State Supported Living Centers (SSLC) are an increasingly inefficient and ineffective system of care for those with intellectual disability and/or developmental disabilities (ID/DD). The current state-run, institutional system is a Medicaid-funded program that suffers from higher provider rates, but lower quality of care than privatelyrun community-based facilities. While the regulating agency, the Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS), has made tremendous progress in moving individuals from SSLCs to community care, consolidation of the facilities has yet to occur in Texas. The resulting lower census per facility has increased costs per resident and the aging structures require high maintenance costs. Overall, the SSLC system is failing financially and failing their patients.
Hot Plates, Neon Pineapples, and SNAP Swindling
For a Californian like me, the first time encountering a “Koolickle” is an unsettling experience. Stepping inside the local mom-and-pop gas station to fill up my gas tank and being asked if I have ever tried a Kool-Aid pickled cucumber put me on my heels. “It looks like it’s glowing,” I mumble to the lady...