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[music playing]
[Shirley Sowizral] Anthony has been institutionalized since
as early as -- his first institution occurred when
he was 15 years old.
[Shirley Sowizral] His diagnosis is schizophrenia.
He does have a pica component to his diagnosis,
"pica" meaning that he has a tendency to eat inedible objects
such as cigarette butts and things like that.
Anthony, currently his age is 65 and, as most people as they get
older, their bodies tend to cause more medical problems.
What we're seeing with Anthony now is not necessarily all
of the psychiatric problems, but more medical problems that
are occurring with him.
[Dan Hoy] What has happened with the older population with people
like Anthony is we haven't been able to really support all the
medical needs they would have in the community.
With younger people, we address their behavioral needs and they
have few medical needs.
So, what we saw with "Money Follows the Person"
was the opportunity to put the two things together,
to be able to serve his behavioral needs as well as
his medical needs.
[Karen Morton] We have so many parts of our system that have been
so engrained for such a long time based on regulation,
policy, practice, perception.
I think trying to take, you know, that on through the
"Money Follows the Person," this is a rebalancing demonstration.
I think a portion of the rebalancing really comes
into taking a look at rebalancing, you know,
what a person wants and having them have more control
and choice over the services and supports that they need.
[Shirley Sowizral] One of the things that I've been talking with Anthony
about is the possibility of him leaving the facility and getting
out into the community.
Anthony has expressed a concern that he would like to be able
to watch baseball, which is a big thing for him.
[Gretchen Hathaway] Anthony is a very social individual.
He loves to be with other people.
He loves to talk with other people.
He loves to socialize with other people.
From the first day I met him back in 1986,
I remember it very well because he talked about --
he was talking about cars, and he was all very interested
in knowing about the car that I drove.
And he also talked about how he wanted to have a car,
how he wanted to live in the community.
[Dan Hoy] I think the people in our state hospitals,
most of them could live in the community, some with more
supports than others.
And I really believe in the principle of recovery,
that people can make their own choices and that they really
need an opportunity that we've not really given them.
[Gretchen Hathaway] Individuals with severe, persistent mental illness
can live in the community.
It is the responsibility of our society to provide those
supports for individuals so that they can live the life
that they deserve to live.
[Shirley Sowizral] I've often looked at Anthony and thought if only there
were enough resources for him, he would be someone that would
do very well in the community.
I wish Anthony the best and I'm going to miss him a lot,
but this is a wonderful chapter that's opening up for him.
[Gretchen Hathaway] He has continued to talk about wanting to live
in the community, and I'm glad that this is going to be able
to come true for him.
[Karen Morton] One of the greater values is going to be able to, you know,
essentially steal, you know, very good information and
experience from the different program offices about what
works and apply it to, you know, the rebalancing of the
long-term care system.
[Dan Hoy] So it's actually been a system transformation in a way
and a partnering that's not occurred before.
So "Money Follows the Person" was the link that we needed
to bring these services together.