Money must follow disabled citizens

Virginia has started on a path to improve the lives of its citizens with intellectual and developmental disabilities, planning to close four out of five state institutions by 2020.

It must continue to improve those lives by making sure the money that previously paid for institutional care follows those leaving state facilities to the communities they will call home.

The changes are the result of a court agreement filed Jan. 26, following nearly a year’s worth of negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice, that enforces the 1999 Olmstead decision by the Supreme Court. The justices found that unnecessary institutionalization of people with disabilities is a form of discrimination.

The Justice Department concluded that Virginia had ignored decades of warnings to replace its outdated institutions with community-based services, and that it was violating the civil rights of people with disabilities by keeping them in state facilities. Another chief finding targeted Virginia’s perpetual underfunding of community programs, which kept too many disabled people on waiting lists for services.

Now, under the terms of the settlement, the state has committed $2.1 billion to the transition of those disabled people from institutions to the community. The federal government will contribute $935 million.

That sounds like a lot of money, but it should actually represent a savings for the state. A Justice Department lawyer estimated that it costs $216,000 a year to serve someone in an institution, compared with $75,000 in the community.

Virginia has been making small steps toward improving the treatment of its mentally disabled. Three years ago, the General Assembly allocated $23 million for improvements to the Southeastern Virginia Training Center in Chesapeake, which was rebuilt with fewer beds in new cottages offering better care. It will become the state’s only institution and will shrink from 110 residents to 75.

Gov. Bob McDonnell began the process of moving people out of facilities last year with a $30 million allocation. He has proposed $30 million more in his budget this year.

Some family members of those in training centers worry that moving loved ones into the community will turn out to be a bad thing. They cite problems in some group homes and argue that lack of services and oversight will leave the disabled worse off.

Their worries will be founded if Virginia fails to follow through on its commitments to its most fragile citizens. After decades of neglect, it’s time for the state to protect those people rather than ignore them.