Community Integration

Community integration is an important part of Disability Rights Ohio's advocacy work and is part of Disability Rights Ohio's priorities. Disability Rights Ohio staff works to ensure that housing and services are available within the community so that people with disabilities will attain inclusion within a community of their choice.

This section provides information about community integration.

• Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act: The Act specifically overturns Supreme Court decisions that have caused many people with disabilities to lose important civil rights protections.
• HOME Choice: HOME Choice is a program administered by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services that assists older adults and persons with disabilities to move from long-term services and support systems to home and community-based settings.
• Olmstead Decision: Supreme Court ruling in the case of L.C. & E.W. vs. Olmstead decided that it is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for states to discriminate against people with disabilities by providing services in institutions when the individual could be served more appropriately in a community-based setting.

Resources

• Community integration reports: Reports from the Ohio Council for Home Care and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law provide updates on the economic aspect of long-term care in Ohio and the status of the progress of implementing the Olmstead decision.
• Housing Resources to Support Olmstead Implementation (PDF file): An Informational Bulletin from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) actions, policies, and resources that are available to states to assist with compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Olmstead decision.
• Keeping the Promise: True Community Integration and the Need for Monitoring and Advocacy (PDF file): A report written by the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) which summarizes two projects that monitored people with disabilities, many of whom were moving out of large institutions into homes in the community.
• Ohio continues to rank as one of the worst states for achieving community inclusion: Article on the United Cerebral Palsy annual report, "The Case for Inclusion 2010," about the status of community integration in the United States.
• Olmstead: Community Integration for Everyone: Legal updates from and actions of the U.S. Department of Justice.
• Statement of the Department of Justice on Enforcement of the Integration Mandate of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Olmstead v. L.C.: This is a technical directive issued by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Steve Gold's Information Bulletins

Steve Gold, an attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, provides "Information Bulletins" on topics related to community integration. The following are summaries by LRS of some of Gold's bulletins.

• New CMS initiative aims to avoid unnecessary hospitalization rather than unnecessary institutionalization (March 23, 2012)
• Data show slow progress in most states in reducing nursing home population (November 28, 2011)
• Will states seek Medicaid demonstration waivers to cut costs? (November 7, 2011)
• State score card offers ideas for Medicaid savings (October 17, 2011)
• HUD to award new housing vouchers; Public Housing Authorities must apply (September 15, 2011)
• Nursing home organizations fail to acknowledge Medicaid savings due to community living (September 12, 2011)
• "My Medicaid Matters" rally planned for September 21 in Washington D.C. (September 1, 2011)
• Gold summarizes some of the points of DOJ's new ADA technical assistance document (July 11, 2011)
• Understanding Medicaid bed taxes and how it affects funding for home and community based options (May 20, 2011)
• Ohio's Medicaid expenditures biased toward nursing homes (December 3, 2010)
• Advocates for elderly and people with disabilities need to join in the fight to keep Medicaid services (November 22, 2010)
• What advocates can do about reductions in HCBS Medicaid services (October 4, 2010)
• Rebalancing Medicaid's Long-Term Care Expenditures: How Is Your State Doing? (September 22, 2010)
• Elderly and people with disabilities should unite to advocate for reauthorization of Older Americans Act (August 23, 2010)
• Changes to Social Security Act will increase home and community-based services (August 12, 2010)
• What happens to Medicaid services when a child "ages out" of EPSDT? (February 9, 2010)

To see a complete list of Information Bulletins, visit Gold's website: Steve Gold's Treasured Nuggets of Information

Other organizations

• ADAPT
• Disability.gov - Civil Rights
• HHS Community Living Initiative
• Institute on Community Integration
• Lois Curtis - Artist, Activist, Advocate (Lois is the "L.C." from the Olmstead Decision)
• Ohio Self Determination Association
• Ohio Statewide Independent Living Council (SILC)
• Steve Gold's Treasured Nuggets of Information

See the Advocacy Organizations section for links to more Ohio and national organizations.

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