose loved ones live in the institutions, as well as local elected officials and union leaders representing center employees, who vowed to fight the closure.

The president of the Polk Center Association of Parents, Friends and Family is displeased at Pennsylvania’s decision to close the Polk State Center within three years.“This is the wrong decision on the wrong day for the wrong reasons,” Irene McCabe, whose sister resides at the Polk State Center, told exploreClarion.com.

“There is nothing about this decision that is right. It’s insulting, rude, and ignorant. These people (who made the decision) are supposed to be skilled at relationships and communication and foreseeing what the problem is and have a channel for a solution. They put the announcement out too soon. I don’t know why they felt they had to do it that quick. They weren’t ready. Everybody knows it doesn’t make sense.”

McCabe, who spent time working in the Commonwealth government, believes the fault in the way the decision was made and how it was announced lies with Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) Secretary Teresa Miller.

“Governor (Tom) Wolf brought her in from Kansas where she was the Insurance Commissioner,” McCabe said. “He brought her in to run the insurance department (at first). My read on her is she is so comfortable around numbers and less comfortable about people.”

There are mixed feelings after the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services announced its plan to close White Haven Center in Luzerne County. The center provides full-time care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.While some state leaders and advocacy groups are celebrating the news, our local lawmakers and families who depend on the facility are devastated.

Tom Kashatus of Glen Lyon says he's worried. For close to 40 years, his daughter has lived at White Haven Center in Luzerne County.

The place is home to more than 100 individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

On Wednesday, the Department of Human Services announced it plans to close the facility, and the fate of those who depend on it is what worries Kashatus the most.

"Especially the people that have no family. And there's people up there that have had no family contact for years," Kashatus said.

Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report that reveals that the Administration for Community Living (ACL) has not conducted its required oversight of independent living programs for the last five years.

Americans with disabilities often face severe obstacles in life, such as getting a job, finding adequate transportation methods and living independently at home. Therefore, these independent living service programs play an integral role in bridging the gap between the inaccessibility of society and the livelihoods of people with disabilities. If the systems that are supposed to support them do not do their due diligence, then this already disadvantaged population is left even more vulnerable. 

Since July 2014, the ACL has been regulating two separate independent living programs: the Centers for Independent Living and Independent Living Services. These programs aim to support the independence of people with disabilities nationwide by providing tools, resources and support for integrating the disability population fully into their communities. In doing so, the programs promote equality, freedom, and respect. Services rendered by these programs include providing discretionary grants to nonprofit organizations and improving nursing homes and other assisted-living institutions. 

Under section 706(c)(1) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which governs both programs, the ACL must conduct onsite compliance reviews of at least 15% of the Centers for Independent Living programs that receive funds under this law.

Health and Human Services officials have failed to conduct required visits of independent living programs for thousands of people with intellectual and physical disabilities, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.

The Administration for Community Living, created within HHS in 2012, administers two independent living programs, which aim to help people with disabilities find housing services, job opportunities and other resources. By law, ACL must carry out compliance reviews of at least 15 percent of the programs that receive federal funding and in at least one-third of the states that receive the funding. The inspector general found ACL has not conducted such visits since it assumed oversight of the programs five years ago.

ACL said it could not conduct the reviews because of limited funds for travel. The office is given a set amount of funding to administer grants to independent living programs and monitor them, but OIG determined it did not set aside enough money to conduct its oversight activities.

In September 2014, Margaret Lamb dropped off her 21-year-old son at a green, one-story house in Gresham with mixed feelings.

She knew her son required more care than she could provide as a working single mother. She hoped the state-licensed group home for developmentally disabled adults would provide Matthew Lamb with the specialized attention he needed.

But she didn’t realize she would spend the next four years trying to get him out.

She’s now suing the company that operated her son’s group home as well as Multnomah County and the state of Oregon, alleging they failed to care for Matthew Lamb, protect him or properly investigate her complaints about his treatment.

The suit seeks up to $4.5 million in economic and noneconomic damages.

Thelma Green said her direct support professional of 12 years helps her every day to get in and out of the shower, get dressed, and schedule transportation.

Green, who is a member of Project ACTION! — an organization for self-advocates and advocacy groups for people with disabilities — said her direct support professional helps her to live as independently as possible.

“I trust her, she is almost like family,” Green said at a public hearing in June before D.C. Council went on summer recess. “We need to respect the hard work they do.”

Oliver Hilario uses a motorized wheelchair and needs help with the basics — getting out of bed, dressing, eating. But the 32-year-old is still the boss. He's managed his own supportive care for years as a participant of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance program.

But impending program changes could jeopardize Hilario's desire to control who cares for him. It could even threaten his ability to live at home. "I really like my house," the West Haverstraw resident said. "My home is like my man cave."

Starting Sept. 1, the state Department of Health will change the way it pays "fiscal intermediaries" — the nonprofit agencies and companies that handle all the back-office duties for the CDPA program. The change, advocates for the disabled say, will devastate agencies that support the program and could force many to close within a year.

Erin Phillips has made great strides in the three years since moving out of her parents’ home.The 31-year-old has learned how to do her laundry entirely on her own. She takes showers with only a little nudging. She cleans her own bedroom and bathroom.

That’s on top of working part time at a local grocery store and speaking out as an advocate for herself and other Nebraskans with developmental disabilities.

But the Lincoln woman could have been further down the road toward independence if she had not spent seven years “on the wait” for developmental disability services from the state.

For many, a trip to the beach is one of summer’s greatest pastimes. Whether running across the beach and into the water or taking a leisurely stroll across the sand, many take a visit to Long Island Sound for granted as a rite of summer.

But for some, the beach can be a foreboding place with its hot, shifting sands and difficult access into the water. Massachusetts-based SMILE Mass (Small Miracles in Life Exist) is hoping to make going to the beach easier with the donation of

A proposed revision to the diagnostic criteria for intellectual disability is prompting concerns about underdiagnosis and a loss of services and legal protections for people with the condition.

The American Psychiatric Association, or APA, is considering altering the entry for intellectual disability in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5, or DSM-5. Often called the bible of psychiatry, psychiatrists, researchers, insurers and others rely on the manual to determine what symptoms are worthy of a diagnosis.

At issue is a connection between two of the three criteria for diagnosing intellectual disability. The three criteria are: deficits in intellect, deficits in adaptive functioning or daily life skills, and onset during childhood.

One sentence, which was included when the DSM-5 was released in 2013, appears to require that adaptive function deficits be caused by intellectual deficits, said Margaret Nygren, executive director and CEO of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, or AAIDD.

A new opinion letter from the U.S. Department of Labor suggests that many parents of kids with disabilities are entitled to take time away from work to attend their child’s individualized education program meetings.

In response to an inquiry from a parent, the federal agency said that employees can qualify for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, if their presence at an IEP meeting is significant to their ability to provide care for their children.

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