Seeing is believing: Tour an ICFs/MR

To fully appreciate the people served, their extreme needs, and the professional and compassionate care and training they receive, we encourage Members of Congress, State Legislators, their staffs, andothers to visit an Intermediate Care Facility for Persons with Mental Retardation (ICF/MR) in your area. Nearly every state has state and/or private ICFs/MR.  For contact information for an ICFs/MR in your area, please contact Tamie Hopp at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Only Providing Community-Based Care May Not Save States Money

Olmstead Does Not Support Deinstitutionalization

Abuse and Neglect in Community Settings

VOR's "Widespread Abuse, Neglect and Death in Small Settings Serving People with Intellectual Disabilities," document provides a bibliography of investigative media series, state audits and peer-reviewed research in more than half the states that detail systemic concerns with regard to quality of care in community-based settings for persons with developmental disabilities. Tragedies range from physical, emotional, and financial abuse, neglect and even death. Many of these outcomes are associated with a zest to move to a "community for all" vision people with developmental disabilities without adequately considering the ramifications of separating vulnerable people from specialized care and then doing away with a critical safety net (a/k/a deinstitutionalization). The lessons learned from more than 25 states should cause policymakers and lawmakers to take pause and recognize that a range of needs requires a range of service options.

Myth of a Medicaid Institutional Bias

The allegation of a Medicaid institutional bias for people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MR/DD) is simply not true. It is based on two false premises:  (1) that all institutional services are mandatory and all home and community-based services (HCBS) are optional, and (2) that more dollars are spent on institutional services than on HCBS services.

Successful Community Integration: The Community Resource Center Model

Community Resource Centers (CRCs) are specialty, out-patient clinics situated at existing residential facilities that provide desperately needed quality medical, dental, and other therapeutic services to citizens with mental retardation and developmental disabilities living in communities, who have significant difficulty obtaining these services. CRCs also function as university-based centers of education, training, and research for medical and dental students, residents, externs, fellows, and professionals. There are proven models in several states.