Nearly 100,000 Texans waiting for community-based care

Blaire Boatright, 10, (left) plays with Paige, 7, one of her autistic and mentally retarded twin sisters who live at home without state help.

Vicki Schilling needs help to care for her sister with disabilities, but for nearly a decade she has languished with some 100,000 others on a waiting list for in-home nursing, respite care and other services to keep loved ones out of mental-health institutions. "I feel like I'm a failure because I'm watching my sister fall apart," said Schilling, who promised her dying mother not to put her sister in an institution. "I'm doing the best I can, but we are going through a crisis here." The Dallas Morning News