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LOCAL News :: Civil & Human Rights : Elections & Legislation

Activists lay siege to AMA building

Hundreds of disability-rights activists descended upon the American Medical Association's Chicago headquarters demanding that the organization endorse Community Choice Act legislation.
Larry Lawson has lived in two nursing homes in the past four years since suffering a stroke that left him needing assistance for many daily tasks. He was put into a home on the recommendation of doctors when his family moved out of state, leaving him without the ability to provide for his own care, and without an insurance program that would allow him to remain in his community. He lives in a home that does not offer much specialized care, and houses the physically and mentally disabled, as well as the insane and the substance-dependent, together. Such conditions leave people with mobility disabilities, like him, open to abuse from fellows patients (he recommends the term, "Inmates") as well as from a low-paid staff that lacks the qualifications necessary to care for such a diverse group of patients.

Lawson was one of hundreds of people with disabilities who, along with activists standing in solidarity, laid siege to the Chicago headquarters of the American Medical Association (AMA) demanding it endorse and promote the Community Choice Act (CCA) which would allow for seniors and people with disabilities to have the choice of receiving care in their homes and communities instead of being placed in nursing homes or other assisted living centers. The AMA currently supports the placement of seniors and people with disabilities into nursing homes.

The action was organized by disability rights group ADAPT which, along with Access Living and other groups, has been pushing industry lobbies like the AMA and legislators to pass the CCA. ADAPT is advocating for policies that would allow people with disabilities and seniors to live as independently as possible and not sacrifice their community life and mental health to receive treatment. With an aging US population, ADAPT says that the issue should be of growing concern, beyond the already disastrous effects it has on some. Lawson said that they wanted to send the message to legislators, in addition to the AMA, that "They have a band of registered voters who are locked, against their will, in nursing homes…[with] no one in office speaking out against this policy."

The group surrounded the AMA's building yesterday afternoon and wheelchair-bound activists blockaded the entrances. They unfolded a banner spanning the length of the State St. side of the building reading, "Stop Funding Institutions." When people inside the building tried to leave, the group kept the doors shut chanting, "Just like a nursing home, you can't get out!"

 
 

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