THE DAY

Waiting lists and overall
fear of the unknown await
many parents of the
adult developmentally disabled.

PHIL JACOBS

Assistant Editor

E

lien Stern, 26, is going to com-
plete her education program
this June at Wing Lake School
in Bloomfield Hills. But nobody,
especially her parents, is look-
ing forward to her "graduation."
Expectations of post-graduate degrees,
a great job and a condo are not relevant to
Miss Stern's class of '91. Instead, her en-
try level into the real world might reach
no further than a wheelchair in front of a
television set. Because when classes at
Wing Lake are dismissed this June, the
doors will be closed on Ellen Stern.
Ms. Stern is developmentally disabl-
ed. Complications at birth left her bound
for a life in a wheelchair with a severe
mental impairment. But no matter how
severe that mental or physical impair-
ment, Miss Stern was and is entitled, by
law, to a public education, an education
which is provided largely by state and
county dollars to _age _ 26. Michigan
is the only state that takes persons with
disabilities to age 26; other states end
their programming at age 21.
But after age 26, Miss Stern and her
parents, Bob and Fran, face a limited
amount of spaces in group home care,
respite care, adult day care or sheltered
workshops. As parents of the develop-
mentally disabled will tell you, the dir-
tiest "four letter word" they face is actu-
ally two words: "waiting list."
Waiting lists for programs are often the
only hope parents have of securing a day
placement for their adult children. But
the hope is bleak. In Oakland County,
there are almost 400 families wait-
ing for residential placement for their
adult children. The waiting period
is approximately 18 years. Day pro-
grams have a nine-year waiting list
and respite care has a six-year wait.
Across the nation, the picture is much the
same.
For Fran and Bob Stern, there is an-
other inequity. The couple is being
penalized for making a decision 26 years

28

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1990

Ellen Stern, 26, will finish school on June 30. Her parents don't know
what she'll be doing on July 1.

ago to keep their daughter in their home
and raise her there. Persons with devel-
opmental disabilities who were institu-
tionalized early in their lives and are
wards of the state are first in line to
receive the adult day care placements
that the Sterns so badly seek. The down
side of the recent policy of deinstitu-
tionalization — moving persons out of in-
stitutions and into the general population
— is that not enough money was
designated by the state for community
placements for the older-than-26 popula-
tion. With the baby boom even showing up
in this area of the population, the problem
is going to grow.
Richard Cooper, director of Oakland
County Services for the Developmentally
Disabled, said he would need $19 million

more dollars to place everyone he current-
ly has on the waiting lists. "Parents with
are number 370 on the waiting list will
call me five years from the time they were
placed on the waiting list only to find they
are still number 370," Mr. Cooper said.
This year, Oakland County will not be
able to add any new beds to its residential
program. The Jewish Vocational Service
sheltered workshop program has cut back
from 158 spots to 150.
"Never, in my 25 years in this field,
have I seen things so bad," Mr. Cooper
said.
Thirty years ago when a developmen-
tally disabled child was born, doctors
would often advise parents to institu-
tionalize the child or to take the child
home and love them because their

