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Etusivu / Albumit / Tunnisteet Heritage House
+ public hearing 2
ADAPT (90)
Denver Post [This article goes with photo in ADAPT 89] [Headline] Wheel Chair Delegation Accuses Board of Ignoring Them Howard Pankratz, Denver Post Staff Writer A 17-year-old crippled girl Tuesday told the board of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) it cost nine handicapped adults in wheelchairs $90 to take a four-mile trip to a Denver Bears baseball game at Mile High Stadium last summer. Her testimony and that of other Denver handicapped individuals highlighted a public meeting at which the RTD was accused of not caring about the handicapped and elderly. By the time the meeting ended board members voted not only to intensify their efforts to help the handicapped but to do everything in their power to see that 120 new buses the RTD hopes to buy have facilities for the elderly and impaired. The board authorized chairman John Fleming Kelly, to file an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for a $12.4 million grant to finance purchase of the 120 buses; and to build a new bus administration and maintenance facility and 100 bus shelters. At the meeting at the Colorado Highway Department building, it was obvious the board was moved by the presence of approximately 40 persons in wheelchairs, some who accused board members of not being “sincere” in their efforts to help the handicapped. [Subheading] NOT SURE OF CARE “I want to make sure we take care of these people,” board member Leo F. Sullivan, declared near the close of the session. “From the remarks I've heard tonight, I'm not sure we are." John Harper, another board member, assured the group that the RTD is sincere but he acknowledged that he thought maybe the RTD might have been a "bit-remiss" in regard to the handicapped and “could do a better job." The most moving testimony of the night came when Inez Regge, severely crippled and confined to a wheelchair, told of how nine adults from the Heritage Nursing Home had to pay $10 each to attend the ball game. “That is high by any standard, but for these young people whose total income was approximately $20 a month, it was exorbitant," she said. “There have been similar ‘rip offs’ in the past, including a $92 fare for one young man going from Heritage House downtown-and back." She said not all private companies who provide such services to Denver's handicapped are “mercenary,” but overhead forces them to keep their rates high. Until Sept. 7, the day Denverites approved the RTD bond issue, she said “there didn't appear to be any transportation alternatives for most of Denver's disabled. [Subheading] COMMITMENT SOUGHT But she said that a commitment by RTD officials prior to the bond election to provide bus service to the handicapped, plus a provision in the Federal Transportation Act which says special effort must be made to accommodate the handicapped on mass transportation, gave them an alternative. Miss Regge said Denver has one of the highest percentage of handicapped people in the country because of the large number of facilities here. “It is the goal of the handicapped community to see to it that all public transportation is accessible to the handicapped," she said. John D. Simpson, RTD executive director, said RTD had hired Al Coulter of the Denver Board for the Mentally-Retarded and Seriously Handicapped, Inc., to try to find out about the transportation needs of the region's elderly and handicapped. But he said RTD and Coulter had run into a business community which had refused to give the agency help in locating the handicapped. “We have been unable to ascertain where handicapped people want to travel to and from,” Simpson said. “There is some real difficulty in talking to companies — and we have approached half a dozen of the major employers - who have handicapped employees. “They either say ‘We don't know who they are' or ,‘We do know, but we don't want to tell you.'" Les Berkowitz, representing the Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation for the Handicapped, reminded the RTD that not only does the organization have a moral and philosophical obligation to the handicapped, but also a “specific, expressed requirement” under federal statute. He quoted a public law which directs “that special efforts shall be made in the planning and design of mass transportation facilities and services so that the availability to elderly and handicapped persons of mass transportation which they can effectively utilize will be assured." Berkowitz, sitting in a wheelchair a few feet away from the 15 board members, said despite RTD assurance it is interested in the handicapped. “we have some reason to believe that RTD is not entirely sincere in its efforts." Although seeking assistance from a citizen’s task force, he said RTD has expected from that task force, composed entirely of volunteers, “far more than we can be reasonably expected to give.” He said the volunteers have had little or no training in the collection of data or research design. Further, he alleged that Coulter had only been hired for a 60-day period. While Denver's handicapped community asked that the RTD do more, a wide variety of spokesmen enthusiastically backed RTD's $12.4 million federal government application. They said the buses which the money would buy would do everything from helping alleviate Denver's air pollution problem to providing a badly needed form of economical transportation. State Rep. Richard Lamm, D-Denver, said that after Denver “won the dubious distinction as one of the nation's six most polluted cities.” the Colorado legislature created RTD and charged it with developing a transit plan. “Tonight we are here to publicly discuss the first and a vital phase of this plan -- the early action bus program,” he said. “RTD will be able to improve bus service by more than 60 percent in the region with this one capital grant alone. That, to me, is an important first step toward cleaning up the environment." Gordon Appell, principal planner for the Denver planning office, read a statement by Mayor Bill McNichols in which McNichols said the demand for public transit in the Denver area “has reached almost emergency proportions." McNichols noted that in January, the Denver Metro Transit system had 1.9 million passengers, a 22 per cent increase over the same month a year ago. He forecast that the number of passengers may exceed 25 million this year. Thus, he said, the money for the buses is imperative.
ADAPT (28)
[Headline] Alter Nursing Home Rules Colorado legislators came face to face recently with what many observers consider one of the major concerns in the nursing home field: the need for some individualization of treatment groups within facilities. Residents of the youth wing at Heritage House, 5301 W. 1st Ave., told lawmakers that for many months they had been encouraged to make remarkable progress toward self determination and varying degrees of independence. But late in 1974 the situation deteriorated into custodial and repressive care, resulting in deep bitterness between staff and patients and loss of self confidence by the patients, they said. At first, the problem seemed to revolve around personalities of two former youth wing coordinators and whether one could communicate more effectively with administrators than the other. But it developed during the hearing that there were indeed some apparent moves by administrators to intimidate staff members who had provided transportation to the hearing for several disabled young persons and their beds and wheelchairs. During an angry and tearful exchange, legislators learned that officials at the nursing home had “withheld” the time cards of staff members who, when off duty, had transported the young residents to the hearing. Those officials received a stern warning from Rep. Wellington Webb, D-Denver, chairman of the House Committee on Health, Environment, Welfare and Institutions, that their attitude was unacceptable and would be dealt with. Beyond the immediate clash at Heritage House, a deeper problem more reflective of the problem throughout the nursing home industry arose. Administrator Tom O'Hallaran explained the home is required to meet rigid federal and state standards that don’t take youth wings into account. One official suggested that the youth wing be reclassified to fit into a different regulatory category. But neither does that category address specifically programs for young persons. The biggest villains are the state social services department and state legislators, who together decide how much money young and old persons need for nursing home care, suggested Sandy Anderson, a welfare caseworker in Jefferson County. In a strongly worded appeal, she said geriatric staffing patterns and programs aren't adequate in a youth wing and per diem funding isn't sufficient. Miss Anderson’s point was the crucial one of the day. Different types of patients with differing needs shouldn't be mixed, yet that is the prevailing practice. A visit to almost any nursing home will find young and old, mental patients and senile retirees, able and disabled, and those needing custodial care and those who are bedridden mixed indiscriminately. The result is misery for patients and inefficient services from the nursing home staff. While it is obvious that officials at Heritage House have attitudinal problems to work out, it is also clear that the larger problem needs to be seriously addressed by the legislature. Colorado lawmakers should make sure that state rules are changed to allow differential treatment and should take their concerns to officials in Washington who administer federal funding and regulation systems. The change must occur all the way to the highest level of regulation.