ADAPT Announces 10 Best and Worst States for Community Services

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ADAPT Announces 10 Best and Worst States for Community Services

Washington, D.C.--- 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 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

" No state is ideal, and no state is all bad in how it provides home

and community services, " said Bob Kafka, ADAPT National Organizer.

" This, as always, is simply a snapshot based on current information

from the Kaiser Commission, the Research and Training Center on

Community Living at the University of Minnesota, Thomson Healthcare,

and our survey.

People are welcome to email me at bob.adapt@sbcglobal .net

<mailto:bob.adapt@sbcglobal%20.net> for more information. "