person in s chair holding a poster of Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson.
Tues, June 18th at 11:30am an ADAPT/PACT delegation will gather in front of the Governor’s Mansion 1010 Colorado for a press conference to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in the Olmstead v LC and EW case.
“Gov Abbott has not led our state in FREEING OUR PEOPLE from Nursing Facilities and other institutions” said Nancy Crowther.
Lois Curtis, L.C., and Elaine Wilson, E.W., the heroines of this story, were two women with disabilities living in institutions in Georgia. Like Texas, Georgia would not let them move into community living situations despite the fact the state had deemed them eligible for community services. The funds allocated for community services were used up, so they had been waitlisted – for years and years. Their attorney, Sue Jamison, argued the state could use the funds that were paying for them to be institutionalized (at much greater expense than their community services would cost) to pay for them to get services in their own homes. The case went to the Supreme Court which ruled that people with disabilities have the right to live in “the most integrated setting possible” and that “unnecessary institutionalization is discrimination.”
Though specific numbers are hard to come by, conservatively, hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities of all ages have transitioned from institutions to community since the “Curtis/Wilson” Decision was handed down.
Odd as it may seem, despite its taking a position against people with disabilities in this legal battle, Texas took a lead in implementing change. Programs, like Money Follows the Person, enabled thousands of Texans to be freed from nursing homes and other institutions and receive services in the community.
But Texas has been back sliding, and ADAPT/PACT wants Governor Abbott to meet with us to discuss ways to improve the lot of those needing community supports and services because of their disabilities. So far Abbott has reneged on his promise to meet. We are hoping this silver anniversary will bring Abbott to the table to create solutions.
The decision was released on June 22, 1999. ADAPT is celebrating this anniversary a little early because our members will head to North Carolina June 22 – 27 to join a national protest to help ADAPT in that state free people with disabilities there.
“I have always been bothered by how we refer/celebrate this case as the Olmstead Decision (Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999). We should call our celebrations of this historic case the Curtis/Wison Decision,” said ADAPT organizer Bob Kafka. “The thousands of liberations that have come from this case have changed the lives of those freed from institutions to live in the community, fulfilling the words of community integration written in the ADA and the Supreme Court Decision.”
