1990s and Beyond: Equal Rights for All
Residents of State Hospitals Continue Moving Out
One of the last three residents to leave (top). The Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center (bottom).
Throughout the latter half of the 1990s, residents of state hospitals continued moving out and, eventually, all units were closed.
The last three residents of the Brainerd facility moved to supported living homes in Chisholm in 1999.
The drive for community-based services was completed in July 2000 when the last resident of a Minnesota state institution left the Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center.
Remember the Lessons
It is important that history does not repeat itself and that we remember the lessons we've learned.
The struggles of the past half century have taught us:
- Not to open any new institutions;
- To keep families together and allow individuals to make their own decisions;
- That all lives have value;
- That all people have a right to live free from abuse, neglect and injuries;
- No human being should have to surrender his or her liberty to receive necessary services and supports;
- That people with developmental disabilities have the right to both personal safety and liberty.
It is important that history does not repeat itself.
Video: Minnesota's Housing Access Services Program is successful in working with individuals with disabilities to find a home of their own in the community.
Governor Jesse Ventura
Today's state leaders must keep the momentum going. They are the ones who will see that even more dramatic progress is made in the future.
We had many partners in this effort: Governor Jesse Ventura, the legislature, state departments, local communities, parent organizations, advocates from throughout the system. All played an important part.
Using the language of his day, Senator Hubert Humphrey stated:
"The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; …and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped."
Video: Lyle Wray served as the first court appointed monitor for the Welsch case.
At the December 1, 2011 Fairness Hearing before United States District Court Judge Donovan Frank, the METO Settlement Agreement was accepted. The settlement was reached between the State of Minnesota and 300 developmentally disabled former residents of a state-run institution. The suit alleged that Minnesota Extended Treatment Options, a facility in Cambridge, frequently subjected patients with developmental disabilities to "improper and inhumane use of seclusion and mechanical restraints." Judge Frank issued the official Order on December 5, 2011.
Interviews on the METO Settlement and METO Settlement documents can be found at mn.gov/mnddc/meto_settlement.
The concept of self determination stems from ever-changing ways that we think about individuals with developmental disabilities, how these are reflected in national trends and developments, and how services and supports are organized and provided around them.
The paper, Self Determination and CDCS, authored by Bruce Kappel, discusses self determination and consumer directed community supports (CDCS) in Minnesota from 1990 – 2006, the role that individuals played in that process, and conditions that prompted some of those changes.