From
Arkansas News Bureau. In the picture, Larry Taylor, president of Friends and Families of Care Facility Residents, speaks at a rally at the state Capitol in support of the state's human development centers.
LITTLE ROCK — At a rally August 17 at the state Capitol, supporters of the state’s human development centers denounced an Arkansas group that advocates for the disabled and said the group should not receive federal funding.
Larry Taylor of Little Rock, president of Families and Friends of Care Facility Residents, criticized the Disability Rights Center in Little Rock for supporting two lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against the state’s human development centers, which house people with developmental disabilities, and for calling for closure of the Booneville Human Development Center.
Taylor, whose sister, Corneila Taylor, has been a resident of the Conway Human Development Center for 48 years, accused the Disability Rights Center of caring more about federal funding than people.
“Federal funding is a powerful tool which, in the hands of ideologues such as the DRC, can unduly influence policy makers to make decisions which disenfranchise the rights of our children and family members who reside in well-run, state-operated human development centers,” Taylor told an audience of about 175 people.
“Federal funding should not be granted to agencies that fail to represent and protect the most vulnerable people with developmental disabilities,” he said.
Disability Rights Center attorney Dana McClain said August 17 her group is not seeking closure of all of the state’s six human development centers. She said that under federal law, disabled people have a right to be served in the most integrated setting possible, but the state is not doing evaluations to determine whether the people in the human development centers need to be there.
“If it (a lawsuit) results in the closure of an institution, it’s because those individuals did not need to be there to begin with,” she said.
McClain said the group called for closure of the Booneville facility because of problems that have not been corrected.
“We have worked with them for a number of months on several issues, none of which have been resolved satisfactorily, and do not think that they are capable right now of taking good care of individuals in that facility,” she said.
One of the federal government’s lawsuits alleges improper care of residents at the Conway Human Development Center. That case is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 8. The other lawsuit alleges that the state needlessly institutionalizes people in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Rita Hoover of Maumelle, president of the Conway Human Development Center Parent Association, participated in the rally and said later she agreed with Taylor’s comments about the Disability Rights Center.
“We have asked them to advocate for the human development centers as a choice,” but without success, said Hoover, whose son, Tim, has lived at the Conway facility for the past 3 1/2 years and at the Alexander Human Development Center for more than six years before that.
Hoover said she did not know what would happen to her son if the Conway facility closed.
“He needs total care. He doesn’t walk or talk,” she said.
McClain, whose daughter is developmentally disabled but lives at home, said the needs and abilities of parents and guardians should be taken into account in determining what settings are appropriate for disabled people. But if an evaluation determines that a person does not need to live in an institution, then that person should not be institutionalized, she said.
The purpose of the federal lawsuits is “to guarantee that the rights that they have … to live in the most integrated setting is protected, and currently Arkansas does not protect that right,” she said.
Gov. Mike Beebe has declined to call for closing the Booneville facility and has said he supports allowing families to decide whether their loved ones need institutional care or community-based care.
But Beebe did recommend earlier this year that the Alexander Human Development Center be closed after state inspectors found numerous deficiencies, including mishandling of a patient’s rape allegation against a staff member
From Arkansas News Bureau. In the picture, Larry Taylor, president of Friends and Families of Care Facility Residents, speaks at a rally at the state Capitol in support of the state's human development centers.