Michigan Disability Resistance

Tanya, a resident at SACARE, was unexpectedly diagnosed with locked-in syndrome. She can feel her body, and she can hear and see, but she can’t move anything at all except for her eyes, and she can only move them up and down. She looks up for yes and down for no, so she can communicate with not only her support workers but most importantly, her loving and dedicated husband, Mike. However, after Tanya’s diagnosis, the worst thing about their journey was that they were not able to be together, until they found SACARE...

From 2011 to 2015, the rate of complaints in nursing homes was up more than 37%, and the severity increased, too. More than half were categorized as "immediate jeopardy" or "high priority," the most serious types of cases.

While the number of nursing home residents dipped slightly from 2011 to 2015, the number of complaints actually grew. The result was that the rate of complaints per thousand residents jumped from 32.7 in 2011 to 44.9 in 2015. The growth wasn't universal, though. Eleven states saw increases in complaints of 50% or more, while five other states saw reductions of 50% or more.

This is a complicated subject. It impacts people with disabilities in multiple ways, both as organ donors and recipients. But the tone and recommendations of the proposal by the Ethics Committee of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network needed a response. Some excerpts follow.

The organ transplant program saves lives, including some of our organization’s grassroots advocates. Its goals are of unquestionable significance. In order to function effectively though, it needs to have strong public trust and support. The safety of potential donors should be of utmost concern. All lives of living donors must be equally valued. The OPTN must never pursue any policies that expose some donors to more risk than other donors. . .

We agree that there are some underlying health conditions that would not preclude a willing person from being a living donor. Decisions must be made on a case-by-case basis with the preservation of the person’s normal health as a paramount value. We are therefore disturbed and disappointed by the tone and tenor of the proposal as well as the recommendations that would create a two-tiered system of assessment, reporting and scrutiny.

When I was six, I was hospitalized with Rocky Mountain spotted fever. At the hospital, I was encouraged to get out of bed, get dressed and spend as much time as possible in the playroom. I brought magazines and books back to my room to read and played with other kids who were up and about on the pediatric floor. There was a girl in the next room with leukemia, and we made faces and waved to each other through our shared window. The fact that I was able to play didn’t mean I wasn’t sick enough to be hospitalized. It meant that regardless of my illness, I was a child with the same needs and wants as other children.

We published an investigation this week featuring Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery, a rehab program that puts court defendants to work at chicken plants.

The workers don’t get paid for their labor. CAAIR does.

We found a slew of rehab programs that supply cheap and captive workers to major poultry companies, such as Tyson Foods and Simmons Foods.

The chicken companies pay for the labor. In some programs, the rehabs pocket the wages, and the defendants work for free. In other programs, they get to keep some of their pay.

Rehab: Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program

Chicken company: Simmons Foods

A convicted meth dealer named Raymond Jones started DARP after finding God in another work-based program. Like CAAIR, DARP is Christian-based. The participants aren’t paid. It was CAAIR founder Janet Wilkerson’s inspiration.

Drug courts in Oklahoma routinely send men to DARP.

“You had to work six days a week,” said Tanner Woods, who was court-ordered to the program. “I was worse off when I left DARP than I was when I got there.”

One man severely hurt his ankle while working in the chicken plants, according to a lawsuit. Rather than get him proper treatment, DARP sent him “right back to work.” Another drug court defendant who was recovering from back surgery was forced to work at Simmons, under threat of prison. He said he worked 14-hour days, six days a week, according to his deposition in a lawsuit.