As member Nancy Becker Kennedy stated, "we MUST draw the line in the sand and say that Blane, Sara, NO ONE who can live independently is going to a nursing home ever again!! We'll work in L.A. I need a recent update to give my media contacts let's TAKE TO THE STREETS. BLANE'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE, HE'S STAYING HOME!!!"
Another member, Rev. Rus Cooper-Dowda (located in Florida) made the following proposals:
what if we did the following....
We all concentrate on a single nursing home, on a single young crips ward, on a single mis-institutionalized crip. Those of us on the outside could:
--keep media interest
--provide moral support
--look for housing and support services, etc, etc.
[SNIP]
Let's concentrate our prestige and power to rescue one crip at a time in as lively a manner as possible. As an experiment, we could spring one [IF]..
--The nearest CIL coordinates the big break and connected them to outside help.
--ADAPT does the street action they do best.
--Someone else writes it up for the local/crip/national media.
--Less affliated crips could visit the nursing home A LOT.
--We continue to have a "SWAT" group to monitor inappropriate admissions of new crip "patients."
Well neither Blane nor Sara are actually IN a nursing home YET, but CDA has already undertaken a number of actions which we hope will help to keep them and others at home now and in the future.