Assistance for developmentally disabled.

About 75% of the 4.6 million developmentally disabled people in the US receive in-home care from family members without public-funded aid. But families are now seeking help in growing numbers. Aging parents, in particular, are finding that their own decline in physical stamina and health as well as the financial strain makes caretaking increasingly difficult. Many families with disabled children live with financial challenges, partly due to the child's medical and therapeutic costs and partly due to home demands that take time and energy from focusing on a career. "The poverty rate among families whose children have developmental disabilities is nearly twice the national average, according to a 1998 study by Glenn Fujiura, an associate professor at the University of Illinois," Clare Ansberry wrote in The Wall Street Journal (September 20, 2005).

In 2005, an estimated 80,000 developmentally disabled people in the US were waiting for in-home help or an opening in a group home. Their wait can last years. Part-time, in-home help (while parents work) costs an average of $19,000/year. Group home care costs an average of $68,000 per year, about half the cost of state institution care. Half of public funding for developmentally disabled persons comes from the federal government (mostly Medicaid); 46% comes from the state; and local governments pay about four percent. Most states give priority to those who live on their own, need 24-hour care, or are homeless. Increased demand for services, rising costs, and a lack of home care workers have propelled states to raise eligibility requirements and limit the number served.

Ansberry C. Needing assistance, parents of disabled resort to extremes. The Wall Street Journal. September 20, 2005; A1, A5.