Harper Calls for End of MH/MR Waiting List, Bill of Rights for People with Intellectual, Developmental Disabilities

Blue Bell, PA – April 23, 2009 – (RealEstateRama) — Responding to the “quiet crisis of desperation” among Pennsylvania families with disabled loved ones, Rep. Kate Harper (R-Montgomery) has again introduced legislation to eliminate the waiting list for housing and community services and to establish a Bill of Rights.

“People would never stand for having to wait months or even years to access treatment or support services for a physical injury, yet this is precisely what we, as a Commonwealth, are asking every day of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Harper said. “Now more than ever, with our state and nation caught in economic downturn, the families of people with disabilities need our help and support. It is high time we step up and do the right thing.”

Harper’s call for a Bill of Rights aims to recognize the many challenges people with intellectual and developmental disabilities face, including discrimination, lack of public awareness and lack of access to support services, and to direct policies to help ease those challenges.

The foremost challenge that must be addressed, Harper said, is the waiting list for housing and community support services in Pennsylvania. Currently, the list is more than 20,000 people long.

“I can’t imagine being in need of help and having to wait at the end of a line of more than 20,000 people,” Harper said. “Even the emergency list, which stands at more than 4,500 people, must make people with disabilities and their families feel extremely frustrated and alone as they wait for what seems like forever for help.”

Recognizing that the waiting list problem cannot be solved overnight, Harper’s legislation calls on the Department of Public Welfare (DPW) to develop an action plan that will eliminate the emergency and critical segments of the list by 2012. The plan must include statistical information on the current and projected increase in the waiting list on a county basis, and it must include financial information on the amount of additional federal, state or other funds needed to provide the services necessary to eliminate the waiting list.

Currently, there are more than 4,500 people on the emergency waiting list, more than 9,600 in the critical list and more than 6,700 on the planning list, bringing the total number of people waiting for services to nearly 21,000 statewide.

House Bill 1247 has more than 40 cosponsors and was referred to the House Health and Human Services Committee.

Rep. Kate Harper

61st District

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

(610) 277-3230

(717) 787-2801

Member Site: KateHarper.net

Contact: Patricia A. Hippler

House Republican Public Relations

(717) 772-9846

Caucus Site: PAHouseGOP.com