http://hope-house.org/news/blog.php/2009/disability-field-news/161/ Sun, 18 Mar 2012 03:31:33 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 hourly 1 http://hope-house.org/news/blog.php/2009/disability-field-news/161/comment-page-1/#comment-2444 Susan Norman Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:06:37 +0000 http://hope-house.org/news/blog.php/2009/10/28/161/#comment-2444 By dismantling the existing infrastructure of group homes and community-based facilities, the government can slash personal service rates - as they are doing in Virginia right now - and the person who receives only home-based services loses all of his power to fight back. Also, I once worked in a community based facility that provided day services to "groups" of persons with developmental disabilities, and I can tell you that those attending those "group" programs absolutely loved the sense of community there. It may be well-intentioned, but I think it is a mistake to think that persons with developmental disabilities are better served in an exclusively individual setting. Sometimes a "group" setting is their "community" setting. By dismantling the existing infrastructure of group homes and community-based facilities, the government can slash personal service rates – as they are doing in Virginia right now – and the person who receives only home-based services loses all of his power to fight back. Also, I once worked in a community based facility that provided day services to “groups” of persons with developmental disabilities, and I can tell you that those attending those “group” programs absolutely loved the sense of community there. It may be well-intentioned, but I think it is a mistake to think that persons with developmental disabilities are better served in an exclusively individual setting. Sometimes a “group” setting is their “community” setting.

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