Federal oversight ends over how state cares for intellectually disabled
NASHVILLE — Tennessee officials on Friday celebrated the end of nearly 25 years of federal oversight of the state’s care of its intellectually and developmentally disabled citizens.
The move came after U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. dismissed the case and entered an order saying all parties agreed that state government had complied with “all material obligations” of the court-approved exit plan to improve services and quality of life for those served in a case originally brought in 1995.
“We have fundamentally changed the way we serve some of our most vulnerable citizens in Tennessee,” said Gov. Bill Haslam, who inherited the lawsuit that three previous governors grappled with.
The state closed in May the last of its four developmental centers, having spent some $300 million to improve conditions there, then shifting services from massive institutions to home- and communitybased care settings.
Haslam said he is “grateful for the tireless work of so many people to get to this point and ultimately improve the lives of thousands of Tennesseans with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”
As a result of the litigation, state officials say, Tennessee now has nationally recognized “quality assurance and protection from harm programs” that support people with intellectual disabilities. In fact, the administration says, the state’s programs have become a national model.
Problems began brewing in 1992 when federal officials sent a team of experts to a state facility and raised alarms about how children and adults were effectively being warehoused.
Then-Gov. Ned McWherter’s administration brushed aside concerns, officials now say.
Later the U.S. Justice Department and the People First of Tennessee sued over conditions at three developmental centers.
People First of Tennessee filed the lawsuit in 1995. Alarmed federal officials later filed their own case over dismal conditions at the state’s three developmental centers: Clover Bottom Developmental Center in Nashville; Greene Valley Developmental Center in Greeneville; and Nat T. Winston Developmental Center in Bolivar.
A second lawsuit was filed against the Arlington Developmental Center near Memphis. That was dismissed in 2013. Three centers were closed and the fourth, Greene Valley Developmental Center, was finally closed this spring. Clover Bottom, which once housed 1,500 people, was closed in 2015.
Tennessee no longer has any centers. The state provides care for an estimated 8,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through residential settings in mostly small group homes. Another 4,000 are served at home through a family support program.
“By every measure possible, the transformation has been a remarkable success,” People First of Tennessee attorney Judith Gran said in a statement. “Tennessee has one of the best community services in the nation, providing services and support in a rich array of programs.”
Debra K. Payne, Tennessee’s commissioner of the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, heartily agreed with that assessment in a news conference with Haslam and the governor’s chief deputy, Jim Henry.
Henry, a former commissioner of the department and one-time state lawmaker, had been a parent with a child who had intellectual and developmental disabilities. While his child was not at a state center, he became an advocate for the disabled decades ago.
Payne recalled to reporters the shock she received when she showed up to work as a volunteer at Clover Bottom as a 14-yearold student in 1968.
“To walk in the halls and to see countless people in the institutions lined up against the walls, nothing to do all day,” Payne said. “Staff were at a minimum at that time. They were desperately trying to feed people, keep them clean.”
She described how workers took her to a huge room filled with children and asked her take one out for a walk. As children clung to her, she worried how to decide which one to take with her. She wound up leaving the room with the most stubborn one who refused to let go.
Payne said her experiences inspired her to make helping persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities her lifelong career and mission.
The Justice Department investigation was spurred by “a number of deaths that could be attributed to neglect,” Payne said. But state officials back then refused to deal with making changes, so it all wound in court.
“That was the minimum of care back then. It’s so much different today,” said Payne, later adding, “this lawsuit has really taken Tennessee from probably the worst services to the best.”
Haslam said after listening to his chief of staff Henry’s stories of those times, he agreed “We deserved to be sued.”
Henry choked as he described seeing conditions in state facilities years ago where residents would be undressed for the state’s version of bathing.
Staffers would “run them through what they called the ‘car wash,’” Henry said. “They’d hose them down just like you would cars and then rinse them off. You can imagine the situation that was ... and the degradation that it caused people.”
On Friday, Justice Department officials praised Tennessee officials and advocates for resolving the case.
“Together, we have pursued this case to enforce the important rights of people with disabilities and to treat these individuals with dignity,” Assistant Attorney General John M. Gore said in a news release.
In January 2015, the parties agreed to a plan to exit the suit in which the department and TennCare agreed to complete nine final sections of requirements. Those were done and include:
› Developing training for law enforcement officers who may come into contact with persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities;
› Authoring training for licensed physicians, caregivers and families to improve outcomes of medical care for people with disabilities;
› Revising individual support plans;
› Establishing behavioral respite homes in East and Middle Tennessee; and
› Closing Greene Valley Developmental Center.