Nixon honored for helping developmentally disabled

OSAGE BEACH - As governor, Jay Nixon said he has discovered Missourians with the greatest challenges have the most to contribute if given the chance.

Nixon spoke Friday at the Missouri Association of County Developmental Disabilities Services (MACDDS) annual conference at Tan-Tar-A Resort. He discussed how his mother, who taught children with developmental disabilities for many years, wanted nothing more than to go back to the classroom when she was diagnosed with cancer. He said he was convinced the young people she worked with added at least six months to her life, and he learned from the determination to directly help people in the best way she could.

"When I say I try to live up to my mom's high expectations, it is not high expectations to be governor or be a famous person it has been when things were really important, deep down inside you know what to do, and you know where you are going to be most helpful," he said.

For Missourians with developmental disabilities, Nixon's decisions and actions made as governor during the last seven years have helped provide more affordable treatments, early detection, and increased services and healthcare. As a result, Nixon achieved an important outcome of his own - receiving the annual MACDDS President's Award.

"It was important to pick the governor because he has been such a champion for people with developmental disabilities," said MACDDS President Alecia Archer, who presented Nixon with the award Friday. "I wanted him to know, as he was going out of office, we have appreciated everything he has done on behalf of people with developmental disabilities."

MACDDS is a leader in local initiatives for people with developmental disabilities. The organization is comprised of 56 county boards (including the city of St. Louis) and eight related private organizations that provide local services for people with developmental disabilities. MACDDS is dedicated to ensuring quality community supports are available for people with developmental disabilities.

Nixon discussed the Partnership For Hope waiver, which began in October 2010 and 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.

The Partnership For Hope began with a $4 million grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to find solutions to the problem it ended up solving.

"Unless you have the intellectual power behind it, it wouldn't have happened. When it gets to the policy makers, instead of saying 'we got an idea of how it can help,' we could say, 'we have proof of how we can make a difference,'" Nixon said. "Partnership of Hope was the first of its kind in the nation. It ended the wait list. I would like to also thank the 103 counties involved.

"Five years after it started, and see how you all embraced it? You made it your own and made it work; it is stunning. We have had to put some money out there. But think about how much money that is going to save, how many lives have changed."

Beginning in 2009, 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 Nixon signed - a landmark law that, for the first time, required insurance companies to cover one of the most highly effective types of therapy, Applied Behavioral Analysis.

"Now, folks are in that treatment as we speak. That is progress. That is change," Nixon said at the conference.

The fiscal year 2017 budget signed by Nixon 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, according to Nixon.

The budget also 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 they can no longer be cared for in their homes, Nixon's office said.

"If we as a society are going to say we honor you and value citizens, and even citizens with challenges, then we need to respect you and the folks you work with by paying you the kinds of wages and salaries that you should have to have a beneficial, independent and economic career," Nixon said. "You can only go so far on charity. You are not overpaid, so the next generation needs to see these as careers that they can be in, they can do good things, do really hard things to help and also pay the bills. If you don't have that, you are going to run out of people that care and want to do it. I am proud of getting closer to where we need to be, but we are not at the finish line."