A new report from a senior advocacy group concludes two-thirds of Americans will be disabled at some time in their lives, and nearly every disabled person wants the kind of aid that’ll help them stay in their own homes. John Rother, the A-A-R-P’s policy director, says his group conducted a survey of the disabled and asked them about their lives, their communities and what they wanted to see changed. Rother says the A-A-R-P found cost and the availability of home-based caregivers were the biggest issues for the disabled.Rother says the biggest surprise in the survey was there almost of “universal desire for more control over money and who comes into the home” to help care for the disabled. He says today, the disabled generally have little control over those aspects of their care. Rother says there’s no system in place to deal with people who’re having problems getting the help they need, and no one who coordinates care to make sure all the pieces are there. He says there needs to be greater attention to community design. He says, for example, sidewalks make a big difference for the disabled and whether they can negotiate their way to the store or doctor’s office easily. The A-A-R-P hosted a seminar this morning in Des Moines to reveal results of the survey, and Rother says the group will press for changes that’ll help the disabled claim more control of their in-home care and improve the quality of that care.
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