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The new goal of vocational rehabilitation programs

Independent living services
for the severely handicapped

By Roberta DeKay

The goals of federal-state vocational rehabilitation programs have changed over the past decade. Originally, the goal was to help handicapped persons get jobs, and state rehabilitation agencies usually did not provide benefits for people with severe handicaps. But the concept of rehabilitation has expanded to include independent living services for those who are severely disabled. This means the ability to live in one's own community and have access to its resources.

There are many barriers to this goal. Two major ones are the lack of accessible housing and transportation. Another is the need for trained attendant care in the home. A struggle in the U.S. Congress to expand rehabilitation programs to include the severely disabled resulted in a compromise in the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. Federal grants were made available to states to determine the needs of severely disabled people and locate services that could help them. The elderly were included in the survey because some of the services met their needs also.

James S. Jeffers, director of the Illinois Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), summed it up: "If we provide independent living services for these people they may be able to live more independently [without institutional care] and be less of a burden to family and community. The goal is maximum independence for that person."

In December 1977, a pilot project was begun for independent living services in Sangamon and Cass counties. The project was funded by DVR and a CETA (U.S. Comprehensive Employment Training Act) grant to the Sangamon-Cass consortium. In its first 10 months, the project put together a directory listing the services of 193 agencies in the counties, contracted realtors and landlords about the need for accessible housing and served 128 clients. The project became a clearinghouse for the referral and coordination of services. The agency was rated as one of the 35 most effective in Sangamon County by the U.S. Department of Labor.

DVR has received a $250,000 CETA grant from the Governor's Office of Manpower and Human Development for independent living services. The agency will continue a one-year needs assessment and planning program to develop independent living services on a statewide basis. But local CETA funding ran out for the Sangamon-Cass county pilot project late in 1978. The project, with the help of DVR, is still searching for a sponsoring agency to supply 10 per cent of the money needed to continue its work. DVR could then come up with the remaining 90 per cent.

Another effort to identify the needs and coordinate the services available on a statewide basis has been the establishment of the Disabled Individuals Assistance Line (DIAL). A collect call to (312) 793-5000 may be made Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to report any needs of any directly using this same number. DIAL had received over 2,000 calls in 1978. The largest number of calls have been from individuals asking how new legislation will affect them or what their legal rights might be.

February 1979/Illinois Issues/21


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