When an idealistic activist objects to her siblings’ plan to ship their disabled sister off to a nursing home, she’s forced to choose between family and her sister’s freedom.
Franke James immediately objected when she heard her siblings’ plan to put their youngest sister, Teresa Heartchild, into a nursing home. “What about Teresa’s human rights?” But Franke was told that Teresa, who has Down syndrome, had lost her right to decide. She had been declared “not capable” by a social worker. The other siblings, now acting as Teresa’s “guardians,” insisted they had all the decision-making power, and they put Teresa into a nursing home. But Teresa didn’t want to be there. So, Franke put a team together and helped Teresa get discharged. That’s when all hell broke loose. And, the two sisters had to stand together—against their siblings, the medical system, and the police—to defend Teresa’s right to be free.
Forced care is never good care.
Teresa is one of the lucky ones—she got out. And, she had her right to decide were she lived restored. Thank goodness! But unfortunately, there are thousands of others, people with disabilities, who are stuck, living in a nursing home even though they have no medical need for this type of care. The old institutions have closed, but today there’s a conveyor belt putting people with disabilities into nursing homes.
Freeing Teresa is a personal story, but it shines a light on this pressing civil rights issue for all people with disabilities—the right to decide where you live.