Housing alternatives help people become independent

I am writing to follow up on Steve Twedt's Dec. 4 story on personal care homes ("The Fraying Safety Net: Retarded Spill Into Loosely Monitored Care"). I'm glad that Mr. Twedt began to show the public about life in a personal care home, because I don't think people in our community realize the struggles that those who live in these homes face.

I lived in a personal care home with more than 200 other people for over three years. I had very little privacy and no control over my personal space. I constantly had things of value stolen by other residents and staff: a cherished necklace, my shampoo, some laundry soap -- anything. I had very few options to move on. This is the kind of place where more than 1,000 people in Allegheny County who have a mental health disability live, as well as thousands more people across the state. We receive a monthly allowance of $60 for all of our living expenses: bus pass, personal items, cigarettes, entertainment and now even medication co-pays. It keeps us living at a poverty level.

After years of saving a few dollars per month, I was able to move out to my own apartment. I went to Community College of Allegheny County to become a certified nursing assistant, and I'm now a working, tax-paying member of my community. I'm no longer dependent, and now I'm involved and active in many organizations. Personal care homes are helpful in the short term, but people outgrow them. Unfortunately, there are too few options for people with mental health disabilities to move on and become independent.

The state must work to provide more housing options for people across the disability community.

LINDA HARRISON
Bloomfield

---

Appropriate care

My heart broke as I read Steve Twedt's Dec. 4 article "The Fraying Safety Net: Retarded Spill Into Loosely Monitored Care." These older retarded adults have nowhere to go. Their parents get old, become infirm themselves and die. Group homes are not enough because they are full. Assisted-living facilities are not equipped to handle the day-to-day complexity of serving a person who is mentally retarded. Caring for an elderly or physically challenged person is entirely different from caring for an individual with retardation or other mental handicap.

Our autistic twin sons, now 14, will soon be among the adult members of society who can contribute to the world but will need to have assisted-living services, each to his own degree of necessity. We are in the process of helping them go out into the world and have a life and contribute. Currently, they are students of the NHS Autism School in Westmoreland County. The school is working to raise funds for the Center of Excellence, a lifelong living facility that will educate, eventually house and help employ our twins.

Whether a person is mentally retarded, autistic or a slow-learner, they are as entitled to handicapped housing and accessibility living as those who are physically challenged. Pennsylvania will only continue to see an increase in need for mental health-appropriate residences.

It is our hope that the local and state governments will allot the millions of dollars necessary to allow for construction of large, apartment-size living facilities for these mentally-affected persons. And we hope these facilities will be willing to hire parents, siblings, cousins and other close relatives as employees. It is those who work day to day to serve and empower the mentally challenged who know how to care for them best.

JENNIFER L. ALWI
Pleasant Hills

---

We need options

Regarding Steve Twedt's Dec. 4 and 5 series "The Fraying Safety Net: Caring for the Mentally Retarded": I am the father of one of the children on the "emergency list," so this topic is dear to my heart. My son currently is in Western Psych. He has been since early September. The usual stay for children 13 years old is about 10 days. My son, though, has nowhere to go. He may be accepted into the RESPOND program sometime next year, maybe. He has been on the "emergency list" for a year and the "critical list" for eight to 10 years.

His violent episodes and our inability to handle these episodes has endangered our family and our other children. He has been rejected due to his violent nature by every residential treatment facility in the state. Therefore, for his safety and ours, he stays in Western Psych. There are no facilities to care for these types of children. If we cared for him at home, we would have to put him in a locked-down environment that would be deemed cruel. This is the only way to protect our other children from him and him from himself. We could not lock him up in such a way. If we did not lock him down, the Children, Youth and Families agency would say we were letting him abuse our other children. Either way we are wrong in the eyes of the state/county, and there are no agencies that can help.

So my son stays at Western Psych until someone can find a solution to where to send him. The main problem seems to be lack of service providers due to funding. No organizations want to assume the cost, nonprofit or otherwise. We cannot afford it, the insurance companies disallow it and the state does not fund it. He is too young for Social Security or Medicare, unless I quit my job and go on welfare. Even then there are no facilities that can handle him or want to handle him.

Keep up the good work on exposing the problems these individuals without a voice face every day.

MARTY SPICER
North Fayette

---

Courage in action

It is a sad day in America when a law enforcement officer's life is taken for nothing more than doing his job. My heartfelt sympathies go out to Cpl. Joseph Pokorny's family and colleagues ("Veteran State Police Officer Gunned Down During Routine Traffic Stop," Dec. 13). I also would like to thank the law officers who arrested a suspect so quickly after this heinous act.

May justice prevail, and America can sleep safer knowing courageous men and women like all these officers are protecting them on the homeland front.

H.N. CROFT
Wheeling, W.Va.

Editor's note: The writer is a sergeant in the Ohio County sheriff's office.

---

Improve safety

In Carnegie, at 2 a.m. on a dark Monday, yet another traffic stop -- this time by a Pennsylvania state trooper -- has resulted in that officer's senseless death. What is the solution? These men and women of law enforcement are constantly in the face of danger, and there is not enough public support to prevent these events from happening. We need better safety measures.

If there were a law mandating two officers to a car or at least a K-9 dog, which would allow more police control, it would be a safer situation. If a law were enacted that allowed full-spectrum lights to be shone at traffic stops at night, it would be a safer situation. If a law were passed that demanded that people step out of the car first and at police gunpoint, it would be a fair situation.

The public should be more than willing to do everything and anything necessary to protect those who are trying to protect us. The madness must stop.

LISA MILLER
Cameron, W.Va.

Editor's note: The writer is an emergency medical technician who has participated in search-and-rescue operations.

---

Agonizing wait

The Dec. 4 article "Medical Profession Looks for Way to Cure Rude, Uncaring Doctors" hit a raw nerve with me. It is heartening that the problem is considered or even discussed.

Recently, we sat in agony for three days in a local hospital waiting for word, any word, from the doctor on the condition of our loved one.

Where was the compassion? I do not expect the physician himself to hold our hand, but he could send word through a nurse. Maybe compassion should be a required course in medical school.

N.Z. MALACHIAS
Penn Hills

---

The state can raise conservation funds through activities other than killing

The fact that the number of hunting licenses sold in Pennsylvania is steadily dropping is a reason to celebrate, not a reason to worry or be concerned ("Hunting's Popularity Lagging in Pa.," Dec. 11).

Since the popularity of hunting has been falling for about 20 years, state game officials who think conservation programs paid for with hunting license fees are in danger should look to programs other than hunting to ease their fears, instead of encouraging children to use high-powered rifles.

By attaching fees to the sale of other outdoor equipment and activities such as hiking, boating and bird watching, they could easily raise the funding needed for these programs, and they would be doing it in a manner that conserves, rather than destroys, nature.

Very few people in Pennsylvania hunt for survival, which means hunting is little more than killing for a thrill. We should be happy that fewer people are choosing to hunt because this means we are moving toward a society where such blood lust is seen as cruel and unacceptable. It is unfortunate that rather than relinquishing their archaic notions of violence for fun, the state Game Commission wishes to put guns in the hands of children under the age of 12 and teach them how to kill.

CANDICE ZAWOISKI
Voices for Animals of Western Pennsylvania
Oakland