The National Council on Disability has a deinstitutionalization toolkit:
NCD’s Deinstitutionalization Toolkit is designed to provide all those interested in institutional closures and expanded community living opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) with information, strategies, state data, and case studies that can facilitate closure and build community capacity to serve more people with ID/DD in the community.
Among other things, it explains
aspects of federal law:
To date, three federal statutes govern the rights of individuals who are institutionalized: the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Rehab Act), and the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 (CRIPA). These statutes serve as the bases of legal action for the rights of a person with an intellectual disability or developmental disability (ID/DD) and are critical to the deinstitutionalization process. As noted below, only the Department of Justice (DOJ) can bring litigation under CRIPA, although people with disabilities and their advocates may file complaints with DOJ requesting that DOJ investigate possible CRIPA, ADA, and Rehab Act violations. People with disabilities and their advocates can also file ADA and Rehab Act complaints with their regional Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It also lays out
basic steps of a strategy:
- Develop a broad-based, well-organized coalition.
- Explore legal remedies
- Become experts in Medicaid, the federal Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services Waiver, and the Affordable Care Act.
- Build your case with faces, not facts.
- Line up leadership.
- Analyze the political environment.
- Seek out groups or individuals with different perspectives.
- Use timely and targeted communication, public education, and media relations.
- Advocate for quality assurance standards to protect health and safety of people living in community-based settings.
- Include specific implementation steps in closure plans
