FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 21, 2016
Governor addresses advocates and caregivers for developmental disabilities at the annual conference
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – Gov. Jay Nixon today addressed the Missouri Association of County Developmental Disability Services (MACDDS) conference to highlight the state’s progress on ensuring that Missourians with disabilities have access to services, employment and the resources needed to live independent lives.
Following his remarks, the Governor was presented with the MACDDS President’s Award, which included a plaque for his “extraordinary courage, persistence, vision and wisdom in bettering the lives and futures for individuals with developmental disabilities.” MACDDS is an organization of Senate Bill 40 Boards and affiliated public and private agencies that serve Missourians with developmental disabilities.
“I am honored to receive this award from an organization that does tremendous work helping Missourians with developmental disabilities lead healthier, happier and more independent lives,” Gov. Nixon said. “Working together, guided by our shared values, this state has become a national model for earlier access to vital services for those with developmental disabilities and we’ve eliminated the waiting list for services, making a lasting difference for thousands of Missourians.”
In 2010, Gov. Nixon created the Partnership for Hope, which provides home- and community-based services to Missourians with developmental disabilities and their families. The Partnership for Hope, the first of its kind in the nation, is now helping more than 4,100 people with developmental disabilities in 103 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis. When Gov. Nixon took office, many Missourians had to wait months or even years for the services they needed to live independently. Today, that waiting list has been eliminated.
The Fiscal Year 2017 budget signed by the Governor answers his call for historic investments in services for Missourians with developmental disabilities, mental illness and substance use disorders, increasing state and federal funding for the Department of Mental Health by more than $200 million. The budgetalso includes a 3 percent rate increase and rebasing for providers of services for Missourians with developmental disabilities, mental illness and substance use disorders, and an increase of $18.2 million to expand access to Crisis Residential Services for individuals whose conditions have become so severe that they can no longer be cared for in their homes.
Beginning in 2009, Gov. Nixon called on the Missouri General Assembly to pass legislation to prevent insurance companies from denying children with autism the coverage they desperately needed. In 2010, the Missouri General Assembly passed, and the Governor signed a landmark law which, for the first time, required insurance companies to cover one of the most highly effective types of therapy, Applied Behavioral Analysis, or ABA. Recently, the state’s annual autism report found that more Missouri children are benefiting from ABA than ever before.
Also included the Fiscal Year 2017 budget is $5 million to expand the Thompson Center for Autism, in Columbia and $500,000 to expand services at theMercy Kids Autism Center in St. Louis and St. Charles counties.
This past June, the Governor joined Truman State University President Troy Paino as well as educators, advocates, treatment providers and families to announce $5.5 million in state funding for a new Inter-Professional Autism Clinic at the former Greenwood Elementary School in Kirksville. The clinic will provide comprehensive autism services currently lacking in Kirksville and the surrounding area of northeast Missouri.
Today, United Cerebral Palsy ranks Missouri in the top ten in the nation for providing quality services that improve the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.
