The Handicapped Coloradan
[Headline] Wheelchair protesters seize Tennessee governor's office

More than 500 wheelchair activists stormed the offices of Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist on Monday, May 11, to demand that the governor support home attendant health care for the disabled citizens of his state. The demonstrators, members of the Denver-based ADAPT, cited statistics from Health Care Financing Administration that allege Tennessee is the worst state in the country in terms of sharing its tax dollars between institutions and community services.

When Sundquist ordered that the protesters be denied food, medication and water, 400 demonstrators pulled out of his immediate offices and blocked all entrances to the state and county parking lots, effectively trapping state employees in the building.

The other 103 demonstrators remained in the governor's 12th floor offices throughout the night while the bulk of the demonstrators maintained an all-night vigil.

ADAPT allowed the trapped state employees to exit the building after meeting with Memphis Mayor W.W. Herenton and Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout, both of whom endorsed the protesters' demands for home and community based services.

On three occasions, Herenton and Rout also asked that Sundquist provide the demonstrators with food and medication.

ADAPT charges that thousands of disabled people are being warehoused in nursing homes against their will. Meaningful, flexible home and community based services are nonexistent in Tennessee, according to ADAPT.

"Tell (Sundquist) to have a heart. Tell him to help us be part of this community instead of forcing us into nursing homes," said demonstrator Sam Ware of Memphis.

Ware's comments were supported by Mike Auberger of Denver: "Governors like Sundquist who choose to ignore the cost effectiveness and rightness of home and community based services, and instead continue to sentence their citizens to death in nursing homes, leave us with one solution—federal legislation that guarantees choice for all Americans. We'll just have to go to another level."

ADAPT wants Tennessee to take full advantage of the Medicaid Waiver which allows people with disabilities and older people to get services in the community rather than from "costly and dehumanizing nursing homes."

The current Medicaid Waiver in Tennessee requires that disabled people be "home-bound," which means they may only leave their homes five times a month. ADAPT maintains this effectively makes people prisoners in their own homes. It also applies only to people who re-quire round-the-clock care. ADAPT argues that many people now in institutions can survive in the community with less than 24-hour services.

Even this limited use of the Medicaid Waiver is of little use to most citizens of Tennessee, according to ADAPT, which says only 4 of that state's 95 counties are currently covered by the waiver.

Created on

Thursday 18 July 2013

Posted on

Wednesday 27 November 2019

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