TN ranks near bottom on caring for disabled

Tennessee ranks 47th in the nation in its care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, according to a new annual survey to be released Thursday by a national advocacy organization for people with disabilities.

The rankings by Washington, D.C.-based United Cerebral Palsy weighed factors such as quality of life led by people with disabilities, the state’s efforts to promote independence, health and safety issues, as well as policies designed to keep families together, rather than moving individuals to homes or facilities set aside for the disabled.

DIDD officials did not have an opportunity to fully review the study, noting they had some concerns about the accuracy of its data. DIDD spokeswoman Cara Kumari also noted the agency has initiated reforms, improving employment opportunities for people with disabilities, keeping more people out of institutions and working with advocates and others to develop a new care plan for the state.

“We anticipate that Tennessee will rank higher on these kinds of studies, as we continue to provide high-quality services to the populations we serve today and are able to do so more cost-effectively in order to provide services to more people in the future,” Kumari said.

Tennessee’s low rankings also derive, in part, from its long waiting list for services.

Currently about 7,100 Tennesseans with intellectual disabilities — defined by an IQ of 70 or less — are waiting for services. Other individuals with developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy or autism, have limited services available to them in Tennessee, despite state law requiring the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to create services specifically for these groups. DIDD noted plans are already under way to hire staff members to design a plan to provide services to this group.

Another factor driving the state’s rankings downward is a bigger reliance on institutional and intensive residential treatment facilities rather than providing more help to people at home, noted the authors of “The Case for Inclusion” report.

But the report also points out that Tennessee continues to make progress in reallocating some resources toward serving people in their own homes and communities.

By 2012, some 87 percent of people served by DIDD were living in their own communities. That’s up from 78 percent in 2007, when the organization first began surveying state services.

Advocates say states like Tennessee will face even bigger challenges in the future. The population it serves is aging and requiring more expensive care at the same time that a new generation of children increasingly at risk for autism may need more services in the near future.

One in 68 children in the United States has been diagnosed with autism, a 30 percent increase in two years, according to newly released data by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Reach Anita Wadhwani at 615-259-8092 and on Twitter @AnitaWadhwani.