Cover Story piece on Maine\u27s care programs for the mentally retarded, which ar

Cover Story piece on Maine\u27s care programs for the mentally retarded, which are under funded, and the state\u27s most vulnerable population is paying the price. Maine\u27s transition from institution-to-community-based care for the mentally retarded began with a 1975 class-action lawsuit against Pineland. The state\u27s care program for the mentally ill followed suit, transitioning patients out of the Augusta Mental Health Institute and into the community beginning in the late 1980s. But 20 years later, according to Richard Farnsworth of Woodfords Family Services, there is a disparity in the amount of money paid to direct-support workers in the two fields that is responsible for a high turnover in his field. Mental health people are paid $9 and hour and up, whereas people working in mental retardation services are paid only $8.15 an hour, even though the care provided to the mentally retarded is almost identical to that provided to the mentally ill. With special focus on several individual cases