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I swim for 75 minutes a medley of strokes for my mental & physical health at 5 am. I read yesterday that Cryptosporidium is highly resistant to chlorine. I am not happy about this. No, I do not swallow water, but nevertheless, I didn’t go this morning. I am the primary caregiver for 2 medically fragile individuals & I realize this isn’t a contagious condition in the traditional sense, but I am freaking out a bit. Does anyone have any encouraging words to help me feel more comfortable about this?

Discrimination against us will never be taken seriously. We’re just not trendy enough for anyone to care. I mean when people look at a disabled person, the first thing they think about is how hard it must be for their family, rather than seeing the disabled person as an individual.

We sometimes deal with resentful family members and partners. Our friendships often don’t last for various reasons, and, of course, there are myriad health issues that often become roadblocks.

Yesterday, I woke up optimistic & it began as a good day, the 1st I have had in maybe 9 months , but really the good part only lasted about 10 minutes. I am not full of rage, I am a defeated robot-like shell of a person who acts like everything is great in real life because people think I should abandon my caregiving duties or are critical about things of which they have no clue.

This morning am awakened with angry yelling, impatience & behaviors likely related to pain. The hours, days, months & years are indistingushable.

I hope for nothing but good days for all of y’all & I hope you have a better day than mine has begun.

✌🏻

Caregiving is in my opinion the most important job on the planet. The amount of resentment, anger, frustration and hopelessness being expressed shows that it‘s obvious undervaluing is taking its toll. Recently it seems that attacking each other is becoming more common, I don’t think this is helping anyone, for sure it’s not helpful to me. I don’t have the answers except to VOTE & expose yourself to uplifting situations when at all possible. I have been so burned out & self destructive in the past but for 14 years now (out of the 22) I have made myself do what it takes to get out of that negative mindset which feeds on itself. I have bad days FOR SURE, but I don’t take it out on those around me & I will not accept another caregiver on a reddit post doing this to me. Sooooo, have the best day you’re able & know that ultimately, I only want good things for you & yours. ✌🏻

We got our complete 12 Golden package yesterday! So much joy it’s generated! Thank you Gene & Deaner. All praise the mighty Boognish!

Keepin’ it Brown in this town 🐴

Alliance for Rights and Recovery’s Statement on
DOJ Memo Attacking the Olmstead Integration Mandate

The Alliance for Rights and Recovery strongly condemns the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel’s recent memorandum attacking the longstanding understanding of the Olmstead integration mandate. The landmark Olmstead v. L.C. decision clarified the right of people with disabilities to live, work, and participate fully in their communities and has guided efforts to expand community-based services for over 30 years.

This memo from the DOJ is a dangerous and deeply disturbing attempt by the federal administration to undermine one of the nation’s most important civil rights protections for people with disabilities, including people with mental health challenges, substance use disorders, intellectual, developmental, physical, and sensory disabilities.

For nearly three decades, the Supreme Court’s decision in “Olmstead v. L.C.” has stood for the principle that unjustified segregation of people with disabilities is discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The decision affirmed that people with disabilities have the legal right to receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs when community-based services are appropriate, desired by the person, and can be accessed via reasonable accommodations.

That understanding has long been reinforced by courts, federal regulations, enforcement actions, settlement agreements, disability rights organizations, and administrations and legislators of both political parties.

The DOJ memo attempts to rewrite that history. It argues that neither Title II of the ADA nor Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act imposes an integration mandate on states and claims that the Olmstead v L.C. decision did not require states to serve people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.

In effect, the administration is attempting to narrow the Olmstead v. L.C. mandate to a much weaker rule that would only prohibit institutionalization when it lacks a rational justification. This vague standard could be interpreted so broadly that almost any state decision to institutionalize someone could be justified, dramatically weakening one of the nation’s most important civil rights protections for people with disabilities. This position stands against decades of legal precedent and the lived experience of people with disabilities who have fought for the right to live, work, learn, recover, and participate in their communities.

It is important to be clear: this memo does NOT eliminate the Olmstead mandate. It does not repeal the ADA. It does not repeal Section 504. It does not erase federal integration regulations. It does not overrule the Supreme Court. It does not bind federal judges. The rights of people with disabilities to challenge segregation and institutionalization remain in place!

However, the memo can still cause serious harm. It may signal that the current Department of Justice will reduce or abandon enforcement of Olmstead protections. It may encourage states to slow, weaken, or reverse efforts to expand home and community-based services. It may be used by states or institutions in litigation to argue for narrower protections. It may also embolden policymakers who want to respond to mental health crises, homelessness, substance use, aging, and disability by expanding institutionalization rather than investing in the community-based services people need to live safely and successfully.

Courts are likely to continue applying existing Olmstead precedent, and the memo itself acknowledges that its interpretation is out of step with how federal courts have understood the law. But we cannot ignore the threat. When the federal government signals that it no longer believes people with disabilities have a right to community integration, states, counties, providers, and advocates must respond forcefully.

The Alliance urges our members and partners to take action:

• Contact your members of Congress and urge them to publicly reject the DOJ memo, defend the Olmstead v. L.C. mandate, and support legislation codifying the integration mandate into federal law.
• Engage state leaders, including governors, Medicaid agencies, mental health authorities, disability agencies, and county officials, and demand clear commitments that they will not use this memo as an excuse to reduce home and community-based services or increase reliance on institutionalization.
• Document any denial, reduction, or redirection of community-based services toward institutionalization, and connect affected individuals with Protection and Advocacy organizations, legal services, and disability rights advocates.
• Submit public comments, attend state and local meetings, and push for greater investment in housing, peer support, crisis alternatives, employment supports, home and community-based services, and voluntary mental health and substance use services.

This moment is a reminder that rights are only protected when people organize to defend them. The Alliance stands with the disability rights community, the mental health and substance use recovery movements, people with lived experience, families, providers, and advocates across the country who refuse to return to a time when people with disabilities were hidden away in institutions, denied autonomy, and separated from their communities.

While this memo represents a disturbing turn from the federal administration, it does not end our fight or the ADA’s promise. We must continue working through the courts, Congress, state governments, and local systems to fully implement the Olmstead integration mandate. That means expanding the voluntary, community-based services people need to avoid institutionalization, supporting people to leave institutions without having to go back, and ensuring every person has the housing, healthcare, peer support, crisis response, employment, and community supports needed to live with dignity in the communities of their choice.

The Alliance for Rights and Recovery will continue fighting to protect civil rights, advance recovery, oppose institutionalization, and build systems that support people in the most integrated setting possible, their own communities!

I have had a very difficult week. Too many appointments, unusual health issues occurring, & holidays, oh how I dread them….They highlight how isolated my family is. It’s the 5 year anniversary of my husband’s triple bypass and he’s a health nut now that is incapable of making any situation not about himself. Our son Truly needs help with everything all the time & I am feeling wilted under the criticism which is unwarranted, I never stop moving & when my husband gets called out on it he backtracks, but his personality has changed so much. This is a rant! Swimming laps each morning keeps the depression at bay, but I just read that to pool is closed temporarily due to pump failure. Bad morning, I feel robotic & the air quality is poor so I cannot go outdoors. f$&k me I’m falling apart

There is a change dot org petition regarding the Olmstead act

• JULIA MÉTRAUXReporterBio

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller allegedly pushed for the DOJ's dubious legal memo on institutionalization.Francis Chung/Politico/AP

On Thursday, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) will introduce a resolution that calls for the Department of Justice to rescind a memo issued last week that contests the longstanding interpretation of the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead v. L.C. decision, a landmark case that limits states’ power to compel people to live in psychiatric and other institutions, such as nursing homes.

“I am not going to let this administration move us back to a time when people were ripped out of their communities, ripped out of their homes against their wills, and forced into institutions,” Duckworth told me in an interview.

The DOJ memo itself does not change the law, but it may influence how the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services approach agreements and programs that help disabled people live in their communities, outside institutions. Following the release of the memo, HHS took down its webpage on Olmstead and community living.

The slip opinion, which Bloomberg Law reported was allegedly driven by the demands of ultra-right Trump advisor Stephen Miller, was met with immediate backlash from disability advocates and legal experts. As George Washington University law professor Alison Barkoff told me when I covered the opinion last week, the Trump administration’s “interpretation is completely inconsistent with virtually all courts” with respect not only to the interpretation of Olmstead but also that of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which the Olmstead decision builds on. That also greatly concerns Duckworth.

“This is taking us back to a time when there were forced lobotomies in this country,” Duckworth said. “We just cannot let that happen.”

The resolution is also co-sponsored by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), among others. The DOJ opinion, the resolution says, “rejects the integration mandate and threatens the hard-won progress towards full integration of individuals with disabilities into society in the United States,” compounded by GOP cuts to Medicaid-funded home and community-based services, which will also force more disabled people into institutions. The resolution also calls for the US government to recognize the importance of fulfilling Olmstead and a reversal of Medicaid cuts.

“This is clearly the ableism that exists in this administration that starts with Donald Trump, the president,” Duckworth told me. “He’s the guy who looked at wounded veterans, amputees, and said those guys are suckers and losers.”

Olmstead‘s integration mandate, Duckworth emphasized to me, is “critically important to our society.”

“We cannot be a leader of the free world if we continue to segregate groups of people in our own country, whether it is through racism or through ableism,” Duckworth

Even though I am burned out, tired and getting older by the minute, I realize what a privilege it is to care for my LO. I believe this memo that I read last week is an attempt to make having a disability illegal, take away SSI & eventually force homelessness eventually leading to filling up the private prison system that this administration is committed to. I am committed to my son & he is a joy creator & I am feeling like we are living in the most cruel timeline possible. It’s not like I am not exhausted & stressed out to begin with. The cruelty is unbearable.