Area disability rights activists protest in D.C.

In a Twitter message sent Monday afternoon, Flip Polizzi Rivera said he'd "rather go to jail than die in a nursing home."

The 27-year-old Rochester man, a resident of Monroe Community Hospital, traveled to Washington D.C. this week with a group of like-minded protestors make their feelings about institutionalization vs independent living known to national leaders.

Rivera, who has cerebral palsy, along with others aligned with ADAPT (Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) converged on the capital to advocate for programs that would allow more people with disabilities to have in-home attendants, rather than be placed in nursing facilities or other institutions.

"I am forced to live in a nursing facility," said Rivera in a tweet shortly before he was arrested by U.S. Park Police while protesting outside the White House on Monday afternoon. "I want to live in my own home. It's important @BarackObama understands what we face."

C. Jean Grover, with the Regional Center for Independent Living in Rochester, said the issue is that allowing people personal care attendants rather than forcing people to live in institutional settings is not only less expensive, but also is a matter of civil and human rights.

"There is an institutional bias in our funding streams," she said. "The bias is that if somebody ceases to be able to function as they used to, the bias is to throw them into a nursing home rather than assisting them in managing their services. We have to readjust how the money is allocated. It's a matter of managing services effectively to allow people to stay in their own homes."

Grover said 30 Rochester-area residents are participating in the protests this week, which are scheduled to continue through Wednesday.

Rivera was ticketed and released from police custody Monday afternoon.

According to ADAPT, on the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, President Barack Obama "should take this unique opportunity and leverage this anniversary not only to affirm — but also to advance — the rights of people with disabilities, including the right of people with disabilities to live in the most integrated setting and be integrated in the community."

MCDERMOT@DemocratandChronicle.com

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