Suit Seeks Placement of Disabled Adults

BOSTON — For the elderly parents of more than 100,000 mentally retarded adults across the country, there is no empty nest.

Because of long waiting lists for Medicaid-funded homes and day-care programs, many parents, some in their 60s and 70s, are still taking care of their mostly helpless adult children.

On Friday, advocates for the retarded in Massachusetts filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court to end the wait.

They are demanding that the state help 3,000 disabled adults, many of whom have waited more than 10 years for a place in a program that will take care of them. The plaintiffs are asking for an injunction forcing the state to act within 90 days.

The lawsuit was inspired by a recent federal case in Florida, where the state was ordered to help thousands of retarded residents immediately or risk losing Medicaid funds, said Boston lawyer Neil McKittrick.

“These people are legally entitled to these services, and they shouldn’t have to wait any longer,” McKittrick said.

One plaintiff, 61-year-old Christina Anderson of New Bedford, said she has waited a decade for a residential program for her 41-year-old daughter, Valerie, who is retarded, deaf and legally blind.

She has been told repeatedly that her daughter is ineligible because she is not considered a “crisis” case with nowhere else to turn, Anderson said.

“We’re up against a stone wall,” the retired factory worker said. “I don’t know what my own health needs will be, and I’d like to know she will be taken care of.”

Lawrence Tummino, assistant commissioner for the state Department of Mental Retardation, said the state has earmarked $15 million a year over the next three years to bring the waiting list down from 3,400 in 1997 to 2,700 by next year.

After that, he said, the state will spend more than $50 million over six years to eliminate the waiting list for residential and day programs for the retarded.

“I think we’ve done quite well, but I know we have more to do,” Tummino said.

The immediate action demanded by the federal lawsuit would be disruptive and unwieldy, he said.

But immediate action is what’s needed for the estimated 52,000 retarded adults who need housing support and 65,000 who need daytime or work support programs nationwide, the National Assn. for Retarded Citizens said.

“They’re talking about the year 2007,” said Leo Sarkissian, executive director of the Assn. of Retarded Citizens of Massachusetts, who estimated $100 million would be needed to solve the state’s problem within the next four years. “What does that mean for a caretaker in their 70s?”

But he said increased lobbying across the country is having some effect.

In response to several lawsuits, the Florida Legislature is evaluating a $200-million budget proposal to establish more housing and programs for the retarded. New York is hammering out a five-year, $129-million plan to help 4,900 retarded adults on waiting lists.

Mary Ann Boulet, 68, of Sharon said she hopes the Massachusetts lawsuit will cut through 15 years of red tape in getting her 40-year-old son, who is retarded and needs constant supervision for seizures, into a group home.