Justice Department: Florida dumping disabled kids in nursing homes for adults

[hue]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/08/1129388/-Justice-Department-Florida-dumping-disabled-kids-in-nursing-homes-for-adults

Earlier this year, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division got word that Florida officials have been sending sick and disabled children to adult nursing homes. It found the goings-on so egregious that on Tuesday, it sent a "what the hell is going on here?" letter to Tallahassee.

Hundreds of Florida children are spending their formative years in hospital-like institutions, sometimes growing up in the equivalent of hospital rooms with virtually no education or socialization, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division wrote in a 22-page letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi’s office is defending the state against a previously filed lawsuit that claims the institutionalization of children violates federal law.

The letter, written by Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez, is the federal government’s first attempt to weigh in on the controversy. At the end of his letter, Perez outlined a series of steps the state could take to reduce its reliance on nursing home beds for frail children. If state leaders fail to “correct” the practice, Perez wrote, “the Attorney General may initiate a lawsuit” of his own.

Some youngsters remain in nursing homes for much of their lives: “a number” of kids, the report said, have spent a decade or longer institutionalized, including some children who entered the facilities as infants and toddlers.

Read the full letter here. It alleges that disabled children often spend years in nursing homes--at least 50 haven't been home in five years.

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Here's a preview of what health care will evolve into---but for these kids the hell is well under way!!!

[SugarShack]

1. dupe posted yesterday...the headline was FEDS TO SUE FLORIDA Tampa Bay Times

[HockeyMom]

2. Hello 21st Century Willowbrook

I quit working last year in Flroida's Public Schools as a Special Needs TA. It horrified me that the state will not test any child under the age of 8 for ANY disabilities. Unless the PARENTS pay for and have their own kids tested privately, these kids will be placed in mainstreamed classes. That is a LOT OF TIME LOST, when they could be helped and treated in the earlier stages.

Thank you, Rick Scott and the Republicans.

[BrainMann1]

3. I can't believe

this. Why wait initiate the law suit.

[Odin2005]

4. I am so angry I'm shaking.

[proverbialwisdom]

5. TWEET: @PROTECT "the state pays an enhanced rate of over $500 per day per child"

Link from TWITTER FEED: http://protect.org/

https://twitter.com/Arngrim/status/245620404398485504

Arngrim?@Arngrim

@PROTECT "the state pays an enhanced rate of over $500 per day per child........

2 Retweets
1:30 PM - 11 Sep 12 · Embed this Tweet

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/08/2992779/floridas-way-nursing-home-profits.html

In My Opinion

Posted on Saturday, 09.08.12

Florida’s way: Nursing home profits trump sick kids’ special needs
By Fred Grimm


The feds just don’t understand how we do business down here in Florida.

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division fired off a letter to the state attorney general’s office last week, threatening to sue the state for sticking medically fragile kids in geriatric warehouses.

Apparently the feds regard these individual as mere children. In Florida, they’re considered the very cogs that keep the state’s faltering nursing home industry humming along. They’ve been privatized.

The letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez charged that the state was failing to provide the appropriate community-based services required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Hundreds of children are currently segregated in nursing facilities throughout Florida,” Perez wrote. “They are growing up apart from their families in hospital-like settings, among elderly nursing facility residents and other individuals with disabilities. They live segregated lives — having few opportunities to interact with children and young adults without disabilities or to experience many of the social, educational and recreational activities that are critical to child development.”

If the feds come down to Florida with some outlandish notion that the welfare of young Medicaid recipients ought to trump business interests, then, sure, the situation will sound like a Dickensonian nightmare. Perhaps Perez didn’t realize it, but the reason we consign kids to old folks’ homes was explained right there on Page 6 of his 22-page letter.

“During our investigation we learned that ... the state has overseen the placement of hundreds of children into nursing facilities. For a majority of the children referred to these facilities, the state pays an enhanced rate of over $500 per day per child, which is more than double what the facility receives from the State to serve elderly individuals and other adults.”

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