How Well NC Supports People With Developmental Disabilities

North Carolina is among the nation’s worst states when it comes to supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. That’s according to a new report published Thursday by the American Network of Community Options and Resources, known as ANCOR, and United Cerebral Palsy.

In the annual report, “The Case of Inclusion,” the authors assess every state based on 30 measures that they say illustrate how well state programs serve people with developmental disabilities. The metrics are broken down into five key areas: promoting independence, promoting productivity, keeping families together, serving those in need and tracking health, and safety and quality of life. The “promoting independence” category accounted for half of all possible points because, the authors stressed, “if a person is living in the community, it is a key indicator of inclusion.”

North Carolina ranked 41st in the country among all states in efforts to serve individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Here’s what the researchers had to say:

“North Carolina has taken no significant steps to improve policies that help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities lead more independent and productive lives, resulting in a continued poor showing in state rankings compiled by the ANCOR Foundation and United Cerebral Palsy (UCP),” ANCOR said in a statement. “The biggest factors affecting North Carolina’s continued poor showing were its relatively high percentage of individuals living in large, state-run institutions and its relatively low competitive employment rates.”

The top performing states were scattered throughout the West, Midwest and parts of the Northeast. Arizona ranked No.1 on the list with 86 points, followed by Oregon and Vermont.

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Here are the 10 best states:

1. Arizona, 86
2. Oregon, 85.1
3. Vermont, 83.3
4. Missouri, 81.7
5. Kentucky, 81.2
6. Hawaii, 81.0
7. New Hampshire, 80.0
8. Ohio, 79.4
9. California,79.1
10. South Dakota, 79.0

“Individuals with I/DD, including the young and the aging, want and deserve the same opportunities and quality of life as all Americans. Yet some states do much better than others in demonstrating the needed political will and implementing the sound policies and focused funding necessary to achieve this ideal,” the report stated.

Interestingly, just 40 points separate the highest- and lowest-ranking states, and just 14 points separate the No. 1 performer from No. 25. That likely explains why several states were able to make significant gains in this year’s report. The researchers highlighted Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Washington, D.C., Kentucky, Nebraska and Oregon as success stories. Washington, D.C. led the way, jumping 38 spots, followed by Missouri (37), Ohio and Kentucky (both 35).

These states dramatically improved their rank by significantly increasing the number of people served in home-like settings, closing state institutions and reporting outcomes for the National Core Indicators survey, which assesses the quality of such services. Several also added a Medicaid buy-in program to support coverage when individuals work and increase their earnings.

Also of note in the report, the researchers found that despite significant progress over the last 10 years to help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities integrate into their communities, those efforts have stalled — or even regressed — in recent years. Just 29 states said that 80 percent or more of these individuals were served in a home-like setting. This includes a family home, their own home or a small group setting. Furthermore, just 15 states have closed all their large state institutions and the number of people nationwide on wait lists for HCBS services actually increased by 75,000 from the 2016 report to nearly 424,000.

Most of the data used in the report is from 2016, while the most recent data comes from credible, national sources, the authors said.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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