Dear OCPJ members & friends,
Mary Duerksen suggested to me that many citizens in our
community would be interested in hearing about Safe Haven Farms and the battle
we are fighting for the survival of our dream. If you would like to
support Choice for adults with intellectual disabilities, please sign our
petition today. Decisions are being made at the State level this
month.
Safe Haven Farms, located in Butler County, was founded by
parents as an autism-friendly setting to accommodate the significant cognitive
and behavioral challenges of some adults on the autism spectrum. Our
Farm provides residential and day programming that includes gardening and
daily animal care as well as music therapy, a therapeutic equestrian program
and many other activities on the Farm and in the surrounding communities.
In a well-intentioned effort, but with shocking disregard
for personal choice, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is
attempting to limit housing options for people with autism and other
intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) by rewriting the
definition of what will be considered home and community based settings for
Medicaid waiver recipients. These waivers are the main source of
financial support for adults with I/DD (including autism) to access needed
staffing and other services wherever they live.
CMS is describing Farm communities as a setting
which is not community based, describing them as isolating with little access
to the broader community outside the farm. This is not true of
Safe Haven Farms. The vision of CMS is that all people with I/DD should
be scattered across the community in urban settings, rather than in
intentional communities like farms or similar clustered sites. They
envision people with I/DD having jobs in the regular workforce, making at
least minimum wages, working with non-disabled peers, and not being allowed to
work where they live. This vision is not feasible for everyone.
One size does not fit all in the world of autism. Under this
mandate, the founding dreams and mission of Safe Haven Farms will be
defeated. The choice of where to live, and the funding of services to do
so could be cut off, meaning such programs could be shut down and the
residents forced to move.
We believe individuals with I/DD should have the
right to choose the type of residential and day services that best meet their
needs, and should be able to continue their Medicaid funding to support that
choice. We believe that farm communities are a very effective setting for many
with I/DD, as proven by the successful farms already in operation around the
world. Families started most of these programs because they meet the
unique needs of their sons and daughters.
If you support our position, please add your voice today by
signing an on-line petition by going to http://tinyurl.com/ohiodisabilitychoice. Add your name and also some
brief comments in support of choice and farm communities like Safe Haven
Farm.
Sincerely,
Sue & Dave
Wilson
(Parents with
a son now living at Safe Haven
Farm)
* 16 S. Campus,
Oxford, OH * 513-523-6555