SCL homes are a good thing. They allow people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live in a home, such as yours, which enables them to be part of a community. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
I know my neighbors. We wave and say hello. But I don’t really know them. How well do you know your neighbors?
If you live in a middle-class neighborhood, you may have a Medicaid-funded Supports for Community Living (SCL) home on your street. What is an SCL home? Our government created SCL homes as a response to mistreatment of people living in mental institutions, many of them with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) such as cerebral palsy and down syndrome. SCL homes are a good thing. They allow people with I/DD to live in a home, such as yours, which enables them to be part of a community.
This is good for most, but for some the isolation of institutionalization continues and is accompanied by the monster of abuse. A nurse practitioner in Kentucky who sees people with I/DD under state guardianship tells me she has seen evidence of “heinous and egregious acts of abuse.”
This is a nationwide tragedy. Last year, in Kentucky alone, the Department of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities confirms 97 people were abused in these homes. That’s a plane crash. This story should make the national news.
And it gets worse. This data is only substantiated abuse. How many incidents were unsubstantiated because residents are unable to communicate? “We hear repeated stories of abuse,” reports the National Council on Severe Autism. “Injuries occur, investigations ensue, and nothing is substantiated because people with intellectual disabilities are incapable of telling their stories or coming to their own defense.”
And how many incidents went unreported because residents fear retaliation? According to the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Victims of Crimes, despite the prevalence of abuse among people with disabilities, more than half of victims never seek assistance from law enforcement.
At the top of the list of common reasons for this is fear of reprisal.
And how many incidents were just not reported? Federal agencies say that for every incident of group home abuse reported, nearly 24 additional cases remain undetected and that people living in group homes are at risk of serious harm; 15,000-19,00 people with I/DD are raped each year in the U.S. Most abuse occurs in group homes where 85% of cases go unreported.
(Sigh.) This is not a plane crash. This is a catastrophe.
So how do you be a good neighbor? To begin, if you hear anything or see something suspicious, call Adult Protective Services in Kentucky at 1-877-597-2331. Your phone call is anonymous and may save a life.
Sen. Reggie Thomas has filed Bill Request 42 which would allow cameras in SCL homes. Other legislators are needed as co-sponsors and supporters to help extend to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities the protections of the Kentucky Bill of Rights, which reads, “All men are, by nature, free and equal, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned: the right of seeking and pursuing their safety and happiness.”
Vulnerable people need cameras for protection. Federal and state oversight is unable to prevent abuse. Vulnerable people need protection at the point of care.
The president of the Autism Society of the Bluegrass says it so well: “It is the right of us all to be protected in our homes. You or I can freely use technology such as cameras to enhance that protection. As the parent of a young man with autism, I would want no less for him. You would want the same for your loved ones.”
As philosopher Elbert Hubbard said, “Who is your neighbor? Your neighbor is the man who needs you.”