much . They lived far from their communities . People with IDD were tied down or kept alone if they did not behave well .
In 1999 , there was a Supreme Court case that said people with disabilities deserve help to live in their community . The case was called Olmstead v . L . C .
The judges said forcing people to live in institutions broke a law called the Americans with Disabilities Act .
Zainab lives in her community . But she is isolated . It is like she lives in an institution all by herself .
Zainab has many needs . She has aggressive behavior . That means she might hurt herself or other people .
People with complex needs are often left out of their community .
Many people think Arizona is one of the best states to live in if you have IDD . No one with IDD has to wait on a list to get services . If you qualify , you can get services right away .
Arizona has a program for people with complex needs like Zainab . It is called the “ Enhanced Transitional Group Home .”
But people with complex needs are not getting what they need in Arizona .
A researcher looked at 8 people living in Enhanced Transitional Group Homes in Arizona . They said 7 of the 8 people did not have better lives in the group home than they had before .
The researcher wrote :
“ The members did not make significant behavioral gains in either reduction of challenging behaviors or acquisition of social and self-determined competencies ” and that “ staff and member engagement in participatory , meaningful , and functional activities was staggeringly low .”
This means the people in these group homes did not learn to do new things or go into their communities very much .
One of the people in the study was a young woman called RS . She has autism and mental illness .
The researcher said RS ’ s caregivers did not spend much time with her . They only spent 30 % of their time with her . That would be about 18 minutes of every hour .
The researcher said RS spent most of her time on her iPad .
RS also hurt herself . Having more staff did not make her life better .
RS ’ s care cost a lot of money . Arizona pays more than $ 1 million a year for RS ’ s care .
The people who care for RS do not make a lot of money .
Some people say there are not enough rules about services for people with IDD .
Jon Meyers is the executive director of the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council . He is one of the people who thinks services are not working well . He said :
“ It is clear to anybody with eyes that the way things are being handled right now simply isn ’ t effective .”
Jon said one big problem is that staff leave their jobs a lot . They do not have enough training . They do not make enough money .
He thinks just having more staff does not make caregiving better .
Jon said :
“ It is not just a matter of not having enough money . It ’ s a matter of using the money wisely . We are often just throwing money at it without knowing what is going to be effective .”
Jon also said :
There are “ questions we don ’ t yet have answers to . There are people whose diagnoses are so complex that right now we can ’ t fully provide for them . We can ’ t fully provide the care they need .”
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