In the News: I/DD Media Roundup
Select media coverage on news and issues affecting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in Connecticut and around the nation…
May 2018 Group home worker strike avoided by Senate vote www.ctpost.com | May 5, 2018 “For far too long, the people who provide care to our most vulnerable neighbors have been underpaid for their critical work,” said Malloy. “The action taken by the Senate will ensure they are compensated fairly while helping to avert a strike that would disrupt the lives of the individuals with intellectual disabilities and cost Connecticut taxpayers an estimated $1 million per day,” Malloy said. read full story April 2018 Dan Haar: 12 years, no group home raises? Too long www.ctpost.com | April 17, 2018 The bathroom has been a refuge for Pamella Reid-Johnson over the years, what she calls her best outlet. “You don’t want your kids to see you break down and cry,” she said Monday. In her trade — working with developmentally disabled people in private group homes and day programs — the pay remains a couple or a few bucks over the minimum wage for most workers. Now she and 2,500 of her fellow SEIU Healthcare 1199 union members have said, “enough.” The state will pay for raises for the first time in a dozen years, or they will strike. read full story Vulnerable and medically fragile individuals with I/DD require continuity in their care and stability in their environment. The people who care for them provide crucial and often challenging services, which require experience and training, along with dedication and, constant attention and love. These people are family to individuals with I/DD. High turnover in poorly paid staff deprives these individuals of family continuity and jeopardizes both their psychological and their physical health. The Home and School Association of Southbury Training School supports appropriate compensation for the valuable services performed by all direct care workers. March 2018 Innovative Hartford area residential communities will embrace those with, without disabilities HartfordBusiness.com | March 12, 2018 While this setting may not work for residents of Southbury Training School, Connecticut's approval of $13 million in bonding to establish in the Hartford area a pair of novel, integrated communities where seniors, Millennials and people with intellectual and developmental and other disabilities live side by side could become a national model, advocates and developers say. read full story Buckley Program Essay Contest Winner: Connecticut’s Crisis in Caring for the Disabled National Review | March 6, 2018 An essay written by John Hirschauer championing the option of an institution as a home setting for those with severe handicaps. read full story January 2018 Southbury Training School's Closure Is Not Imminent Southbury Patch | January 31, 2018 During this month's Board of Selectmen meeting, State Rep. Arthur O'Neill appeared before members to brief them on several state issues that could impact Southbury. During O'Neill's update he did share that the planned closure of the Southbury Training School is still at least five years away, according to meeting minutes. read full story NPR Series on Abuse of People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities At a moment of reckoning in the United States about sexual harassment and sexual assault, a yearlong NPR investigation finds that there is little recognition of a group of Americans that is one of the most at risk: people with intellectual disabilities. listen here |
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