ADAPT Takes over HHS Building in DC with List of Demands

ADAPT is in town and JFActivist will strive to post all the latest on where they are, what they're demanding, and the successes they are celebrating....

Monday, April 28:

10:00 AM: Early this rainy morning in DC, national ADAPT showed up in force at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building,  headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, located at the foot of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Over 500 ADAPTers are participating in this direct action, Over 500 ADAPTers are participating in this direct action, 50 of whom, for the first time in ADAPT history, made it into the HHS building with their statement of demands (see below). All points of access are effectively blocked by those participating in the direct action.

ADAPT's direct action is to call sharp attention to the need for radical change in business as usual at HHS, particularly as it pertains to the institutional bias in the administration of Medicaid benefits and the result of thousands of people with disabilities being forced into and kept in nursing homes and other institutions against their expressed wishes to live in their homes and communities.

1:00 PM
In exchange for creating access to the building via one door in the parking garage, ADAPT has secured a signed letter from Philo Hall, Counselor to Secretary Michael Leavitt, promising a meeting between the Secretary and leadership from ADAPT within 30 days. This was one of the items in the statement of demands.

3:00 PM
ADAPTers are wrapping up and heading back to their hotel rooms for dry clothes after a successful direct action this morning at HHS. Before wrapping up, Philo Hall came out and addressed the ADAPTers in person, agreeing to an additional meeting between ADAPT leadership and HHS staff this coming Wednesday morning as a follow-up piece.

Stay tuned for more this week....
 

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ADAPT DEMANDS

To: HHS SECRETARY MIKE LEAVITT
From: ADAPT Community
Date: April 28, 2008

Thousands of people with disabilities and older Americans CONTINUE to be unnecessarily forced into and kept in nursing homes and other institutions because of the inaction and development of barrier-ridden regulations by HHS and this Administration.

ADAPT demands that Secretary Mike Leavitt:

• Improve the implementation of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration Projects by increasing flexibility states have;
• IMMEDIATELY eliminate any rules which cause undue burdens regarding case management;
• Eliminate any rules that discourage small grassroots providers from meeting the needs of the consumers they serve;
• Eliminate any regulations and interpretations of “spousal impoverishment” and “risk” which promote institutionalization of persons with disabilities;
• Work with ADAPT on ways to pass the Community Choice Act; and
• Meet with leaders of ADAPT within thirty (30) days of this date to clarify any of the above and identify other barriers to home and community based services in all fifty states.

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READ MORE:

Read ADAPT's press release on today's activities.

Read one ADAPTer's experience and history with ADAPT (trackback).

Read how ADAPT is celebrating 25 years of direct action.

Comments

[Laura Hershey]

Mad props to all of the ADAPT activists who are in DC this week fighting to free our people!

[staceym]

thank you for the coverage! FREE OUR PEOPLE!!!

[Larry Wanger]

FREE OUR PEOPLE! Great work ADAPT members!

[adaptanita]

I was on of the ones who got in, and one of the ones on the negotiating team. As we approached the side entrance, we made a mad dash, and 14 of us from my group got in, and made it way to the back, where we were able to shut down the back end. best of all, most in my group were new folks on their first action, including two from Rochester. They were really pumped up and empowered by their experience! There was a total of 75 of us who made it into the building.

Anita C. from Rochester ADAPT
Rochester, NY

[Lorrinda Mabry]

way to go and thank you for
help me staay out of nursing home Lorrinda Mabry from tn

[Lillibeth Navarro]

My dear ADAPT!
I am so proud of all of you and wish with all my heart that I was there! I made an announcement today at the Consumer Forum of the Los Angeles Public Authority, the Personal Assistance Services Council and told them of the great revolution you all are doing on our behalf.

I remember the very first action we did in Atlanta, Georgia a couple of years ago when Wade was still with us--those days are sealed in my soul. It was the ADAPT spirit that moved us to found Communities Actively Living Independent & Free (CALIF), our Central LA ILC and it is the ADAPT spirit that moves us to do our work every day. We are one with you in every way. Please add us to your mailing list and let's pick up from where we left off. My last ADAPT action was in DC, 1993! I had to go in hiatus to found a center.

ADAPT forever!
Lillibeth Navarro
Founder & Executive Director
CALIF
634 S. Spring Street, 2nd Floor
Los Angeles, CA. 90014

[Joe Stramondo]

I wish I had been able to join my brothers and sisters! Maybe next year.

FREE OUR PEOPLE!!!!