The Forgotten Lives

The article “state schools raise the quality of life for the mentally retarded,” by Susan Payne, it’s quite excellent because she offers a serious of facts, statistics and credible opinions. She explains that mentally retarded are forgotten lives in the state schools, but not by their parents, caregivers, employees, mentors, volunteers, and friends. This people are simply forgotten by advocacy groups that make decisions ignoring the feelings and opinions of other, such as parents and relatives of the residents. Advocacy groups just want to go ahead and close the institutions and redirected the funding to community groups homes; however, Payne’s believes the “forgotten lives belong to the state school residents who are severely and profoundly mentally retarded, and have severe behavior differences and have ongoing medical needs.” She also claims that the supreme court of the United States reinforced the right of choice and closing state schools would take away choice. The advocacy groups just do not understand that state schools are necessary for the mentally ill people because it prolongs lives beyond their teens or early adulthood because they are maintained active all the time. They go shopping, to church, to dances, to theme parks, out to eat, to jobs and to life skills classes. Statistics from the Department of Aging and Disability shows that 54 percent have lived in the schools for more than 20 years; meanwhile, community groups disrupts the lives of the residents, families and the circle of worderful people that volunteer, and mentors that care for the state school residents. Payne’s definitely succeeds by saying that closing state schools for the mentally retarded would only cause suffering for those that already reside there and feel happy.

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/editorial/stories/09/28/0928payne_edit.html