Beth Will was living and working in the community until she got ill. The hospital discharged her to a nursing home for rehabilitation. And so began Beth’s struggle to move back into the community.
Beth's Story
In Beth Will’s 51 years, she has been a daughter, a sister, a girlfriend, a self-advocate, a person with an intellectual disability, a friend and a trail blazer for others.
In the past 30 years she has received services through the local community centered board, living and working in her beloved community with as much independence as possible. She lived in her own apartment with her long-term boyfriend for six years until she became ill.
Hospitalization
Beth was hospitalized in June 2011, diagnosed with renal failure and severe cellulitis. With care, her health improved and her physician placed her in Grace Health Care of Glenwood Springs, a nursing facility, to continue occupational and physical therapy to regain her strength.
In August of that year, her physician documented that Beth was able to receive services in a group home setting. Beth continued to work on independent living skills with restorative therapy through the fall and winter while waiting for an opening in one of the community centered board group homes. In February 2012, Mountain Valley Developmental Services had an opening and requested home and community based services (HCBS) from the Colorado Division for Developmental Disabilities. The request was denied.
Beth was broken hearted. She was adamant that she wanted to live outside of the nursing facility and back in the community she so loved. Disability Law Colorado staff attended meetings with the local community centered board and wrote letters in support of Beth receiving the resources she needed to leave the nursing home.
DLC Intervention
Our letter to the Colorado Division for Developmental Disabilities stated that Ms. Will’s situation was a clear violation of the integration mandate of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
She met all the criteria of the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Olmstead” decision that requires states to eliminate unnecessary segregation of persons with disabilities and to ensure that they receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.
Several months later, Beth was finally awarded a resource slot by the Colorado Division of Developmental Disabilities. Nearly 14 months after moving into the nursing facility, she was finally going to be able to move back into the community.
Institutionalized Care
Beth’s story is one of many. Individuals with intellectual disabilities and mental illness find themselves institutionalized in nursing facilities, often alone and away from their support system. Beth had a voice and made it clear to people she wanted to be in her community. However, so many individuals don’t have a voice and no one has advocated for them until now.
Disability Law Colorado’s research has uncovered the disturbing fact that there are more individuals with mental illness or intellectual/developmental disabilities institutionalized in Colorado nursing homes than on the main campuses of the Regional Centers, the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan, and the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, combined.
Disability Law Colorado has initiated projects to identify these nursing home residents and determine if they wish to leave and live in the community. Reviewing data obtained from state agencies, we have found a total of 2,055 residents of whom 1,742 are diagnosed with a major mental illness, 275 with developmental disabilities, and 38 with both a major mental illness and a developmental disability. Of the individuals identified, 33 percent are 65 years old or younger.
PADD Program
In the past year, Disability Law Colorado’s Protection & Advocacy for People with Developmental Disabilities (PADD) program identified 51 residents ages 50 and under and began the huge task of visiting each one. That required visiting 33 nursing homes across the state and meeting with each individual on our list.
In the Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) program, staff began by targeting two nursing homes: Park Forrest in Westminster and Spearly Care Center in Denver. Through that process we have talked with eight individuals with developmental disabilities who clearly wish to move to a community setting (it was nine, but Beth was successful in moving) and seven individuals with mental illness who desire to live within their communities.
While Beth Will is enjoying her refound life within her beloved community, she has blazed another trail for others who are institutionalized: “I want to help all the other people that are still in the nursing homes” she says.
Disability Law Colorado is very proud to have helped Beth and we look forward to giving a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.
