Va. ranks low in home-based services for disabled

A study released Tuesday lists Virginia as one of the 10 worst states in the country in serving people with mental and developmental disabilities in home-like settings.

The study – The Case for Inclusion – is an analysis by the United Cerebral Palsy organization on the use of Medicaid dollars in supporting the disabled in community or home-like settings.

Virginia ranked poorly because of its high number of residents who live in state institutions rather than community homes, its long waiting lists for services, and the percentage of dollars spent on

institutional care rather than community services.

Virginia's 42nd-place ranking fell one rung from last year's study but was an improvement from the first study in 2006, when it ranked 49th.

The organization advocates for people with disabilities and promotes independence, community living, and disabled people's control over their own decisions and resources.

The study used data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2008. The study's authors noted that most of the data came from before most states faced their most severe budget reductions because of the poor economy. Medicaid is a shared state and federal insurance program that provides services for the disabled and low-income people.

The study ranked Arizona as best in the country for serving people in community settings and Mississippi the worst. Virginia spent 70 percent of state funding for the disabled in home- and community-based settings compared with the national rate of 77 percent.

About 8 percent of the state's residents with mental and developmental disabilities lived in large institutions, compared with the country's rate of 3.7 percent, according to the study. Nine states have no large state-run institutions.

Virginia legislators have been working for years to find funding to reduce the state's long waiting list for community-based services. About 6,000 Virginians who are mentally or developmentally disabled are on the list for a Medicaid waiver, which provides money for people to live in their own homes or other small, community settings.

Budget proposals early in the year called for freezing the number of waivers, but legislators found money in the final budget for waivers for 250 people.

Elizabeth Simpson, (757) 446-2635, elizabeth.simpson@pilotonline.com