VIDEO: Group asks Beebe to shut Booneville center
This article was published June 22, 2010 at 11:21 a.m.
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Group wants Booneville center closed
The Disability Rights Center calls on Gov. Mike Beebe to shut the Booneville Human Development Cente...
LITTLE ROCK — The Disability Rights Center has called on Gov. Mike Beebe to close the Booneville Human Development Center because of purported abuse, neglect and rights violations at the state-run facility for people with developmental disabilities.
Members of the organization asked for the closing at a news conference Tuesday at the State Capitol.
Dana McClain, senior staff attorney for the center, said ongoing issues at the Booneville facility constitute a violation of a Supreme Court case that requires people with disabilities be provided services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.
"It is time for Arkansas to give people with developmental disabilities the freedoms they were promised," she said.
Officials with the center pointed to several examples of problems at the facility in recent years, including a resident who choked to death in May, a resident who died of positional asphyxia in 2007 and a resident who suffered medical problems because improperly-administered medication.
Ina Bailey spoke at the news conference about her 34-year-old sister Chrissie Board, a former long-term resident at the Booneville center who is deaf and has difficulty communicating. Bailey said her sister was not provided a text telephone to make calls home and at times did not have access to an interpreter.
Bailey called the staff at the facility "inadequate" and responsible for severely violating Board's rights. Board now lives at home and works with a personal care aid who knows sign language.
"At this point we see no reason for her ever to be placed back in a state institution and (we) will never place her with the state again," Bailey said, choking back tears, after calling for the center to close.
The group's request comes a little more than a month after Beebe cited numerous deficiencies in care at the Alexander Human Development Center as his reason for seeking its closure. That move came after the Justice Department sued the state in an effort to close all of the centers.
In addition to the center in Booneville, there are facilities in Arkadelphia, Conway, Jonesboro and Warren.
Comments on: VIDEO: Group asks Beebe to shut Booneville center
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DeerHome says... June 22, 2010 at 12:33 p.m.
The Disability Rights Center and Dana McClain will not be happy until every Human Development Center and every community-based care facility for those with intellectual disabilities (mental retardation) are closed and the individuals are thrown out into the streets like the mentally ill have been. This is pretty sad that people want to close down the only home most of these individuals have ever known. They don't care what's best for the individual, they just want to close down the centers. Ms. McClain, how would you like it if the Department of Justice took over your house, froze all your assets, and threw you out in the streets. Oh yeah, that's right, you get paid by the same federal tax dollars as the Department of Justice. You two sleep in the same bed together. How sad that our tax dollars go to paying the salaries of those who want to throw the defenseless individuals (severe to profoundly mentally retarded) out in the street and close the doors to those who can help them. Our tax dollars at work....
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Lennie says... June 22, 2010 at 12:53 p.m.
Close them all down? And after that where are these people supposed to go?
Couldn't be that nursing homes are wanting these disabled people could it? If so, then we will really see abuse. If mistakes and abuse has happened then that can be corrected.
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sharpchick says... June 22, 2010 at 1:49 p.m.
Wow, Afortney, I think if I were you, I might want to change my log-in name. Someone might get you confused with the Alan Fortney from Conway who admitted to indecent exposure in front of children...
http://thecabin.net/stories/102904/loc_1029040003.shtml
Just a thought...
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DeerHome says... June 22, 2010 at 1:59 p.m.
Ah, sharpchick, or should I say Dee Blakley. "Dee Blakley, the team leader for the DRC investigative team that spent three months finding the truth about the allegations of patient abuse at the Arkansas State Hospital". I should have known the DRC would beat up on private citizens who want to voice their concerns, while using my tax dollars to do it. Quick wasting my tax dollars trying to smear me, and quit trying to throw people out in the streets!!!!
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sharpchick says... June 22, 2010 at 2:04 p.m.
You mean that IS you?
Oh. My. God.
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jackiemae says... June 22, 2010 at 5:19 p.m.
ConcernedCitizen, do you work for an HDC or do you have a family member there? While you rant about DRC, they are the ones who ensure these individuals' rights when they may not have anyone else who speaks for them. Look back at news events at some of the horrific conditions that have been exposed in the past at other institutional facilities. Yes, we've come a long way since the Geraldo report in the '70s (I think). But Arkansas is one of only a handful of states left with institutional care. No where in the other states have there been reports, that I'm aware of, where these people "were thrown out in the streets." These people will get more individualized care and support in a community near their families. And talk about wasting taxpayer money, it only takes a small percentage to support individuals in the community versus mass institutionalization. Or is it you just don't want "one of them" living next to you?
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Footprints says... June 22, 2010 at 7:15 p.m.
I have to agree with ConcernedCitizen. You hit the nail on the head. And it's a shame that Dee Blakley and the like profess to know what's best for everybody.
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Footprints says... June 22, 2010 at 7:29 p.m.
Looks like Dee has been at it for a while..
From ALLEGATION OF ABUSE
AT ALEXANDER JUVENILE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
www.arkdisabilityrights.org/newvision/20070320abuseallegation.pdf
Continued frequent monitoring of AJCF by DRC demonstrates that AJCF
should be closed and a better continuum of evidence based services developed for
children in the community
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MGB21NOW says... June 22, 2010 at 9:22 p.m.
I took a military flight to Washington to tour our Capitol and Veterans Memorial. Guess who was sleeping on the park benches in front of the capitol. you guessed right, IT WAS THE HOMELESS, THE DISABLED VETERANS, THE MENTALLY ILL, THE MENALLY CHALLENGED. Our government, (DRC and DOJ) really know how to take care of people dont they. Lets shut down an HDC, which has been home to some for more than half their lives already. I commend the staff at BHDC, You continue to do a great job even though the powers that be would like us to join the unemployment line. Our state governor had enough sense to disagree. i dont know that i would have taken the time to listen to such a stupid idea.Good job Govenor, youre obviously more patient than I am.
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molls1969 says... June 22, 2010 at 9:27 p.m.
my thoughts exactly NOMAD...does anyone on here really believe that any individual could thrive in a large institution? have you read the reports from the office of longterm care? DRC doesn't have anything to do with those and they continuously found abuse and neglect...and what about that recent death...a 10 dollar lock would have prevented a 22 year old man from dying...how is that ever okay? The lock was broken for months based upon their own investigations there had been several requests to fix it and yet no one did...is it really acceptable to let someone die before we do the right thing? And I'm curious why is everyone afraid of these individuals living in the community? could it be that if they are successful you would be proven wrong? Isn't that a sad reason to keep someone locked up and confined for a lifetime. and one last thought...how do you know they wouldn't be successful in the community? Shouldn't they at least get the opportunity to try before you take away their rights forever? prisoners have more rights than these individuals...
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molls1969 says... June 22, 2010 at 9:32 p.m.
And one more thing Concerned citizen arent' you concerned about the abuse and neglect that goes on in these facilities? And shouldn't we be more concerned about that and less concerned about Ms. Blakely? Just seems priorities here are a little backwards...
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sharpchick says... June 22, 2010 at 9:34 p.m.
Shall I define "a while?" Twenty-one years.
Twenty-one years of seeing people with disabilities with black eyes, and bloody noses. Twenty-one years of viewing the photographs of the dead bodies of people with disabilities in the institutions you are defending. Twenty-one years of listening to people with disabilities talk about how bad they want to get out, but no one will listen.
I'm still here. Because they are still there.
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treefrog52881 says... June 22, 2010 at 9:36 p.m.
Concerned Citizen (Fortney)- You are a sick sick puppy and I can't believe you actually ran for office. I do NOT want you making decisions for people who cannot think for themselves in our government (whether that be adults with cognitive disabilities or children, or children with cognitive disabilities for that matter) after choosing to expose yourself to children and then acting like it isn't a big deal, it was just a mistake. The first time was a "mistake" maybe- but two times afterward? Yeah that's called a sex offender. And that's just what you were CAUGHT doing. You are sick. You should be a registered sex offender, period, end of sentence.
As for the story- the institutions DO need to be shut down. ASAP. They have been a poor excuse for denying parents and families of disabled children the support they need to handle their kids on their own and to have disabled adults in a more quality based integrated setting. The leading states in the nations have long walked away from Institutional care instead choosing to give parents help out of their homes (home nursing care, therapy done in the homes, etc) in order to help parents keep their children home with them. It has been PROVEN beneficial for the community as a whole financially, emotionally, and physically. There is more oversight to make sure patient abuse is not an issue, there is more support for parents instead of Arkansas current option of - do it yourself or institutionalize your child. You bunch of idiots don't get it- there is a middle ground and it's PROVEN to be better. As long as these institutions stay, they will continue to stick our disabled in them and let them rot. There is no real effort to teach them the skills they need to care for themselves, there is no push to get them into a higher integrated setting (as the federal law dictates they MUST), there are children who are institutionalized with very little contact with their loved ones because the parents feel trapped between a child they can't care for at home without help and a state that gives them no other option but institutionalization. Those that aren't able to learn skills they need in integrated settings the families should be given the support to make it possible for them to continue to care for their disabled loved one. Those that do not have anyone to care for them, or their care has become too much for home care have hospitals and nursing homes available. Financially for tax payers the option of better support systems for the parents is better, and along with the push of early intervention services for children with disability's (proven to cut the costs of care by 2/3 over the disabled person's lifetime) it would be better for the disabled community and better for everyone else too. Institutions are just a way to separate the disabled from society and keep them stashed like a dirty little secret. They do not help ANYONE, least of all the people who are committed to them.
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molls1969 says... June 22, 2010 at 9:38 p.m.
and I for one Sharpchick am very glad you are still here...otherwise the abuse, the neglect, the deaths, and most importantly their voices would be silent and how very sad that would be for the individuals who are locked away and not allowed out in the world with the rest of us...thank you for what you do...some of us do know the importance of and appreciate it...even if others would prefer the silence.
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molls1969 says... June 22, 2010 at 9:54 p.m.
finally someone with an informed opinion...thank you TREEFROG for restoring my faith in people...
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