The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) celebrated its 26^th anniversary on July 26^th.  While there has certainly been progress, there is undeniably more work to be done.  Several weeks ago, something happened that catapulted this issue into the global spotlight.

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This morning I had coffee with an executive from a very well-respected local agency. We were talking about self-direction, managed care, and many of the other large scale changes happening in our world when we took a moment to ruminate on the fact that this is a very pivotal time.

Sure, many of the changes are terrifying to think about and I'm not sure any of us are very clear on how we're going to get from here to there -  but that's the exciting part! We have a chance to make a real difference and shape the way that things go.

During this conversation, I shared that I'd spoken with a mentor who has been in the field for longer than I've been alive and he admitted to feeling very guilty and ashamed for some of the things he'd taken part in and condoned during the early part of his career (shock therapy, horrific instituational practices etc.)

The gentleman I was having coffee with then shared that his agency has every new hire watch Willowbrook videos as part of their training - and how absolutely horrendous and awful it is for everyone to see.

We're not where we need to be for sure, but it's really encouraging to look back and see how far we've already come. For us, this morning, that begged a very important question: what will people think of what we're doing now, twenty years down the line?

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If you pay attention to the MediSked Twitter feed, you may have noticed a quote that I tweeted from the Home and Community Based Settings Rule Update seminar at the National Arc Convention in Indianapolis this weekend. 

The eight word statement really reasonated with me and I couldn't help but share. The speaker, Laura Brackin (former Executive Director of the Arc of Louisiana) may not have even realized the impact of this one particular line - but out of everything I learned in that hour, it stuck out to me the most. 

That line was "Poor reimbursement rates violate peoples' right to integration." 

I'd never thought of it that way before but it's SO true!

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Each and every month our team has a roundtable meeting to share and discuss timely news stories and articles relevant to our industry.

In our January gathering, one of the hot topics was self-employment and the rise of entrepreneurism in the ID/DD community.

An article in the Fargo Sun Times titled, More Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Own, Operate Businesses really got us thinking.

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