Behind the Walls of Integration
Dan Fazzini, Ph.D.
President, Ability and Choice Services, Inc.
Guest Speaker – UACS Spring Conference
April 24th 1996
Most people believe that community integration is moving into a community-based living arrangement. Not true. Integration cannot simply be defined by a fence or a wall. It must also include the person’s insertion & participation into and with their surroundings, for integration is not only a physical barrier but a psychological one as well.
Many persons are physically integrated into their community, yet they are totally isolated from other persons or activities. The most obvious example of this can be seen with our elderly parents as their mobility decreases. They may still live in their own home, but they never leave it. Their friends have passed away, they have groceries delivered, never go shopping or to the show, and we only occasionally call or go by to check on them. Is this integration?
Person’s -with developmental disabilities have taken a similar path in which there were many false guideposts saying, “integration has occurred.” First, large institutions were transformed into smaller ones; large dorms were divided into small living spaces within the same dorm room. Then many persons were transferred to smaller institutions which were integrated in the community, called nursing homes. Next, we constructed mini-institutions in the community, 32-bed and 16-bed facilities built in local neighborhoods. This was followed by the smaller homes, the 8-bed homes. Then the concept of supported living was developed, one to four persons living together in their own apartment or house. Now, most recently we have family integration, where the person lives and recreates with a real family. But these are only the physical components of integration.
The psychological barriers of integration have been slower to fall, primarily because they were harder to identify and much more difficult to achieve. True integration is more than changing city ordinances and placing persons next to services which they cannot or are not allowed to participate in. True integration is about attitudes and prejudices, and not only those of the “neighbors.” It is also about the attitudes and prejudices of the segregated workshop operators, who do not want to develop supported employment opportunities because they have an investment to protect. It is about State officials who may resist change because it may affect their job stability. It is about State budgets, because true community (programmatic) integration may not always be cheaper, even though it is most certainly better. It is about the neighbors, who both agency staff and State officials never take the time to educate. And finally, it is about the parents, who may still be experiencing guilt feelings and there never seems to be sufficient funds allocated for their adjustment to a life with or without their child.
The total community integration of persons with developmental disabilities has never really been about walls. It has always been about attitudes, prejudices, money, and personal agendas.
Dan Fazzini earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1972, has since worked extensively with the developmentally disabled, and is President of Ability and Choice Services, Inc. He was a Research Associate at the Waisman Center in Wisconsin, the Program Director at the Waukegan Developmental Center in Illinois, and Director of state-operated facilities in Ohio and Idaho. He also owns and operates a Day-Treatment & Case Management program in Idaho.