Charismatic Figure Absent - The Denver Post - Friday, August 2, 1974

PHOTO Denver Post photo by Bill Peters: Two thin young men with longish hair wearing sleeveless shirts sit facing a desk in front of them. On the other side, an older man with glasses in shirt sleeves and a tie (Gov. Vanderhoof) faces the two and the camera. One of the guys in wheelchairs has a poster-sign on the back saying "The handicapped are people too! Support [unreadable] RALLY!!! [unreadable].
Caption reads: Gov. John Vanderhoof talks with Gary Van Lake and Vic Stifel. The two men were in group of handicapped persons who visited the governor Thursday.

[Headline] Wheel-Chair Group Gets Capitol Sympathy
by Rykken Johnson

A group of handicapped persons in wheel chairs looking for a “charismatic” figure to champion their cause for better care didn't find one in the governor’s office Thursday.

The group, called The Organization of Disabled Adults and Youth (TODAY), met with a shirtsleeved Gov. John Vanderhoof for about 40 minutes to discuss problems faced by handicapped individuals and ways to reduce the difficulties.

TODAY asked Vanderhoof for his support in channeling more state funds to improve staff and facilities at nursing homes and institutions for physically, mentally and emotionally handicapped persons.

[Subheading] SYMPATHETIC EAR

The governor listened solemnly, said he sympathized, reported that the state has been making strides for handicapped persons and will continue to do so, thanked the group for coming and told its members to drive carefully on the way home.

None of the wheel-chair visitors as much as smiled at the sendoff from the governor's office. Outside, a couple of them replied with a flat no to a question if they thought they had found a leader for their cause.

The meeting with Vanderhoof concluded a two-day rally by about two dozen individuals in wheel chairs from Heritage House and other nursing homes. The rally took place in front of Services, 1575 Sherman St., and the State Capitol.

The organization, through seven members who met with Vanderhoof, didn't help its efforts by tying its plea to the employees’ strike at the Colorado State Hospital in Pueblo.

Vanderhoof and other state officials have been battling with the strikers and their union for more than a week over pay for the state hospital staff. Although the state gained a court injunction on grounds the strike is illegal, some hospital employees Friday were still observing the walkout.

TODAY spokesman Vic Stiefel, 29, told Vanderhoof that TODAY backs the strikers because the organization feels staffing is inadequate and pay too low at state institutions and that state reimbursement through state-administered Medicaid is too skimpy for private nursing homes like Heritage House to be effective.

But the governor couldn't make the connection between pay and reimbursements, saying the dispute in Pueblo is a budgetary consideration and the nursing home difficulty a welfare consideration.

Furthermore, Vanderhoof said, the state has made a “tremendous movement” to overcome architectural barriers against disabled persons and also is trying to influence the federal government to loosen its guidelines on Medicaid.

The governor continued that under his program to restructure state government he is trying to get the state to deal more effectively with problems of the handicapped.

[Subheading] 'NOT FAR ENOUGH’

Vanderhoof said the state "has come a long way over the last 8-10 years, but we haven't come far enough or fast enough".

He said he would "pledge himself to problems of the handicapped. “We are moving in the proper direction but it's not going to happen overnight", he added.

Later, in the governor‘s office, Wade Blank, a Heritage House employee who accompanied the disabled individuals said TODAY members were enthusiastic about chances that Vanderhoof will support “a good medical program."

Blank disagreed that pay at institutions and reimbursements at nursing homes aren't connected, as Vanderhoof contended. "No matter what he says,” Wade said, “the state sets the reimbursement rate for the money a home gets.”

He said one of the major problems at homes is that staff pay is low, that it doesn't go up very fast and that aides "burn out” in a few months and leave.