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August 28, 2007

By MARY FAITHFULL
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

We applaud the good work of a few diligent news reporters making the effort to look behind the closed doors of Texas' 13 state "schools" for people with mental retardation. In recent weeks, they have produced several excellent articles about hundreds of confirmed cases of abuse, neglect and exploitation that resulted in the injury — or death — of state school residents. Thanks to them and their respective news organizations for tackling a difficult story that needs to be told.

There are nearly 5,000 Texans locked away in these state institutions. They are people with mental and physical disabilities who are isolated in "schools" from which there is no graduation, on "campuses" they are not at liberty to roam. They have few opportunities to see — or be seen by — the outside world. Most people don't even know they exist.

The lucky ones have close family and friends to watch out for them. Many, however, don't have legal representatives. Their closest human contact — day in and day out — comes from paid staff and the occasional volunteer. Because they are so isolated, it can be difficult for anyone on the outside to know that things are going wrong.

It's clear things are going wrong, and have been for a long time. Last December, the U.S. Department of Justice sent findings from its 2005 investigation of the Lubbock State School to Gov. Rick Perry. Citing the deaths of at least four residents and a long list of deficiencies, the Justice Department concluded the residents were at "great risk of harm."

In the year and a half after Justice's visit to Lubbock, 17 more residents died. Officials at the Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS), the state agency that oversees the institutions, insist things have improved at that facility, but have yet to finalize an agreement to resolve the Justice Department's concerns.

Advocacy Inc. has a federal mandate to protect and advocate for the legal and human rights of Texans with disabilities. This includes authority to investigate if there is probable cause to believe an incident of abuse or neglect occurred. Given Justice's concerns about system issues in its report on Lubbock, we launched a series of monitoring visits to that institution and five others. Since January 2007, we've opened more than 300 cases to assist residents in these six facilities with a wide range of issues, from abuse or neglect complaints to making a plan to move into the community.

State school residents are often characterized as too "medically fragile" or low-functioning to live in the community. That is not the case. DADS' statistics for the past two years indicate the majority of residents function in the moderate to high levels. They are no more significantly disabled than many people living happy, healthy and safe lives in the community today. In fact, most of the people we've met have a strong desire to join the rest of the world and live in the community. They are not content to be parked in front of a television or jigsaw puzzle for hours a day; they think they can do more than tear paper into little pieces for a few cents of "earnings" each week.

We hope that point is not lost on state legislators and agency officials who have started to take notice of the media accounts of the atrocities occurring in the state schools. Most people want to live in the community. They want to be seen and heard — to be a part of the things everybody else is part of. They want to be safe. And the simple fact is they are not safe hidden away in large institutions, removed from the public view.

Are people with disabilities in the community ever victims of abuse, neglect or exploitation? Yes, sometimes they are. Some people use that as an excuse to keep the large state institutions around. They say nobody monitors group homes or Intermediate Care Facilities operated by private companies. In fact, DADS monitors those facilities and has the authority to shut them down, if necessary. That hasn't happened at any state school, even though DADS inspectors have documented numerous infractions of federal and state standards over the years. The state is better equipped to respond to problems in the community than in its own facilities.

Several legislators are calling for an investigation of the state schools and an opportunity to explore ways to assure residents' safety. We believe the best way to protect these vulnerable Texans is to move them out of the hidden hallways of those remote institutions.

It doesn't make sense to continue pouring precious dollars into an archaic system that isolates people based on disability labels and some unfortunate stereotypes and assumptions. The quality of community-based programs, services and supports has advanced such that even people with the most significant disabilities can thrive outside an institution. Let's help them live in the protection of communities, with a wider circle people looking out for their interests.

Faithfull is executive director of Advocacy Inc. in Austin.