The executive director of Stone Belt “ARC” in Bloomington says the aging of the baby boomer generation is among the next big challenges faced by her agency. Leslie Green heads up the non-profit group that serves some 2000 developmentally disabled people in a six county area each year. Services range from residential care to employment training and placement. Green says as older caretakers of disabled children age, agencies like hers are concerned about preparation for the future.
Green says another challenge facing agencies like Stone Belt lies at the other end of the age spectrum. She says when people with developmental disabilities leave the public schools, they continue to needs the services provided by those schools. Green says there’s a backlog of Hoosiers in need of disability services. She says the “official” number of people on the waiting list is about 15 thousand, but she suspects there are more cases that simply go unreported.
