A Crisis in the lives of adults with disabilities

I am a parent of 2 adults with disabilities - one who can live independently with significant supports, and one who requires 24/7 X 365 line-of-sight supervision.

What is the problem? There is a crisis of housing, service and care provision, not only in Colorado, but across these United States. There is high demand, not enough funding, and an infuriating, complex infrastructure that is difficult to impossible to navigate.

There is a dangerous shortage of available Host Homes, Direct Service Providers and Caregivers. To become a HHome provider one has to climb mountain of rules, regulations, and restrictions. They don't have options for respite for themselves unless they are in crisis. Direct Service Providers are not being paid a living wage. The Day Programs are severely underfunded with regards to reimbursement rates.

We cannot stem demand, it will only increase as we cannot predict how many individuals with disabilities will be born in the future, and a large percentage of current caregivers are aging parents.

More funding, IF we can reduce the complexity and duplication across agencies and implement workable solutions, because the same amount of funding would go farther.

The infrastructure, the system that we are forced to work in can only be changed if the government is willing to champion the effort.

What would help? Listening sessions just like this one on what the highest priority problems are, and suggested solutions. Do a feasibility study on the top one and implement the best option. It would potentially have a beneficial downstream affect on the other issues.

Those of us who live this everyday are the "experts in the field". We can help solve the problems, and you would be the heroes!

Thank you for your time and consideration.