Wyoming Life Resource Center

were reintegrated into communities across Wyoming decades ago. Today, the Wyoming Life Resource Center (WLRC) is undergoing another transformation, providing temporary residential health services to individuals with complex and significant needs. The new mission of the facility is to fill a gap in services for people who are not able to access appropriate supports in their communities. “Our research project seeks to investigate the long history of Wyoming Life Resource Center,” says Bush, “from the early decades as a state training school, through

WYOMING LIFE deinstitutionalization, to its current incarnation as a healthcare facility for people RESOURCE CENTER with significant disabilities and complex support needs. Through documenting the history of the institution as well as its current Filling a Gap in transformation, we aim to bring the history

Developmental Disability Care of deinstitutionalization to light through archival research and contemporary oral histories.” “Through this project, our aim is to develop a partnership not only with the Three UW College of Health Sciences scholars, Erin Bush, WLRC, but with former residents, families, community Michelle Jarman, and Sandy Leotti, were awarded funds members, and other stakeholders in order to document a through The Equality State Research Network (ESRN) multilayered history of the institution and its connections to develop a partnership with the Wyoming Life Resource to residents, staff members, families, communities, and the Center (WLRC) in Lander. The WLRC, formerly named state of Wyoming,” says Bush. The first prong, being more the Wyoming State Training School, opened in 1912 to archival in nature, seeks to understand the institution and its provide residential care and education to people who would operations specifically prior to the 1970s. now be diagnosed with intellectual and developmental The second prong, focusing more the years leading up to disabilities. and following deinstitutionalization, will involve identifying

Historically, state schools such as this became custodial people involved in the former state school who are in nature, where people were confined, often for decades interested in recounting oral histories. Using a community(or lifetimes) within the institution. Over the years, the based participatory approach to inform our historical Wyoming Life Resource Center has changed dramatically. research, we also will rely upon community participants In response to disability rights and advocacy efforts to identify local and statewide health, disability, and social resulting in deinstitutionalization, long-term residents integration issues relevant to this project, adds Bush.

Through documenting the history of the institution as well as its current transformation, we aim to bring the history of deinstitutionalization to light through archival research and contemporary oral histories.

– Erin Bush

Through this process, we hope to identify health and other disparities that have been produced through the process of deinstitutionalization and community reintegration in rural communities. These disparities can then be targeted in future research. “Furthermore, we believe the development of this partnership will lead to future collaborations in which we can specifically examine the experience and impact of rural community reintegration, including gaps in support or services, and the relationship of these on the health and well-being of WLRC’s residents,” she says.

“We are in the initial stages of this project, having just completed our first trip to Lander. We had meetings about partnership directions and processes of identifying stakeholders. We received a campus tour of newly constructed buildings, and we were able to review some archival documents and pictures regarding the original buildings and set-up of the campus compared to the modernday design. We were also able to view historical newspapers and other public documents, such as articles about the building of the infirmary, as well as materials from the 100th year celebration. We met some employees of the WLRC and gained further insight into this unique history and aspects of the evolution of the facility. Off-site we will continue to research the institution from publicly available records such as state reports, administrator publications, relevant histories, and news articles,” says Bush.

Erin Bush is an associate professor in the Division of Communication Disorders, and has been a certified speechlanguage pathologist for 17 years. For over a decade Dr. Bush has conducted collaborative and interdisciplinary research with and for people with disabilities. As a qualitative researcher Dr. Bush aims to gain a deeper understanding of healthcare and educational issues impacting groups of marginalized people.

Sandy Leotti is an assistant professor in the Division of Social Work. Broadly, her work critically examines the politics of social work and social welfare. A significant portion of her research and practice experience has been aimed at understanding and impacting health disparities in the lives of people with disabilities.

Dr. Jarman brings a social, historical perspective to the project. As a disability studies scholar, she has investigated and taught students about the history of institutionalization, especially the impact of segregating people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is interested in the research and pedagogical value of documenting oral histories of deinstitutionalization, especially in the rural, frontier context of Wyoming.