11/15/2018
Protect TX Fragile Kids
CHILDREN BELONG AT HOME
Although this is the story of one child in Florida, make no mistake: this is also happening in Texas. Disability Rights Texas is currently moving forward with a lawsuit to address the thousands of young people currently residing in nursing homes who are unable to obtain the assistance necessary to live in the community.
"How nursing homes became the residence of choice for severely challenged children is at the core of the Justice Department’s battle with the state. Florida, the DOJ said in a letter, “has planned, structured and administered a system of care that has led to the unnecessary separation and isolation of hundreds of children in nursing facilities.”
Agency administrators have “systematically” cut services for parents, making it almost impossible for them to care for their sick children at home, the letter says. At the same time, they’ve agreed to pay nursing homes a more generous rate for children than for elders, creating an additional incentive."
“Nursing homes are not a place for children,” said Dr. Gwen Wurm, who teaches clinical pediatrics at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. We should be doing all we can to keep children in a family setting,” added Wurm.
“State policies and practices have favored institutional care at the expense of community-based services,” the letter said.
Some children, the Justice Department said, “have been in a facility for a decade or longer, including some who entered a facility as toddlers.”
