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Legislature: Disabled win hearts, votes

Lawmakers pass bills to fund critical services

By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 8, 2008 at 9:30 p.m.

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Michael Meeks, 24, who is autistic, rides a horse Thursday as part of his therapy at the Praying Hands Ranch in Parker. Meeks is learning to live on his own after getting an apartment about 18 months ago.

Photo by Darin McGregor / The Rocky

Michael Meeks, 24, who is autistic, rides a horse Thursday as part of his therapy at the Praying Hands Ranch in Parker. Meeks is learning to live on his own after getting an apartment about 18 months ago.

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Advocates for the developmentally disabled were stunned and saddened when Rep. Michael Garcia resigned suddenly Feb. 1.

The influential assistant House majority leader had championed a special legislative committee last summer to help 7,000 disabled adults and their parents who have been waiting more than a decade for critical support services.

But the campaign to help Colorado's most vulnerable citizens did not die with Garcia's departure. A bipartisan cadre of lawmakers picked up the banner.

They passed a dozen bills this session to cut the waiting list, to encourage jobs programs for the developmentally disabled and to remove obstacles that keep disabled adult children living with their families from qualifying for state services.

A victory for the 'powerless'

Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter backed a proposal by Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, to spend $6.6 million to address the needs of about 600 disabled adults on the waiting list.

Overall, $14.9 million was budgeted to provide the disabled with job training, health care coverage and other programs.

"The No. 1 choice we made, what I am most proud of, is that we helped kids with developmental disabilities," said Joint Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Bernie Buescher, who was choked with emotion after the spending plan passed.

"By slashing the decades-long wait list people with developmental disabilities have faced, we have spoken for the voiceless and fought for the powerless," Buescher said.

None of this might have happened if Garcia and nine other lawmakers hadn't spent last summer holding hearings, where parents and disabled Coloradans told them about the agonizing delays and choices they faced every day waiting for taxpayer- supported services that never come.

Suddenly, numbers on a waiting list became human beings.

Desperate struggles

A developmental disability impairs an individual's general intellectual functioning and makes independent living a challenge for some and impossible for others. Conditions include mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism.

One mother told lawmakers about her desperate struggles caring for a severely autistic 13-year-old daughter who was having violent outbursts and running away. Without support services, the woman said she had trouble even going to the supermarket - a harrowing trip for the easily jangled daughter.

They heard from a Brighton woman who juggles raising her own young children while caring for her frail, 82-year-old mother-in-law, who is still caring for her autistic 40-year-old son.

Every day she leaves for work, worried sick about what might happen with the elderly woman, who is prone to falls, and the autistic son, she told them.

"It's almost impossible for anyone to sit and listen to parents and families who daily have challenges that are unimaginable for most of us and say, 'No, I can't help you,' " Gardner said.

A top priority

Gardner carried three bills that dedicate increased funding to eliminate the waiting list over five years; set aside state contracts for nonprofits with disabled workers; and create a study group to find successful ways for the disabled to work in state agencies.

Gardner lost the fight to guarantee annual funding to whittle down the waiting list, but one bill requires the Joint Budget Committee to hold annual hearings on finding money to address the problem.

"I came to the conclusion, thinking of all of the things that we spend the money on, that these people need to be at the top of our priority list," he said.

Lawmakers also learned of a Lakewood woman in her late 60s who faced losing support services for her disabled, wheelchair-bound adult son because it violated state rules to have him living with her.

So the mother, living on a fixed income, had to move into an apartment several years ago so her son could stay in her home, which was customized with ramps and other disabled aids.

"It's a travesty that families are required to split up so that the needy, disabled family member can get services," said Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood. "It flies in the face of everything we say about truly valuing family."

Boyd and Rep. John Soper, D-Thornton, passed a bill to allow a disabled individual to live with his or her family and not lose services. It also allows a qualified family member to be paid to provide services to a disabled loved one.

After the bill won key Appropriations Committee passage, Boyd told the Lakewood mother: "I think you can move home now."

gathrighta@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5486

Comments

  • May 9, 2008

    11:57 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    gardenColorado writes:

    Kudos and thanks to our Senators and Representatives for taking a big step in addressing this serious problem! It is my hope that they will continue to look at the unmet needs (600 have been moved from waiting status to active but approx. 1200 remain unserved) and work towards solutions. Thanks again...and Godspeed!

  • May 9, 2008

    12:26 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    deb writes:

    There is a numbers dicrepancy in this article regarding the eligible number of developmental disabled individuals if you include the newly diagnosed children who are also on waiting lists for services. These children are in important developmental stages of life, are at risk, and can't afford to wait. Then, there are high school age individuals that leave the school system at age 21 and will lose all the services that are provided to them during school. This vulnerable population must have the supports needed to maintain what they've learned in school, in order to be successful and have a productive life. Their parents are beginning to age and will not always be able to support them. Next if you count the aging special needs population, who have elderly caregivers who are taking care of them and are having to also take care of their own aging issues, this presents a crisis situation.
    So there are actually 12,000 individuals with developmental disabilities in Colorado who are on waiting lists as reported by our state's departments affecting health and human services. The numbers affected are much higher than stated in this article. The citizens of Colorado should know this. There have been a lot of different numbers quoted over the last 6 to 9 months, during and after the legislative session. The true numbers were collected from all the Colorado Health and Human Services departments, and the Division for Developmental Disabilities.
    In the November general election, a citizen's initiative will be on the Ballot and is the only way, to fully end the waiting lists. The Arc of Colorado leadership, and The ARC of the United States of America, have documented this information. Go to Websites for information on the correct waiting list numbers in Colorado and several other states across the nation. http://www.endthewaitnow.com/ and the National Organization to End the Waiting Lists (NOEWAIT) http://www.noewait.net.
    So, just for the record, the numbers are much higher than reported here and without the vote of the citizens of Colorado, for a two cent tax on every ten dollar sales perchase, the waiting list will not end.
    The legislature worked very hard, but the funding needed to end the waiting list, could not be found within the State's Budget. As a parent, I appreciate what the legislators tried to do, but Tabor
    tied their hands. I have to say this too, because Representative Bruce voted NO on every one of the Bills that came out of the legislative interim committee on Developmental Disabilities, last fall, and were proposed during this session. As I watched the session on the internet, I just couldn't help but think of the constituents and their families of vulnerable populations, needing to know who is that the man who is suppose to representing them, is voting against them.
    Other than that, the information and human interest of Alan's article is deeply appreciated. Thanks Alan!

    Deb Ham in Fort Collins

  • May 9, 2008

    8:31 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    darlas writes:

    Colorado legislative leaders and Gov Ritter ... thank you, thank you, thank you. We do have much more work including most likely asking the citizens for help via a ballot initiative. Nonetheless, the real bipartison support garnered to end the waiting list crisis was beyond anyones expectation. As my teens say ... you all rock!

    PS A big thanks to the Rocky and Alan G for helping to illuminate the crisis in human terms... you all rock too!!!