VOR, a national organization advocating for high quality care and human rights, strongly objects, in substance and in principle, to the National Council on Disability’s (NCD) newly released “Deinstitutionalization: Unfinished Business” policy document (110 pages) and accompanying “toolkit” (how-to manual) (201 pages).

VOR represents thousands of individuals, families and legal guardians, organizations and advocates around the country who value individual choice and recognize that true person-centered planning begins with the individual and his/her needs. One size does not fit all. An array of quality service and support options is needed to ensure that choice, based on individual need, is accommodated.

Justice for Predictable Tragedies
Letter to the Editor
Submitted October 24, 2012

VOR, a national organization advocating for high quality care and human rights for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, applauds the lawsuit featured in the article “Treated Like Product, Not People” (October 21, 2012).

Although saying “I told you so” when discussing disability policies is of little comfort to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the provider ENMRSH, Inc. and New Mexico’s Department of Health, the alleged abuse and neglect at the heart of the suit is sadly predictable.

For Immediate Release

October 25, 2012

VOR

The newly-hired Director of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Ed Lake, has said he wants to “hit the ground running” when he takes office on November 1.

One national organization is hoping he will trade his running shoes for walking shoes, at least to decisions pertaining to the futures of Southern Oklahoma Resource Center (SORC) in Pauls Valley, and the Northern Oklahoma Resource Center (NORCE) in Enid, which now serve 126 and 115 residents, respectively, with severe intellectual disabilities.

For Immediate Release
July 12, 2012

It’s hard for average families to fathom what would drive a mother to abandon her disabled daughter, as reported by the Daily Herald, a Suburban Chicago newspaper (“Algonquin mom: Leaving disabled woman in Tennessee was best,” July 7).  Yet, this story is repeated across the country, often with “murder-suicide” being the escape for those involved. 

Advocacy and politics have reduced and, in some areas, eliminated specialized care options for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD), resulting predictable tragedies.

Elderly parents are forced to care for middle-aged disabled children long beyond humane standards. In other situations, individuals with profound ID/DD with complex, 24/7 needs are cared for by underpaid, untrained staff. Tragedies are predictable.

“I feel for the mom in Illinois who left her disabled daughter in Tennessee for better care and for the families in California, Connecticut and elsewhere who felt their only escape was death,” remarked Sybil Finken, VOR’s immediate past president. “Imagine the desperation they must have felt.”

Read complete release

For Immediate Release
July 12, 2012

For More Information
Julie Huso, Executive Director
605-370-4652 direct; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

VOR Slams Justice Department Plan to Close Virginia Centers for Disabled
Calls on President Obama and Congress to Intercede

In the last speech he ever made, Hubert Humphrey said, "...the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
 
The Department of Justice’s announcement January 26 of a settlement agreement with Virginia to close state training centers for profoundly disabled individuals ignores Humphrey’s compassion and elicits an alarming—and likely dangerous—prospect for Virginia’s most fragile citizens.