in 102 counties ... about 1 in 6 working-age residents draw disability checks

POSTED BY: 1kiki
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 7, 2017 10:08
VIEWED: 3830
PAGE 1 of 1

1KIKI

Saturday, June 3, 2017 9:03 AM

Generations, disabled

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2017/06/02/generations-disabled
/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-low_famliydisabled-1030a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.9b94d4282407

PEMISCOT COUNTY, Mo. — The food was nearly gone and the bills were going unpaid, but they still had their pills, and that was what they thought of as the sky brightened and they awoke, one by one. First came Kathy Strait, 55, who withdrew six pills from a miniature backpack and swallowed them. Then emerged her daughter, Franny Tidwell, 32, who rummaged through 29 bottles of medication atop the refrigerator and brought down her own: oxcarbazepine for bipolar disorder, fluoxetine for depression, an opiate for pain. She next reached for two green bottles of Tenex, a medication for hyperactivity, filled two glasses with water and said, “Come here, boys.”

The boys were identical twins William and Dale, 10. They were the fourth generation in this family to receive federal disability checks, and the first to be declared no longer disabled and have them taken away. In days that had grown increasingly tense, as debts mounted and desperation grew to prove that the twins should be on disability, this was always the worst time, before the medication kicked in, when the mobile home was filled with the sounds of children fighting, dogs barking, adults yelling, television volume turned up.

And so went another morning, loud and chaotic, right up until the moment someone dropped the puppy.

As it fell the four feet to the ground, the trailer suddenly quieted. The four children stopped fighting. The two adults stopped yelling. Then the weeks-old puppy hit the scuffed linoleum floor, whimpered softly, and events, no longer suspended, began to unfold again.

“It’s dying,” Dale said, looking at the cocoa-colored dog, which had gone limp. “It’s dying. It’s dying.”

“It might have snapped its neck,” Kathy said.

William looked at the puppy, then at the medications collected above the refrigerator, then at his mother, Franny, who wasn’t saying anything.

“Mommy, give him some medicine to keep him alive,” William said.

“He’s dead,” Dale said.

“Give him some pain medicine!” William said.

“Your puppy just died,” Dale said.

“Give him some pain medicine!” William said again.

Talk of medications, of diagnoses, of monthly checks that never seem to cover every need — these are the constants in households like this one, composed of multiple generations of people living on disability. Little-studied and largely unreported, such families have become familiar in rural communities reshaped by a decades-long surge that swelled the nation’s disability rolls by millions before declining slightly in 2015 as older beneficiaries aged into retirement benefits, according to interviews with social workers, lawyers, school officials, academics and rural residents.

How to visualize the growth in disability in the United States? One way is to think of a map. Rural communities, where on average 9.1 percent of working-age people are on disability — nearly twice the urban rate and 40 percent higher than the national average — are in a brighter shade than cities. An even brighter hue then spreads from Appalachia into the Deep South and out into Missouri, where rates are higher yet, places economists have called “disability belts.” The brightest color of all can be found in 102 counties, mostly within these belts, where a Washington Post analysis of federal statistics estimates that, at minimum, about 1 in 6 working-age residents draw disability checks.

As the number of working-age Americans receiving disability rose from 7.7 million in 1996 to 13 million in 2015, so did the number of households with multiple family members on disability, climbing from an estimated 525,000 in 2000 to an estimated 850,000 in 2015, according to a Post analysis of census data. The analysis is probably an undercount.

A separate Post examination of census data found that households reporting at least one disabled adult are three times as likely to report having a d

6STRINGJOKER

Saturday, June 3, 2017 9:07 AM

That's the story that Wish just posted.

I still want to know why they have $300/mo. cell phone bills and $100/mo. cable TV bills and have the nerve to whine about how bad they got it.

Cancel the cell phones and get obama phones or the magic jack and cut the cable TV cord and they have enough money to pay their very low mortgage payment and the water bill right there. They're also easily getting $600+ a month in food stamps.

If I had been living the "high life" like they were the last two years I'd be worried about paying my bills now too.

I'm betting there's nothing wrong with those kids either. I hope it works out for them in the long run, but this could be one of the best things that ever happened to them.

I'm sick of hearing about kids so young being pumped up on pills to modify their behavior because their parents just can't deal.

1KIKI

Saturday, June 3, 2017 9:33 AM

I was reading this wondering, when did everything go downhill and snowball into such mess? I think it was when the daughter was born with mosaic Downs syndrome. That would certainly be hard enough to manage with as few resources as the grandmother has. And then the daughter had children.

No one in that family seems like they have enough going for them to lift just themselves up, let alone the rest of the family. The only person who might be in a position to know how to turn things around is the grandma. I sympathize with her. If she's in as much pain as I am, and as low in energy as I am, she can't do much. Physical limitations can be, well ... limiting. So even if she knew what to do to make things better, she doesn't seem to have the steam to get it done.

I don't see an answer for them except to have an outside force take charge. But who would that be?

As for the kids, it seems like their diet is bad, their lives are chaotic, and there's no one to teach them good coping skills. I think it's only after you improve their situation that you can make a diagnosis. They might just be reacting to their situation.

Originally posted by G: "I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago." G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.
You have a very treasonous view of how justice in the US should work, THUGGER. In fact, you have many other treasonous views as well. You hate the election process and want to void it.

1KIKI

Saturday, June 3, 2017 9:47 AM

I've read about this before, though. It was a thing especially for rural families to get their children diagnosed as ADD/ ADHD. The implications in that article was that it was considered a clever way to get more government assistance.

Originally posted by G: "I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago." G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.
You have a very treasonous view of how justice in the US should work, THUGGER. In fact, you have many other treasonous views as well. You hate the election process and want to void it.

WISHIMAY

Saturday, June 3, 2017 10:21 AM

Reminds me of the crazy fool down the street. Her BF got fired for drinking on the job... again, now they are back to sitting around living off her disability and punching each others lights out... AGAIN. Church lady down the street organized some people and they cleaned up the junk in the yard... which will come in handy when he eventually kills her and sets the house on fire.

But, ain't that America...

6STRINGJOKER

Saturday, June 3, 2017 11:29 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
I've read about this before, though. It was a thing especially for rural families to get their children diagnosed as ADD/ ADHD. The implications in that article was that it was considered a clever way to get more government assistance.

That doesn't surprise me, and if they were doing it out of necessity and didn't list all of the money they waste every month on BS, I could even sympathize with somebody in their position doing that.

It only becomes EVIL when they actually feed those pills to the kids after lying about it.

You'll never get a straight answer out of anybody involved on that question though.

I think if they really don't have disabilities than whoever wrote the scripts for those kids in the first place should lose their license to practice.

6STRINGJOKER

Saturday, June 3, 2017 11:33 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
... which will come in handy when he eventually kills her and sets the house on fire.

My money is on her killing him in his sleep and setting the house on fire.

You've come a long way, baby.

1KIKI

Saturday, June 3, 2017 12:12 PM

Quote:
I think if they really don't have disabilities than whoever wrote the scripts for those kids in the first place should lose their license to practice.

But it could be anything that's given rise to actual ADD/ ADHD, maybe even in utero lead poisoning.

One of my professional magazines listed how MANY people come into Atlanta (major modern city) ERs with acute lead poisoning, from moonshine. (It's those slopped-together stills with lead solder that does it.) Talk about regional medicine! Anyway, a woman doesn't even need to be actively drinking moonshine while pregnant, because once the lead is in her bones, it comes back out during pregnancy and poisons the fetus.

It could be chaos and stress that poison the fetus, which aren't genetic but are definitely heritable.

Or it could be poor diet that causes later neurological issues.

Or some combination, or something else.

What I think is that if children are neurologically compromised, then NOT getting them help is just as wrong as forcing normal kids to take meds. I don't think I even have an opinion on how much is fraud and lazy medical practice, and how much is a legitimate, if convenient, necessity.

I do have to object to Wish's characterization of the story. Wish's neighbors sound like video game trolls, chewing raw haunch, clobbering each other with the bones, and snarling and farting around the fire. In the particular WaPo story, the only person who might change things is the grandma, and she seems legitimately overwhelmed by circumstances. Yes, she could do some belt-tightening. I just think she's so pressed day to day, she'll never come to the idea.

Originally posted by G: "I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago." G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.
You have a very treasonous view of how justice in the US should work, THUGGER. In fact, you have many other treasonous views as well. You hate the election process and want to void it,

SIGNYM

Sunday, June 4, 2017 1:47 PM

I really don't know what to make of this story.

It's extremely easy to be overwhelmed, especially by family medical misfortune. I know that things kind of "fall apart" here despite the fact that we have a decent income to help us deal with adversity ... hubby and I both work demanding jobs, but he's chronically sick and dear daughter is disabled, and as I get older and older I find myself with less and less energy, and less and less capable to push myself to do the things I need to do to keep the family going from day to day.

But what to make of multi-generational disabilities, especially because they're most common in very poor counties? Does poverty in some way cause disabilities? Do disability payments represent an easy way out, and is the screening and investigation so poor that it can't separate real from hoped-for diagnoses?

The biggest problem that this family had was letting Franny have children. I know another family where that happened, it was an ongoing crisis.

-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake
THUGR, JONESING FOR WWIII
All those guns 1kiki, are pointed towards your beloved Russia. All those cyber capabilities, pointed right at Russia. Thanks Putin, and get ready to duck.
I'll accept your apology any time, THUGR. But I know you're not man enough to give me one

WISHIMAY

Sunday, June 4, 2017 9:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:

I do have to object to Wish's characterization of the story. Wish's neighbors sound like video game trolls, chewing raw haunch, clobbering each other with the bones, and snarling and farting around the fire.

Personality Disorder coupled with Alcoholism and other health issues. She had 4 kids and her ex left and wouldn't pay child support and she couldn't feed them so she dropped them on his lap and hitchhiked away.

I don't see a damn bit of difference.

1KIKI

Sunday, June 4, 2017 10:28 PM

The grandma is still there doing her best? That seems like an important point of difference.

Originally posted by G: "I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago." G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.
You have a very treasonous view of how justice in the US should work, THUGGER. In fact, you have many other treasonous views as well. You hate the election process and want to void it.

WISHIMAY

Sunday, June 4, 2017 11:05 PM

Have you ever had 4 kids and nothing to feed them, when the father is two blocks away and has all the money, power, and food??

I don't like the woman, but I can't blame her. I'm sure if she stayed he would've just played that power trip game forever. They survived, and it's not like she dropped them off with a murderer or something. BTW, this was before they reformed the child support system where if you didn't pay you could go to jail. What kind of job could she have gotten to support 4 kids with no education and health issues? She didn't even have a vehicle, he took it...

WISHIMAY

Sunday, June 4, 2017 11:10 PM

The common thread here is people making bad decisions. But people with mental problems do that.

And we're back to: Is it right to blame people for things they do when their heads don't work right to know that what they are doing isn't the best choice?

The answer is always Yes... AND NO. We still have to get along in this world, and even making the right choice guarantees NOTHING.
Shit happens.

1KIKI

Sunday, June 4, 2017 11:31 PM

Quote:
The common thread here is people making bad decisions. But people with mental problems do that.

Except the grandma made the right decisions. But having a child with mosaic Downs syndrome wasn't a bad decision caused by mental illness, it was a tragic event that could have happened to anyone. And that looks like it's the first downward pivot in her life. Now she may or may not have been able to manage, especially as she grew older.

But then, her daughter had children. At that second downward pivot, this downward free-fall was inevitable.

I don't know how that could have been prevented. I don't know about conservatorship laws in the state. I don't know about whether or not the daughter could have been sterilized or at least treated with long-term implantable birth control. But those options don't seem to have been put on the table.

And so she had multiple children. And that inevitably sank everyone into poverty and chaos, with no apparent way out.

Originally posted by G: "I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago." G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.
You have a very treasonous view of how justice in the US should work, THUGGER. In fact, you have many other treasonous views as well. You hate the election process and want to void it.

WISHIMAY

Monday, June 5, 2017 2:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Except the grandma made the right decisions.

I don't think you can really say that based on one article. For all we know she may have drug or alcohol problems, and we know she's been married 4 times, so something is going wrong there. I am not unsympathetic to her plight, but you can tell from the article she doesn't have the best IQ either. I'm saying I think she also has natural impediments, just like the idiot down the street. Can't blame them for being born wonky, but...still have to try. I think she stopped trying a long, long, time ago. Hoping there is something wrong with your grandkids so you can make money from them is morally defunct at the very least.

6STRINGJOKER

Monday, June 5, 2017 10:11 AM

I actually agree with Wish. Wow.

Especially that last sentence.

1KIKI

Monday, June 5, 2017 1:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Except the grandma made the right decisions.

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I don't think you can really say that based on one article.

Then it's also true you can't say she made wrong ones based on one article.

Quote:
For all we know she may have drug or alcohol problems, and we know she's been married 4 times, so something is going wrong there.

The article indicates she was working full time until a job injury disabled her. Whatever you imagine is wrong with her, her lifetime history is of being responsible and reliable up to that point.
And I can tell you young people - whatever injuries and illnesses, pains and disabilities you think you have now (unless some magic medicine comes along), they will only multiply by many factors as you age. There's the loss of human growth hormone, which shrinks your muscles, thins your skin, and keeps your body from repairing itself.
I believe that people can carry injuries for decades as HGH keeps them in repair, but once levels drops, those injuries reappear like cracks that got painted over. And with the reappearance comes chronic pain. And with chronic pain, comes deep fatigue.
The things you could manage when you're younger become insurmountable as you get older.
She's older, she's injured, she's in pain. You have to be realistic about what you can expect just on those limitations alone.

Quote:
I am not unsympathetic to her plight, but you can tell from the article she doesn't have the best IQ either.

Even bright people can be worn down by age, pain, fatigue, and stress.

Quote:
I'm saying I think she also has natural impediments, just like the idiot down the street. Can't blame them for being born wonky, but...still have to try. I think she stopped trying a long, long, time ago. Hoping there is something wrong with your grandkids so you can make money from them is morally defunct at the very least.

I think her grandkids are beyond what she knows how to deal with.
I'm met kids that sound very much like her grandchildren. They're baffling to deal with because their actions and responses are extreme and often veer rapidly into destructive and dangerous territory. It's hard to know if it's something internal that's driving them, or external, or a combination. She seems desperate to find a handle on why they are the way they are, and get some help. it's not all about money.

Anyway, you and Jack post with what I think of as the easy arrogance of the young. Your bodies haven't failed yet in permanent, life-altering ways, especially in terms of pain and energy. Don't worry grasshoppers - if you live long enough, you'll get there, too.

Then you can come back and explain how deficient the grandma is.

Originally posted by G: "I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago." G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.
You have a very treasonous view of how justice in the US should work, THUGGER. In fact, you have many other treasonous views as well. You hate the election process and want to void it.

WISHIMAY

Tuesday, June 6, 2017 4:05 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:

Anyway, you and Jack post with what I think of as the easy arrogance of the young. Your bodies haven't failed yet in permanent, life-altering ways, especially in terms of pain and energy. Don't worry grasshoppers - if you live long enough, you'll get there, too.

Then you can come back and explain how deficient the grandma is.

Seriously, you desperately need some Alzheimer's meds. If you can't remember that I developed arthritis at 24, have a severe sulfite intolerance, a connective tissue disorder, and that I get hit by a semi recently, or at least ONE of those things you need to see a doctor.

I was still having to make dinner two days after I got hit.

TWO DAYS.

You don't get to give up when you have people that depend on you, pain, energy, or otherwise.

You do everything in your power to get them the things they NEED.

6STRINGJOKER

Tuesday, June 6, 2017 4:31 AM

1kiki has a point about age Wish.

By the time your as old as grandma in the story, your daughter is going to probably be around your age. I know she has some issues, but if I remember right they're nowhere near as severe as the mother of the two boys in this story. I know you have some problems, but you at least have a working brain.

You are able to do now what "mom" in the story cannot do for herself or the children because of her damaged brain. You are able to do now what "grandma" can't do so good anymore because she's old. In most situations it wouldn't even be expected of her.

I don't envy that shit show at all.

I still think they need to cancel all of the cell phones and their cable TV though. Right there they'd be saving each month almost what they lost in disability benefits for one of the kids.

1KIKI

Tuesday, June 6, 2017 4:39 AM

Quote:
If you can't remember that I developed arthritis at 24, have a severe sulfite intolerance, a connective tissue disorder, and that I get hit by a semi recently, or at least ONE of those things you need to see a doctor.

I had my first back injury in my early 20's, my second in my mid 30's and my third in my mid 40's. And I was able to do Ok despite the pain until my mid 50's when the pain hit levels I could never have imagined in my younger years - and at the same time my physical, mental and emotional stamina dropped.

I didn't say you were pain-free, Wish, just that when you're younger, you don't hurt as much and your stamina is higher.

So I'll repeat myself, in the hopes that you'll understand you're not the only person in pain, with illnesses and disabilities.

When you're older, things get WORSE. Pain increases, illnesses return, new ones show up. Energy levels, strength, and stamina go down. At a certain point, even daily activities become an endurance test. And, it doesn't quit. Pain and fatigue go on for days ... weeks ... years. You go from having plans and schedules, to pushing yourself every blessed step, to cutting back to the minimum, to just trying to outlast the day so that you can finally, blissfully, oh sweet jesus lie down. What used to be a really bad day becomes a new way of being.

You're not there Wish. Some day you will be, but not today.

Originally posted by G: "I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago." G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.
You have a very treasonous view of how justice in the US should work, THUGGER. In fact, you have many other treasonous views as well. You hate the election process and want to void it.

WISHIMAY

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 5:52 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:

You're not there Wish. Some day you will be, but not today.

I'm not playing this game with you. You don't know what you are talking about. I'd be thrilled if I just had an injury to contend with. I've had health problems since minute one. I slept every spare minute of my teens away. Youth means NOTHING in my case. Don't play pious with me, lady.

6STRINGJOKER

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 7:00 AM

Give it 20 years and I bet you're going to look back at today with fond memories.

1KIKI

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 10:08 AM

Quote:
I'd be thrilled if I just had an injury

or six

Quote:
to contend with. I've had health problems since minute one.

Well, I haven't mentioned my allergies to just about everything, or the asthma that leaves me gasping for air, and so on. What would be the point in that?

I'm not competing with you over who has it worse, even though you seem bound and determined to compete with me. And I'm not trying to diminish what you go through, even though you seem bound and determined to diminish what I go through.

I AM pointing out that you seem to have blinded yourself to the fact that other people also suffer. And it could affect their lives and the lives of others in entirely destructive ways. And that it may be entirely beyond that person's capacity to overcome.

And also, I agree with Jack. With time, you'll look on these as the good old days.

Originally posted by G: "I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago." G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.
You have a very treasonous view of how justice in the US should work, THUGGER. In fact, you have many other treasonous views as well. You hate the election process and want to void it.