The Orlando Sentinel, Thursday October 10, 1991
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PHOTO by Phelan M Ebenhack/Sentinel: Three people (left to right: Frank Lozano, Bunnie Andrews? and Sue Davis) are standing in front of a wall. On the wall a cross with "Nursing Homes Kill" written on it is partially visable, as is the ADAPT flag (an American Flag with the stars arranged to form the wheelchair/access logo). The three are lifting up an old fashioned folding E & J manual wheelchair to hang it on the cross. Frank, who is blind and wears a headband and T-shirt with ADAPT on them, has his hand raised.
Caption reads: Frank Lozano and Bunnie Andrews, both of Colorado Springs, and Sue Davis of Louisville, Ky., chain a wheelchair to a cross marked ‘Nursing Homes Kill.‘


Title: Disabled saw their message on many faces
by Sharon McBreen of the Sentinel Staff

Protesters say they made their message clear this week after 250 activists in wheelchairs converged on Orlando.

“It’s almost as though they never felt it before we've gotten in their faces,” Diane Coleman said. “You can feel the impact of that. You can see it in their eyes."

The members of ADAPT — Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today — carried a message to the American Health Care Association, which attracted 3,500 delegates to a convention this week at the Peabody Hotel. ADAPT membels want an alternative to nursing home care. And they want to live at home.

During the convention, which ends today, ADAPT members tried to block the Peabody’s doors with their bodies and wheelchairs. Police arrested 75 protesters on trespassing charges.

The group wants a fourth of the $23 billion Medicaid spends on nursing homes and other institutions transferred to at-home care.

“We need to reach the `rank`-and-file members of AHCA and the American public," Coleman of Tennessee said at a Wednesday news conference. At least one convention delegate said he wanted to hear more, she said.

Nursing home association representatives have asked ADAPT members to meet with them. But what the activists really want is a national policy giving the disabled a choice, said Mark Johnson of Atlanta.

Johnson said the nursing home industry doesn't want to allow the disabled to live at home, because it would lose out on the Medicaid money they receive.

Wednesday night's news conference had to be moved from the front of the Orange County Convention and Civic Center to a room in the Clarion Plaza Hotel because police threatened to arrest them, one of the organizers said.

Orange County sheriff's spokesman Doug Sarubbi denied that. He said an agreement reached with the judge who released the protesters from jail prohibited them from trespassing on Peabody Hotel property.

Sarubbi said the Sheriff's Office was tabulating the time and money — estimated at least $100,000 —- it spent on the protest.

Author

Orlando Sentinel /Sharon McBreen photo Phelan M Ebenhack

Created on

Friday 12 July 2013

Posted on

Friday 9 November 2018

Tags

ADAPT - American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, ADAPT flag, AHCA - American Health Care Association, AHCA convention, arrests, blocking doors, Bunnie Andrews, cost, Diane Coleman, Doug Sarubbi - Orange County Sheriff's PR, Frank Lozano, long term care policy, Mark Johnson, national attendant services policy, press conference, redirect 25%, Sue Davis, wheelchair, wooden cross

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