NEWSFRONTS
CONTEMPORARY LONG TERM CARE NOVEMBER 1994
[Headline] Disabled Advocates Renew Cries For Home Care Funding at AHCA Show

[Image] Behind police barricades a mass of protesters raise their power fists in protest. In the front row a woman in a wheelchair smiles at her fellow protesters. Beside her a man [Gordie Haug] in a scooter looks determined. On his other side another woman in a wheelchair [Sharon Wilkenson] has a poster that reads " Nursing Homes = Jail." Beside her a man standing [Mark Pasquesi] looks down at someone [Spitfire?] who is speaking to him. Mike Oxford stands behind them, hands on hips and many others are there in rows behind them.
[Image caption] For the fourth year, ADAPT members used the convention as a forum to air their views.

SMARTING FROM THE DEFEAT OF healthcare reform and its promised support for home and community care, about 400 disabled and their attendants greeted conventioneers at the American Health Care Assocition's annual meeting in Las Vegas early last month with renewed cries for spending on home care services.

Members of the Denver-based American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), a loose confederation of people and groups who favor home care services for the disabled, drew attention to their cause with three days of demonstrations. Activities, which started on October 4, included disrupting traffic on a main city thoroughfare. Half a dozen demonstrators also made an end run around police, briefly gaining entry into the convention center's exhibition hall.

For those among the 5,000-plus attendees who had to walk through chanting pickets or wait for doorways to be cleared of protesters in order to get to their meetings, it was déjà vu all over again. This was the fourth straight year that ADAPT members used the convention as forum to air its views, which include a demand that 26 percent of the nation's Medicaid budget for nursing facility care be channeled into attendant programs for the disabled.

"We want to continue to educate the public that the nation's largest lobbying association for nursing homes helped defeat health-care reform," says James Parker, a member of ADAPT.

Overall, the three days of protest were orderly and had minimal impact on the week's events, although police issued 424 arrest warrants and citations to protesters who sought to block attendees from entering the convention center or to block traffic on the corner of Paradise and Riviera Avenues. All of those arrested, though, were released on promises to appear in court.

"The demonstrators lived up to what their leaders said coming in, that they would use nonviolent methods. Our hats are off to them for that," says Lt. Carl Fruge of the Las Vegas Police Department. Benefitting from a month and half of preparation for the event, the police department earned praise from both ADAPT and AHCA officials.

Preparations included training a special group of officers on dealing with the disabled and briefings from officials in San Francisco who had coped with ADAPT at the AHCA show two years ago. The police also briefed the public on the tactics and traffic tieups expected from demonstrators and lined up special transportation, advisers, and medical staff for the event.

In addition, the police dispensed to protesters 1000 "vials of life,"bottles containing stickers and information sheets the disabled can use to inform others of their conditions. "This was the best police force that we have ever dealt with. They understood the problems that people with disabilities have. Police in the past in many cases have created a lot of ten-sion," says Parker.

"The police did a wonderful job," agreed Dave Kyllo, AHCA's spokesman.

Hoping to defuse the protest, AHCA officials met several times with ADAPT members throughout the year in an attempt to draft a joint resolution:) AHCA representatives and ADAPT members continued to confer at the convention, but the two groups couldn't reach a consensus.

Both agree that more funding should be made available for attendant care services. The question is where that funding will come from. ADAPT wants to channel money to home care from nursing home care; AHCA disagrees. "We think the way to bring about more attendant care services is through compre-hensive healthcare reform," says Kyllo.

ADAPT members made it known that the debate will go on. Attendees at the convention's last day were greeted by protesters bedecked, in flowered shirts and leis. Clearly, they were thinking of next year's convention in Hawaii.

BY DAVID VACZEK

[Image] A mass of protesters on Rivera Blvd cluster around a giant wooden cross with a wheelchair and small coffin hung from it. Behind the group is a very large ADAPT flag with the wheelchair symbol.
[Image caption] Protesters sought to block traffic on a main city thoroughfare.

Фотографирана во

вторник 16 јули 2013

Објавена во

петок 13 септември 2019

Категории

• Las Vegas, fall 1994

Погледи

179

Рејтинг листа

Никој не ја оценал досега

Оцени ја фотографијата

EXIF Metadata

Make

Canon

Model

Canon EOS 40D

DateTimeOriginal

2013:07:16 12:18:42

ApertureFNumber

f/11.0