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Getting people out of institutions Here's how AJ (Alene Jensen) and Brenda did it in Topeka, Kansas. They'd go in at whatever time they could sneak past the desk (they didn't know about the Medicaid regulation that says they can go in legally and visit people) and go to the dayroom or the dining room and just hang out with people. Opening line: "How did you like your breakfast this morning?" Of all the approaches they used, THAT was the one they swore by. One person would start on the subject, others would rush in, and pretty soon they'd have a roomful of people pissed off enough to say they want out. Just going in and saying, "Anybody want out?" doesn't work at all. And AJ says that as much as she's done it, she doesn't like to do it alone. "Brenda and I were a real tag team." It's helpful if one of you has a visible disability, but neither of these two did. Read an interview with AJ, who works at the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center. Use these materials when you go in.     At the Endependence Center in Norfolk, VA, the people who go in to the nursing homes -- the independent living counselors from the Center -- -- are former nursing home inmates, so they really really connect.       Teresa Torres in Indiana got a couple of people sprung who then went back in to show that it is possible to live in the community.     How Tennessee's People First group closed the DD institutions     " I impersonated a visitor," says Judith Gran, staff attorney with the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia. "One Sunday afternoon during visiting hours I just walked in and hung out, acting as though I was just visiting family I went all over the institution, to all the different living units, and I met people." That's how Gran found a resident who would later be a plaintiff in a lawsuit to shut down the institution. Read more about Judy Gran's tactics.     Georgia's Disability Law and Policy Network " asked legal service offices, Centers for Independent Living, Long Term Care Ombudsmen, Protection and Advocacy staff and others" to use a form it developed to identify people in institutions. "Within a few weeks, one homeless shelter returned more than 100 survey forms." The form can be found on the Protection and Advocacy national website and used by advocates nationwide.   Freedom Clearinghouse is a project of Free Hand Press, publisher of Mouth magazine. Website developed by Cliffwood Organic Works. Website hosted by DIMENET. | E-mail | Home |