Melanie & Will Cason
People with disabilities deserve the opportunity to live supported lives within their own communities.
Family Advocate
Families Should Not Have to Choose Between Safety and Proximity
Melanie & Will Cason
Melanie Cason shares her family’s experience navigating decades of disability services, caregiving, waiting lists, and limited community-based options for her son, Will. Their story shows why families need meaningful supports close to home, not choices that separate people with disabilities from the communities that know and love them.
IN HER OWN WORDS
Melanie Cason is a mother, caregiver, and advocate for her son, Will.
Will is 30 years old. He was born with Down syndrome and later diagnosed with severe autism. He is non-speaking and can be self-injurious when frustrated. From early on, Melanie and her family experienced long delays accessing the supports Will needed. Just as services began, Will was diagnosed with leukemia at age six.
After years of chemotherapy and repeated hospitalizations, Will survived... but the progress he had made was lost.
When Will graduated high school at 21, his parents were largely on their own. Both worked full time, and available supports were limited. For a period, personal aides helped keep Will safe at home.
Later, he was placed in a private day program that could not meet his needs. He spent long hours isolated, and medication was used to manage behaviors so he could remain in the setting... not because it was best for Will, but because there were no better options.
As older parents facing their own health challenges, Melanie and Will’s father spent years navigating waiting lists and cycling on and off the “Critical List.”
Eventually, Will was placed in an intermediate care facility in Sumter, South Carolina, more than two hours from his family. While the staff work hard to create a supportive, home-like environment, the distance has meant less access to the family, friends, and community that have known and supported Will throughout his life.
This is not the future Melanie envisioned for her son.
She believes South Carolina’s lack of a true continuum of community-based supports is not just a system failure... it’s a humanitarian and ethical one.
Too often, the shortage of local housing and support options forces people with disabilities to leave their home communities as they age, reducing vital connections and natural supports.
Families should not have to choose between safety and proximity.
People with disabilities deserve the opportunity to live supported lives within their own communities.
