ADAPT Demands Full Civil Rights in Georgia; Atty. Gen. Holder Invited to Speak

For Immediate Release:
October 10, 2009
For Information Contact:
Bruce Darling 585-370-6690
Marsha Katz 406-544-59504
http://www.adapt.org

ADAPT Demands Full Civil Rights in Georgia; Atty. Gen. Holder Invited to Speak

Atlanta, GA--- National disability rights organization ADAPT has invited U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to address a disability rights rally at Atlanta’s King Center on Sunday, October 11. The rally kicks-off ADAPT’s week in Atlanta, and will follow a march from the CNN Center, past historic Ebenezer Baptist Church to the grounds of the King Center. There, ADAPT will pay respect to Martin Luther King, Jr., the major architect of America’s civil rights movement, and in the shadow of his memorial remind America that Americans with disabilities are still waiting for freedom and full civil rights.

“We’re here in Atlanta to demand freedom from nursing homes and institutions for people with disabilities and who are older,” said Randy Alexander, Organizer for Tennessee ADAPT. Currently, Medicaid law is biased in favor of forcing people into expensive nursing facilities and other institutions, rather than mandating that people can choose to stay at home with the assistance they need. As a result, hundreds of thousands of older and disabled Americans have lost their homes and their freedom, and have been virtually locked up for the crime of disability or age. It’s a violation of our civil rights!”

Legislation currently in Congress, the Community Choice Act (CCA), would give Americans across the country the choice to stay in their own homes to receive the services and supports they need in their daily lives, thus removing the institutional bias in Medicaid. Without change in the federal law, it is left up to states to decide if they will offer any home and community-based services, and if so, how many people will get them. In the current depressed economy where many states are making deep budget cuts, optional services like home and community-based services are often the first to be cut.

“Georgia is the poster-child state for why we need a federal law like the Community Choice Act,” said Becky Ramage-Tuttle, Executive Director of Disability Link and a member of Georgia ADAPT. “Ten years ago the U.S. Supreme Court told Georgia it was engaging in unlawful segregation of and discrimination against people with disabilities by inappropriately institutionalizing them. The court mandated that Georgia provide services in the community to the people who can live in their own homes.

Ten years later Georgia continues to not comply with the Supreme Court’s decision and has no completed plan to do so. This is an outrageous flaunting of the law!”

ADAPT came to Atlanta in 1990, just after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and again in 1996, both times pressing=2 0Georgia officials to provide home and community-based services instead of forcing Georgians with disabilities and older Georgians into nursing facilities and other institutions. Today, over 62,000 older and disabled Georgians are warehoused in Georgia nursing facilities, and at least 6000 of those people have indicated they want to live in the community.

ADAPT is in Atlanta for a week of direct action following Sunday’s march and rally. Speakers at the rally include people involved in the original “Olmstead” lawsuit against the state of Georgia, and individuals who have suffered, and continue to suffer harm as a result of Georgia’s segregation and discrimination practices, and the state’s lack of compliance with the 1999 Us Supreme Court Olmstead decision.