Investigations Updates

Plan to Reopen LDC Causes Community Outcry

The Lincoln Developmental Center, a state-funded institution for people with developmental disabilities that employed a large number of area workers, closed in 2002 after more than a decade of abuse and neglect of its residents. To support the local economy, Governor Blagojovich has pledged to reopen the facility, spurring intense outcry from the disability community.

Based on recommendations from a governor-appointed task force, the administration is calling for construction of four ten-bed facilities on the shuttered LDC campus. In addition to the four ten-bed facilities, the plan allocates spending to affordable housing for non-disabled individuals, recreational facilities, medical services and senior housing. Calling the "plan" nothing more that the creation of mini-institutions on an isolated campus, Equip for Equality, spearheading an effort with 16 other advocacy groups, has soundly objected to the proposal.

EFE's Deborah Kennedy, Zena Naiditch and Marsha Koelliker testifying at Lincoln Developmental Center closure hearings last year

During the May meeting of the Governor appointed Lincoln task force, Zena Naiditch, President and CEO of Equip for Equality, presented testimony in opposition to the State's plan. Naiditch argued that (check with Zena or Laura) Equip for Equality's Senior Attorney, Barry Lowy, appeared before the Health Care Facilities Planning Board in May to present written and oral objections to the State's plan to build on the shuttered Lincoln campus. Lowy argued that the plan fails to meet the standards under which new facilities can be built in Illinois.

Noting that the State, just two years earlier, told the Planning Board that there was not need for the Lincoln Developmental Center, Lowy argued that nothing currently presented by the State demonstrates that anything has changed which could support the creation of a new facility in Lincoln. The State's proposal has nothing to do with providing services to people with disabilities in integrated community settings but everything to do with supporting the economic health of the town of Lincoln, argued Lowy. The full Planning Board will hear the State's proposal at its meeting on June 15th and 16th in Chicago.

Renamed Institution Still Open After DHS Reverses Closure Notice

Renamed Southwest Disability Services, These Are God's People Too, a state-funded residency for people with developmental disabilities, has remained open despite an Equip for Equality investigation revealing squalid living conditions and extravagant employee perks. In September, following the investigation and report, the Department of Human Services' (DHS) announced it would terminate its support of the agency and has since reversed its decision.

Amid controversy over the reversal, DHS established a task force to internally advise whether to continue supporting the agency. Task force members include DHS staff along with an Equip for Equality representative and member of DHS' advisory board. Following several meetings, Equip for Equality expressed strong concerns that the task force focus was shifting to seek ways of perpetuating the agency, which by all accounts was one of the State's worst providers. Equip for Equality is calling upon the task force to recommend that the State sever its relationship with the agency, transition residents to other settings and start critically examining the State's oversight system to prevent similar humanitarian and fiscal abuses in the future.

Choking Alert Released

In response to several choking incidents that resulted in three deaths, Equip for Equality along with the Department of Human Services issued an alert prepared by Equip for Equality to all agencies and facilities in Illinois providing services to individuals with developmental disabilities. The alert provides essential information in a clear format to assist staff in understanding individual risk factors and high-risk foods in an effort to prevent further tragedies.

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