Advocate urges Hab Center parents' group to remain diligent
By Steve Moyer
Nevada Daily Mail
Mirroring concerns raised by family members of developmentally disabled people residing in habilitation centers across the country family members of people residing in the Nevada Habilitation Center have incorporated their support group and taken the name Nevada Family Support Association, Inc.
"Our state-run facilities provide an irreplaceable service fulfilling the critical needs of Missouri's most vulnerable citizens," Natalie Woods, president of the association, said. "These are the only viable programs to give a measure of dignity and security to our family members who suffer from severe mental disabilities. We protect these centers as though lives depend on them, because they do."
The group voted to retain the present officers; Natalie Woods, president; Ed Carl, vice-president; and Kristal Lindstrom, secretary/treasurer.
The group met in the second floor gymnasium of Vernon Hall on the campus of the Nevada Habilitation Center Saturday at 1 p.m., before the center's annual Christmas tea. During the meeting Carole Sherman, an advocate for the developmentally disabled and public affairs chairman of the Arkansas Friends and Families of Care Facility Residents and a member of the Governmental Affairs Committee of Voice of the Retarded, spoke to the group about her experience.
"I feel a strong bond with you because of our experiences with my son, John, who because of severe health and safety issues needs to be surrounded by competent and caring support staff. We found that in a public facility," Sherman said.
Sherman said groups like the Nevada Association and the ones she belongs to are important bulwarks protecting the developmentally disabled.
"Our society needs these institutions; our families need them and, most important, the individuals served need them. If they are dismantled studies show the mortality rate rises, the abuse and neglect incidents increase and too often individuals with sever impairments are placed in inappropriate and even dangerous community settings," Sherman said. "We know because of recent exposés in newspapers across the nation that exploitation and neglect are far greater in private settings."
Sherman said she understood how families felt when hearing such news. "I know every time you pick up a newspaper or hear of a vulnerable person being exploited you identify with it," Sherman said.
Sherman said her group in Arkansas was successful because it did not focus on trying to save an individual institution but tried to protect all of the state's facilities.
"When we faced the same thing in Arkansas we always spoke of all six centers in the state," Sherman said. "We reached out to our legislators and we were able to get our funding restored. We did not receive a single negative vote in the state assembly. Our legislators understood our desire for a full continuum of care for our relatives."
Sherman told the group they should inform legislators about their desire to see that the family members receive high-quality care, even when family members are no longer able to oversee it.
"Your service system should understand concerns about caring for your loved ones when you can't," Sherman said. "It's important that your legislators get good information from you."