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Lawmakers and advocates for people with mental disabilities gathered at the state Capitol Wednesday to renew their call to eliminate the waiting list for housing and other community-based services.
"There is a quiet crisis of desperation in Pennsylvania for families with disabled members," said state Rep. Kate Harper (R-Montgomery), a long-time leader in the effort to help people with mental disabilities. "Unfortunately, when caregivers have to wait months or even years to get help for their loved ones, they are very much alone, and the Commonwealth is failing to live up to its responsibility to our citizens in need. We need to reverse this trend now."
Harper was joined by Rep. George Kenney (R-Philadelphia), chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, Rep. Tom Murt (R-Montgomery) and advocates from the Pennsylvania Waiting List Campaign, Vision for Equality Inc. and the Arc of Pennsylvania to highlight the findings and recommendations of a report commissioned by the House last year and recently released by the Joint State Government Committee.
The number one recommendation of the report is to eliminate the waiting list. Specifically, the "emergency" waiting list, which includes more than 4,000 people, should be eliminated in two years. The "critical" list, which includes more than 9,500 people, should be eliminated in five years. And the Commonwealth should make plans to serve the more than 9,000 people in the "planning" phase of the list, as they will need services within the next five years.
"Unfortunately, these lists are not static - every year, the number of people in need of services goes up," Harper said. "Any long-term strategy must understand this."
Harper introduced legislation last year, House Bill 1764, that calls on the state Department of Public Welfare to develop a plan to eliminate the waiting list by 2010. Her legislation also establishes a bill of rights to help ensure people with disabilities can live their lives as fully and independently as possible.
"The sooner we have a long-term funding plan in place to manage the waiting list, the better it will be for the thousands of Pennsylvanians with mental disabilities and the people who love and care for them," Harper said. "We can't solve the problem overnight, but we can make a serious financial and moral commitment today to work toward elimination as soon as possible."
Additional recommendations in the report include:
The General Assembly and the Governor should build on their investment in special education and dedicate annual funding to ensure students with mental retardation who are transitioning to adult life receive services they need.
The General Assembly and the Governor should establish a fiscal policy that includes a reasonable and consistent increase annually based on actual costs of maintaining existing service capacity.
The executive branch should be directed to convene relevant state agencies and stakeholders to identify methods for predicting and communicating needs to the appropriate agencies, and make sufficient information available to inform the budget process.
The General Assembly should direct the executive branch to conduct a process - with stakeholder involvement - to examine ways to find greater efficiencies, including more community-integrated and consumer-controlled service models.
Contact: Patricia A. Hippler (717) 772-9846
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