Kansans with disabilities face too many barriers. Help is available, but more needs to be done.

Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Rebecca Lyn Phillips is a published author, speaker and mental health advocate.

I didn’t know much about disabilities or advocacy groups like the Disability Rights Center of Kansas. However, when I became diagnosed with a mental illness at the ripe age of 18, I suddenly learned that the road ahead of me was going to be long and difficult.

There are obviously different types of disabilities. A mental illness is not an intellectual or developmental disability, and hearing impairment or mobility issues are different too. All of them pose challenges, and those challenges can be addressed with community involvement.

Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa was key in developing the Americans with Disabilities Act that the first President George Bush signed into law years ago. He was interviewed by Judy Woodruff on the PBS NewsHour awhile back about the advocacy work of Marca Bristo, who was paralyzed from the waist down after a diving accident.

She was the head of Access Living in Chicago, and Harkin spoke highly of her and all she did to help people with disabilities have worth and dignity.

Access Living does a lot to help advocate for those with disabilities. In Kansas, the Disability Rights Center is a legal advocacy group that helps fight battles for people with disabilities dealing with issues like losing Medicaid, getting unfairly evicted, voting issues, barriers to employment, abuse in nursing homes or group homes, and so much more. DRC executive director Rocky Nichols truly cares about people with struggles and has done so much, along with other staff members like Diane Woodard, and many others.

The list of barriers is long.

A huge issue made worse by the pandemic is the lack of home health care workers for folks with developmental or intellectual disabilities. Parents need to be able to go to work to provide for their families, and many have had to stay at home with their disabled child due to this lack of caregivers. It is a crisis.

DRC also helps with handling abuse in nursing homes. There are people who are stuck in psychiatric nursing homes and other types of living facilities who need freedom and a way out to independence and comfort. The DRC team has been instrumental in helping develop plans to get people out of these settings. There is no easy answer, but languishing in a nursing home isn’t the answer for sure.

KanCare, as Medicaid is known in Kansas, has had its own limits in providing coverage for folks with disabilities. People with developmental disabilities have very detailed and complex medical needs and it’s difficult to get full coverage. If folks have Social Security, many times they don’t have both Medicare and Medicaid. If they just have Medicaid coverage, that is very limiting. It’s a challenge for families with mounting medical bill debt. The bills just keep coming, and there is no hope in sight.

Housing is another obstacle. People with disabilities may have symptoms of mental illness — if that is their disability — and those problems may cause them to be evicted. They may have other issues or concerns with a leasing manager, but they don’t know what to do. Their apartment is their life, and they have to have a place to live.

Disabilities can cause so many problems and challenges. Thankfully, there are many people in Kansas who want to help.

Places like Breakthrough House, the Topeka Independent Living Resources Center and so many other places advocate for folks in need. We may not be directly affected by a disability, but we all know someone who is affected. The impact can be crushing and oppressive. There is hope, however, if we learn to work together to fix problems and find solutions.

We can problem solve and learn to move forward, hand in hand, side by side.  The sun will shine again for folks with disabilities.

Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.