MEDIA: Editorial by Stacy Dym urges protection of community services

/in , , /by Katie Gustainis

The Seattle Times published a powerful guest editorial by Stacy Dym, Executive Director of The Arc of Washington State. Read the beginning here and the rest at this link: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/wa-should-offer-people-with-disabilities-dignity-choice/

WA should offer people with disabilities dignity, choice

December 18, 2025, The Seattle Times, by Stacy Dym

“Pink-painted walls. A cat. The freedom to eat popcorn while you watch your favorite TV show. These aren’t luxuries, but they felt that way to my sister when she was finally moved from a state institution for the developmentally disabled into a community-based group home almost 40 years ago.

Thanks to the expansion of state home and community-based services (HCBS), she was allowed to waive her so-called “right” to live in a restrictive institutional environment. Instead, she could choose a home in the community that gave her freedoms most of us take for granted while still providing the care she needed.

Dignity, for her, was as simple as a choice.

Today, 78% of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Washington state live with family for the majority of their lifetime. This is largely because there’s nowhere else for them to go.

Although large institutions are no longer the norm, home and community-based services have never received a comparable level of investment in our state. Today, almost one-third of people with IDD who’ve been identified by the state are still waiting for a chance to live in the community.

When family resources run dry, caregivers age or someone gets sick (and they will), crisis is imminent. For people with complex health or behavioral needs, many get stuck for years in the hospital, state institutions or unfit environments that were never meant to be permanent placements.

Now, as our Legislature stares over a fiscal cliff, people with developmental disabilities and their families are terrified about what lies ahead…” (Read the rest at this link).