News Net
[Headline] Caught in the headlights
[Subheading] Statehouse showdown
[Subheading] DISABLED ACTIVISTS STIR UP TROUBLE AND DRAW ATTENTION TO HEALTH FUNDING LEGISLATION
by Jamie Pietras

If the purpose of political protests is to grab voters' attention and newspaper headlines on the way to affecting change, hundreds of disability rights activists succeeded in dramatic fashion last week Amidst the election frenzy, a mass demonstration from national group American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT) managed to stir the air in the normally reserved halls of Statehouse office buildings.

Beginning with a day-long protest November 1 at the Riffe Center and continuing with a demonstration the following afternoon at the Rhodes Tower, ADAPT eventually elicited a total of 215 citations for criminal trespassing in a civil disobedience battle that was covered prominently by local and state media.

The national collective of activists was in town to draw attention to state and federal legislation designed to funnel resources from nursing homes toward home health care. Condemning Ohio as one of the 10 worst states for attendant services, approximately 500 ADAPT members came to Columbus. And while the group considers its.mission successful in bringing an other-wise invisible issue to the public forefront, state legislators wonder whether the organization's brazen tactics did more to help or hurt its cause.

For those with disabilities, the choice of home-based health care over nursing homes is one of personal freedom. "It means you get to choose what time to get out of bed; what you're eating and what time the TV goes off," explains Woody Osburn, director of the State Independent Living Council. ADAPT claims Ohio-spends 93 percent of its Medicaid funds on institutional health care, with the rest going to attendant services.

Ohio Department of Human Services spokesperson Jon Allen said those figures include expenditures on the elderly. Speaking strictly in terms of people with disabilities, Allen said the numbers are reverted. Approximately 60 percent of expenditures for people with disabilities go towards home-based care, Allen said. Out of 250,000 people with disabilities, only 19,000 are in institutional or nursing home settings.

ADAPT hopes to raise awareness of the federal Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act, which the group expects to be introduced soon in Congress. The bill would establish a national program of community-based attendant services for people with disabilities and let people choose where they receive services. Anyone entitled to nursing home or other institutional services would be eligible for community-based services.

A bit closer to home is the state House Bill 215, introduced• by Representative George Terwilleger, a Warren Republican, last March. The state legislation would create a waiver program to fund home health care for people with disabilities. Terwilleger said in the long run this is the most cost-effective way to provide care for people with disabilities.

ADAPT's Riffe. Center demonstration lasted. well after midnight, as Members chanted and crowded the floors that house the offices of Governor Bob Taft, and Speaker of 'the house Jo Ann Davidson. Activist J. "Quinn Brisben said the group had made seven requests to meet with Davidson, to no avail.

The group had no luck with Taft either despite a letter the governor had sent a week before. "I am interested in hearing what you have to say and would be pleased to meet with representatives of ADAPT next week during your Columbus visit," the letter read. It further instructed the group to schedule a conference with Taft's aide Greg Moody.

Taft Spokesman said the governor went out of his way to try to meet with the group. He said ADAPT made no effort to contact the Taft ahead of time--meetings are typically scheduled at least a month in advance—and the governor sent the letter as a gesture of good will after reading a previous article in the Columbus Dispatch about the upcoming rally. Despite a schedule that was packed early in the week because of the November 2 election, Milburn said Taft had suggested meeting with the group Wednesday evening, under the condition they abandon the Riffe building.

Osburn said he tried to facilitate communication between the group and the governor last Monday, but after ADAPT members began to surround Taft's office, communications fell flat. "ADAPT felt that because of the urgency of the issue, he could clear some time Tuesday morning," Osburn said. "If that had occurred, ADAPT would have vacated that building.

State Highway Patrol Spokesman Gary Lewis said at both the Riffe Center and Rhodes Tower protests, officers gave activists the option of whether or not to be cited. And while Brisben acknowledges that the State Highway Patrol was "simply following orders" when it made arrests, he had one serious gripe with the way the Riffe Center situation was handled. He said officers were blocking activists' access to public restrooms.

Milburn explained that the restrooms being blocked. were in a "secure area" and , that the activists Were supposed to be contained in the lobby. While they had the option of restrooms in a downstairs lobby, ADAPT members were not allowed back up to the 14th and 30th floors to continue protesting if they did so.

So the bottles came out.

Because they didn't want tom lose their strategic positions for the sake of the restroom, several of the protesters instead urinated in bottles. Police reacted by showing up in gloves, surgical masks and goggles when dealing with the activists. Brisben called it an overreaction. "Of course it was it always is. They were using leather gloves, but in other cities they come in and make mass-arrests in rubber gloves. I always congratulate them for practicing safe search," he said.

Lewis said officers acted for their own safety and health. "The use of those types of tools are no different than when we respond to an accident scene or anything," he noted.

The next day at the Rhodes Tower, activists banged on windows and blocked entrances to the building. Highway patrol officers took ADAPT members to the Ohio Fairgrounds where citations were processed, and then gave them a ride back to their downtown hotel. All of the ADAPT bases were heard in Franklin County Municipal Court this week by Judge Charles Schneider. All were granted a continuance as attorneys try to work out a plea deal.

All in all, last week's events cost about $53, 334 in officer overtime, with about another $1,000 needed to replace the carpet on the 30th floor lobby and another $1,000 to replace and install new plants at the Riffe Center, according to Milburn.

Despite their setbacks with Davidson and Taft, five ADAPT activists were able to meet with Medicaid Director Barbara Edwards on November 3, trying to gain her support for the state issue. Spokesperson Allen said the department would first have to study the bill's fiscal impact before it could take a stance.

Brisben told Columbus Alive the ADAPT members succeeded in what they came for. "The people-of Ohio are aware of our issue," he said. "The state authorities have been challenged to make good on their rhetoric or they've been exposed as liars if they don't make good on it."

But Representative Terwilleger, who sponsored the legislation. ADAPT has championed, is dismayed at the group's behavior last week. "It hurt the cause," Terwilleger said. "I've heard several legislators say, 'George, you don't reward unruly children with favors.'"

As Brisben points out, being unruly is often the only option for a community that generally doesn't have a lot of money. "You know we can't make big campaign contributions like the nursing. home chains. The only way we have of getting people's attention is mass action." Osburn agrees. 'They've planted some seeds. I hope the state government allows those seeds to blossom."

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Thursday 18 July 2013

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Friday 6 December 2019

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