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KSL hopes lawmakers and all Utahns are paying more than passing attention to the public awareness push undertaken this legislative session by an organization that calls itself the Disability Community Alliance. All should be genuinely touched by the human needs crisis they are describing.
They were on Capitol Hill again Monday to tell their stories and encourage support for enough funding to significantly reduce the state's overwhelmed waiting list of people with disabilities for assistance.
These are people with cognitive and/or physical disabilities - nearly 2,000 of them - who want to remain in their homes with their families. They don't want to be institutionalized.
It's a family with a severely autistic child; an aging sister caring for her adult brother with Down syndrome; an accident victim with brain damage, yet with a desire to be productive. Most need 24-hour care, and those loved ones giving the care would benefit from occasional in-home help and respite from the daily grind.
Some have been on the waiting list, without help, for 20-years and more.
Obviously, the waiting list system devised by the state years ago isn't working. In KSL's view, it is a system in need of an overhaul, including enough funding to relieve the burdens of some of our most deserving neighbors.
