Advocates For Adults With Intellectual Disabilities Decry Cuts To System: ‘we Are Not A Thing That Can Be Put In A Box’

When Pineland Center closed in April 1996, advocates and state officials considered it a major victory for adults with intellectual disabilities. Maine emerged as a national leader in how to provide quality care for this population in community group homes, rather than large institutions. On closing day, pigeons were released to symbolize freedom, and everyone who had ever lived at the New Gloucester center was invited back for a barbecue to celebrate its permanent shutdown. But since the late 2000s, Maine has been turning the clock back on these adult services, advocates say, leaving thousands of adults with autism, brain damage, Down syndrome, and other intellectual developmental disorders vulnerable.