October 14, 1996
Contact: Jan Rosemergy, (615) 322-8240, or Ann Marie Deer Owens, (615) 322-2706
New Community Roundtable series at Kennedy Center
to focus on disability issues
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The quality of care in Tennessee's institutions
for persons with developmental disabilities will be discussed at 4 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 17, at Vanderbilt's John F. Kennedy Center.
"From Institution to Community" is the first topic for the new
Community Roundtable series sponsored by the Kennedy Center and the Tennessee
Disability Coalition. The free one-hour program will be in Room 241 of the
MRL Building on the Peabody campus.
Panelists for the informal discussion are Wanda Black, acting assistant
commissioner for the Division of Mental Retardation Services, Tennessee
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation; Donald Redden, president
of the Arc of Tennessee and the father of a teenager with developmental
disabilities who lives at home; and Dan Steffen, member of the board of
trustees of Greene Valley Developmental Center, where his adult son resides.
The panel will explore whether all persons, regardless of the severity of
disability, can be better served in their communities instead of institutions.
They also will discuss what services and supports are needed so that persons
with disabilities can live and work in the community.
The Community Roundtable series seeks to provide multiple perspectives on
crucial disability issues. "Ideas about how persons with disabilities
are best served are changing rapidly, knowledge is expanding and service
systems are changing," said Elise McMillan, Kennedy Center director
of development and the parent of a first-grader with Down syndrome. "The
Kennedy Center and the Tennessee Disability Coalition want to provide a
public forum so that diverse perspectives and knowledge bases can help inform
the decisions of families, researchers, service providers and public policy
makers."
Future Community Roundtable topics will include the continuing efforts on
reauthorization of federal legislation that assures a free, appropriate
public education for children with disabilities. For more information call
322-8240.
-VU-
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