06/25/2026
For over 20 years, I've been a provider serving Kentuckians with intellectual and developmental disabilities through the Supports for Community Living (SCL) Waiver. During that time, I've watched incredible people achieve independence, meaningful employment, and full lives because they had the right supports.
Today, I'm watching those supports erode.
The recent funding crisis surrounding Lee Specialty Clinic isn't an isolated issue. It's another warning sign that Kentucky's disability service system is under tremendous strain.
At the same time providers are being asked to do more, we're facing rising wages, skyrocketing housing costs, inflation, and a workforce shortage unlike anything we've experienced before. Yet reimbursement rates have not kept pace with the real cost of providing quality care.
Across the country, states are embracing technology that allows people with disabilities to live more independently while making better use of a limited workforce. In my experience, Kentucky has been slow to invest in these innovative models, even as the direct support workforce continues to shrink. Then on top of that, undermine and underfund the face to face services people rely on.
This isn't just about the providers and bottom lines or a balance sheet.
It's about the young adult who wants to live independently instead of in an institution.
It's about aging parents who wonder who will care for their son or daughter after they're gone.
It's about direct support professionals who love what they do but can't afford to stay because wages haven't kept up with the cost of living.
It's about investing now to support the future and not kicking the can down the road.
And it's about families who fear that every budget or election cycle could mean losing the services they rely on.
When funding falls behind, providers don't have the luxury of cutting corners. We either reduce services, stop accepting new people, or close programs altogether. The people who pay the price are Kentuckians with disabilities and their families.
Kentucky can do better.
We need leaders from both parties to recognize that disability services are not discretionary spending, they are essential infrastructure. We need sustainable funding for the Supports for Community Living Waiver, innovative investment in technology-assisted services, and a long-term commitment to building a system that meets the needs of today with the foresight of the needs we will have tomorrow.
Kentucky can do better.
I stepped away from the arguing because I felt like I was yelling in a room to myself because no one in Frankfort ever seems to listen. That was not the right action... change begins when silence ends. The comments made by our elected officials at the hearing today and in response to the citizens they represent are as tone deaf as they were a decade ago and it is clearly a time for the silence to end.
Kentucky can do better.
I'm one of many that has dedicated more than twenty years to this work because I believe every person deserves the opportunity to live with dignity, independence, and choice. It's time for Kentucky to make that same commitment and to stop letting politics destroy people's lives.
Kentucky Can Do Better!
-Brandon
