Welcome to your
"Olmstead in Iowa" Headquarters!

In the Olmstead Decision (1999), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it is illegal to force individuals with disabilities to live in institutions to receive services they would be able to receive in community settings with the appropriate supports. This means individuals with disabilities have the right to receive services in settings of their choice.

This website provides information and resources to assure the ability of Iowans with disabilities to choose where, and with whom, they live.

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UPDATES

The next meeting of the Olmstead Consumer Task Force is scheduled to take place on Friday, March 5, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the United Way of Central Iowa in Des Moines.

Olmstead Supreme Court Decision 10th Anniversary Celebrations

This summer Iowa's Olmstead Consumer Task Force in partnership with Iowa Centers for Independent Living in Council Bluffs, Oskaloosa, Waterloo, Iowa City and Rock Island, Illinois, the Iowa Statewide Independent Living Council, the Iowa Department of Human Services, and the University of Iowa's Center for Disabilities and Development held a series of Town Hall meetings throughout the state to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Olmstead Supreme Court Decision. The meetings brought together a total of 225 individuals with disabilities, family members, providers, policy makers and other community members interested in hearing from people with disabilities how this decision has helped them remain independent, and become involved in promoting the home- and community-based services philosophy of the Olmstead Decision. Keynote speakers included Department of Human Services Director Charles Krogmeier and State Senator Robert Dvorsky.

A needs assessment at each celebration revealed what's working and what's not working for individuals with disabilities. To learn more: Needs Assessment Summary

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Money Follows the Person (MFP) in Iowa

Iowa was awarded $51 million of federal funding to help 528 people living in Intermediate Care Facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ICFs/MR) transition into the community. This MFP funding provides for extra supports and services for individuals to help them set up their households, and find work or other meaningful ways to spend their time in the community. Transitions began September 2008, and since that time, 44 individuals have transitioned into the community. To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the first person's move to the community through MFP, we put together a list of "firsts" this individual has accomplished since he left the institution a year ago. Powerful, profound and simply ordinary things which many take for granted appear on his "firsts" list:

• Scheduled his own dentist, eye doctor and doctor appointments
• Got an Identification Card
• Cooked dinner for his mother
• Bought a cell phone, and budgets and pays his own phone bills
• Participated in Special Olympics
• Stayed overnight in a hotel
• Had "alone time" (not his first alone time, but probably the first in seven years)
• Chose his own house - first move on his own
• Went grocery shopping
• Opened his first bank account
• Developed his first budget
• Assumed account balancing responsibility
• Was hired for his first hourly job - making minimum wage

For additional information about the Money Follows the Person program, see the Iowa Medicaid Enterprise (IME) website.

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Consumer Choices Option

The Iowa Medicaid Enterprise has announced that friends and some family members can be hired as caregivers under Iowa's Consumer Choice Option, a Medicaid program that went into effect statewide September 2007.

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Iowans with Disabilities in Action

The Governor’s Developmental Disabilities Council has launched Iowans with Disabilities in Action (ID Action), a non-partisan organization through which Iowans with disabilities can have a stronger voice in Iowa politics.