Disability Group Sues State Over Service Wait List

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Disability Group Sues State Over Service Wait List




BY JACOB SANTINI
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

A nonprofit advocate group for the disabled sued several state agencies Thursday, alleging more than 1,300 Utahns with disabilities are languishing on a waiting list rather than getting services they are entitled to receive.
The Disability Law Center, based in Salt Lake City, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of nine Utah residents and the Arc of Utah, a statewide disabled-advocacy group. The suit, which names the Department of Health and the Division of Services for People with Disabilities as defendants, seeks class-action status, which would allow the center to represent the 1,316 people on the waiting list.
The center alleges the waiting list maintained by the Division of Services for People with Disabilities violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Medicaid Act by forcing people with developmental and physical disabilities to wait for services.
Fraser Nelson, executive director of the law center, said the waiting list is forcing many to be institutionalized rather than receive community-based services, such as job training, respite care and other education opportunities, that would help them become more independent.
"You have to become critical to get anything," Nelson said.
The defendants declined comment Thursday while waiting for attorneys to review the lawsuit.
The suit seeks to eliminate the waiting list, which the plaintiffs acknowledged could take as long as 10 years.
"We realize this is not something that will be done in a year or two years," said Robert Denton, an attorney for the center.
Nelson added it would cost the state an estimated $4 million annually to provide services to those now on the waiting list.
According to the lawsuit, the Division of Services for People with Disabilities capped the number of service beneficiaries at 3,555 for the 2002 fiscal year. The remainder of those eligible for services are placed on a waiting list, ranked by need.
One 34-year-old man, identified as D.N., has been on the waiting list since October 1992, according to the suit.
The center contends the state is required to provide D.N., who has been diagnosed with a "reaction to seizure medication that diminished his balance and coordination," support to help him maintain a job.
Until 18 months ago, D.N. was a ticket-taker at a movie theater. Unemployed now, D.N. spends most of his time at home.
"The only skill [D.N.] would develop is how to use a remote control," Denton said.
Others represented in the lawsuit range from a 3-year-old girl who can't walk or talk to a 48-year-old Sandy woman who cannot meet her hygiene needs and cannot be left alone. This isn't the first time the waiting list has been scrutinized.
The rarely publicized division came under fire in December 2001 when a legislative audit found the division overstated the number of residents on a waiting list by about one-third. Unknown to the division until the audit, the waiting list at the time included people who had died.
In addition, the audit alleged the division used arbitrary methods to decide who would receive aid and who would have to wait. The division also failed to draw millions of federal dollars that were available.
By January, the director of the division resigned. Fran Morse was hired in July with the task of fixing the problems.
Among the changes since Morse took over: the division changed its policy on the waiting list, creating one statewide list rather than lists for each region.





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http://www.sltrib.com/2002/Dec/12202002/utah/13008.asp