Now, the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Board will take up the closure of the Jacksonville Development Center on October 30-31 in Bollingbrook. They are receiving lots of letters from Jacksonville to keep the Center open.
The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Board will accept letters until October 10th.I need you to activate your advocacy network and fax letters to counter balance the blitz to keep the state institutions in Jacksonville open.
Ask the Board to CLOSE JDC. Illinois needs to focus on community living, not institutional settings.
This is not a public hearing so letters must be sent in by Oct. 10th to be considered.
Please fax a letter to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Board at:
217-785-4111
and tell them you support the closure of the Jacksonville Developmental Center. The letter can be brief. Tell them a story or why this closure is long overdue. Put your letter on letterhead if at all possible.
Below is my letter to the board being faxed this morning!
If you want their formal address for the salutation of the letter it is:
Illinois Health Facilities and Services Board
2nd Floor
525 W. Jefferson Street
Springfield, IL 62761
HOWEVER, BECAUSE OF THE SHORT TIME, FAX THE LETTER IN TO THE BOARD.
Please share the email with others who will fax in letters. Letters must be in to them by October 10th.
Tony
Dear Members of the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Board:
The Arc represents all infants, children and adults with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.
The Arc believes it is imperative that state institutions be closed in Illinois. We strongly support the closure of the Jacksonville Developmental Center.
In Illinois, thousands of individuals have successfully transitioned from institutions to community living. We believe that many of the current individuals now living in CILA have successfully transitioned from state institutions and nursing homes. We know how to do this. This is good public policy.
Community living offers people with disabilities a safer way of living with quality, independence and equality.
Let’s to a review what state and national experts on intellectual disability systems have to say about Illinois. All of their reports state that Illinois needs to be re-balanced by closing state institutions and supporting community living.
1. A Quest for Equality: Breaking The Barriers For People With Disabilities, A Call for Action For Illinois Leaders, The Chicago Community Trust, 2011.
2. The Blueprint for System Redesign in Illinois, Human Services Research Institute, 2008.
3. State Funding of Community Agencies for Services Provided to Illinois Residents with Mental Illness and/or Developmental Disabilities: Final Report to the Illinois General Assembly, Elizabeth T. Powers, Ph.D., University of Illinois, 2006.
4. Financing Service to Individuals with Developmental Disabilities in the State of Illinois, Robert Gettings, National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services, 2003.
There are also two recent Legislative Resolutions calling for re-balancing the Developmental Disability System in Illinois.
1. Senate & House Joint Resolution 15 – 2011
2. House Joint Resolution 28 – 2009
There is also a tremendous editorial support for re-balancing the disability system by closing state institutions. Including the Chicago Tribune’s, Sept 30, 2011 editorial, Moving to Community Care – State-Run Centers for Developmentally Disabled Finally on the Way Out!
Other editorial boards supporting re-balancing:
1. Chicago Sun Times – June 15, 2011
2. Chicago Tribune – May 23, 2011
3. State Journal Register – May 22, 2011
4. Pantagraph – May 22, 2011
5. Rockford Register Star – April 27, 2011
There are now 14 states without state institutions including our neighbors
1. Minnesota – 2000
2. Indiana – 2007
3. Michigan – 2009
Nationally, the trend is very dramatic in states closing their state institutions from a high of 194,650 individuals in state institutions to 33,732 in 2009. Ask yourself, “Is this where we as public servants should be investing scarce resources for our state?”
The national research of outcomes of closures and deinstitutionalization is extensive dating back to 1982 through 2011. The findings are quite conclusive on outcomes regarding quality of life, adaptive behaviors, and health of individuals and satisfaction of families:
1) Improved quality of life, including more choice-making opportunities, more friends, greater community participation, and greater residential satisfaction.
2) Improved adaptive behaviors, including social skills, self-care, and domestic skills and inconsistent results regarding challenging behaviors.
3) Similar or improved health status and health care access, with some difficulty in accessing some types of health care such as dental services, and less polypharmacy. ,i
4) Greater satisfaction of families with community placement versus the previous institutions, despite the fact that many families initially opposed deinstitutionalization.1,iv
Illinois has a “Blueprint” to re-balance the disability system. It was developed in 2008 and updated in 2012 as a seven year guide to move to an integrated community system. It is time to implement the “Blueprint for System Redesign in Illinois.”
Everyone can live in the community with the proper supports.
It is imperative that the individuals at Jacksonville be properly supported for a successful transition to community living.
We already know how to do this.
What we need now is the political will to do the right thing and move this antiquated institutional system into a community system that supports everyone based upon their individual needs.
Tony Paulauski
Executive Director
The Arc of Illinois
815-464-1832 (cell)
Tony@TheArcofIL.org
.
Tony Paulauski Executive Director
The Arc of Illinois
20901 S. LaGrange Rd. Suite 209
Frankfort, IL 60423
815-464-1832 (OFFICE)
815-464-1832 (CELL)
Tony@www.thearcofil.org
