Coronavirus ravages services for people with disabilities, leaving many at risk [calmatters.org]

Rafael Maravilla(PACEs Connection Staff) 4/6/201:18 PM

By Dan Morain and Anita Chabria, Cal Matters, April 5, 2020

Sue Swezey, 83, has spent the last three weeks at home caring for her son John, who is 57 and severely autistic. John needs 24-hour supervision. He cannot cross a street safely. The other day, he used a metal fork to unstick a piece of bread stuck in an electric toaster. His mother rushed in to pull the plug.

Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, John Swezey and people like him with intellectual and developmental disabilities received state assistance through a network of 21 regional centers that funded programs that provided home health aides and other services. Those programs are now closed, and they could remain so for months.

That has left John Swezey confused and his mother struggling to get through each day.

[Please click here to read more.]

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