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ShareADAPT Announces 10 Best and Worst States for Community Services
In the plaza of the Hall of the States, ADAPT announced the 2008 Ten Best and Ten Worst States in the delivery of home and community services to people with disabilities and older Americans.
The Hall of States building is home to the National Governors Association, an organization that has been very vocal in recent years about the preference of community services over nursing homes and other institutions, yet has not been able to inspire its own members to improve their provision of those services.
Speakers representing states in both the best and worst categories spoke at the press conference about the horrors of nursing home life and the joys of living in the community in those states that provide good community services. Randy Alexander from Tennessee ADAPT and LaTonya Reeves from Colorado ADAPT also spoke of the disability-underground-railroad that assists people in states without community services to move to states where they can live quality lives in their own homes with the supports and services they need.
The grouping of states into the top and bottom ten was based on publicly available data from highly respected researchers, supplemented by the results of an informal survey widely distributed across the country by ADAPT. As has so often been the case over the years, there were few surprises. Many of the ten states doing the poorest job of providing services that allow citizens to receive long term care in their own homes in the community have been on the "worst" list over and over.
The states are listed alphabetically, not ranked numerically;
TEN BEST STATES HONORABLE MENTION
Alaska Kansas
Colorado New York
Maine Washington
Massachusetts Wisconsin
Michigan Wyoming
Minnesota
New Hampshire
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
TEN WORST STATES DISHONORABLE MENTION
Arkansas Alabama
Georgia District of Columbia
Florida New Jersey
Illinois Ohio
Indiana Pennsylvania
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Dakota
Tennessee
Texas