ALERT Help Stop SB 45 in Illinois - People with Disabilities should not have to live in ' Institutions'

As shared by our friends at Access Living...

If you believe that people with disabilities should not have to live in institutions, contact your representative and tell him or her to oppose SB 45. Owners of Institutes of Mental Disease (IMD) nursing homes are asking the legislature for language that could mean less community living for people with mental illness and more institutionalization.

Their effort is in response to the 2010 Williams v. Quinn settlement under which thousands of Illinoisans with mental illness will move from the IMDs into their own apartments. The IMD owners, facing a loss of revenue because people are moving out, are looking for new ways to keep people with mental illness in their facilities. This plan serves only one interest: that of the IMD owners. The plan puts nursing home profits above the rights of people with mental illness to live in integrated settings and ignores the reality that living in the community costs less than living in an IMD.

There are three actions steps you can take to help.

1. Contact your legislators today. Tell them that the legislation is counter to the rights of people with disabilities to live in integrated settings and that nursing homes should not be supported by the state when people can live better lives in the community, and at a lower cost. To find your State Legislator, go to this link and look up your legislator using your residential address.


2. Contact the House Rules Committee. The bill passed out of the Senate and has been referred to the House Rules Committee. You can also help by calling the five people on the Rules Committee to let them know that people with disabilities want community services.


Call:

Barbara Flynn Currie
phone number 217-782-8121
fax 217-524-1794

Timothy Schmitz
phone number 217-782-5457
fax 217-782-1138

Lou Lang
phone number 217-782-1252
fax 217-782-9903

David Leitch
phone number 217-782-8108
fax 217-557-3047

Frank Mautino
phone number 217-782-0140
fax 217-557-7680


3. Contact the Governor. Please call Governor Quinn and tell him this is a bad plan. The message is:

"The financial interests of the IMDs must not be put ahead of the rights of people with disabilities to live in their own homes or apartments."

Governor Quinn
phone number 217-782-0244
TTY 888-261-3336

Thanks for your support.
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