VOR calls for compassionate advocacy and politics. Caregivers of people with profound intellectual disabilities need options, not abandonment.
For Immediate Release
July 12, 2012
For More Information
Julie Huso, Executive Director
605-370-4652 direct; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
It’s hard for average families to fathom what would drive a mother to abandon her disabled daughter, as reported by the Daily Herald, a Suburban Chicago newspaper (“Algonquin mom: Leaving disabled woman in Tennessee was best,” July 7). Yet, this story is repeated across the country, often with “murder-suicide” being the escape for those involved.
Advocacy and politics have reduced and, in some areas, eliminated specialized care options for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD), resulting predictable tragedies.
Elderly parents are forced to care for middle-aged disabled children long beyond humane standards. In other situations, individuals with profound ID/DD with complex, 24/7 needs are cared for by underpaid, untrained staff. Tragedies are predictable.
“I feel for the mom in Illinois who left her disabled daughter in Tennessee for better care and for the families in California, Connecticut and elsewhere who felt their only escape was death,” remarked Sybil Finken, VOR’s immediate past president. “Imagine the desperation they must have felt.”
