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a registration form.
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VOR is the only national organization advocating for a full range of
residential and support options for people with mental retardation,
including Medicaid-certified Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally
Retarded (ICFs/MR) and home and community-based care. VOR supports choice.
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VOR Weekly E-Mail Update
February 16, 2007
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1. ARIZONA: Disabled 'advocates' push own agendas
2. CALIFORNIA: Few like Agnews prison scheme
3. CALIFORNIA: Families Outraged Over New Agnews Proposal
4. PENNSYLVANIA: Tight funds deny services to state's mentally disabled
5. MARYLAND: Psychiatric System Crunch Worsens / Waits for Beds
Increasingly Exceed Md.'s Legal Maximum
Coming Up: The President's Budget - an analysis from the Consortium for
Citizens with Disabilities (CCD).
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1. ARIZONA: Disabled 'advocates' push own agendas
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Summary: An almost immediate consequence of the "conscious decision" by
"advozealots" to require that the mandated minimum wage also apply to
disabled workers in supported employment settings was that several centers
providing work for many disabled closed their doors. But, according to the
commentary below, this is not judged a bad thing among some of the more
zealous disabled-people advocate groups. In a meeting Thursday, the
director of one of the organizations snorted with contempt at the
suggestion that plenty of parents and caregivers of disabled workers
disagree with her conclusions about a mandated minimum wage. Does this
sound familiar: "In this debate, only the votes of the self-assigned
"advocates" count. Parents and caregivers get sniffed at."
Arizona Republic
Feb. 11, 2007
By Doug Maceachern
doug.maceachern@arizonarepublic.com
Silly me.
Like a lot of people, I thought the authors of Arizona's Proposition 202,
which raises the mandated minimum wage, simply made a mistake.
In their successful ballot measure to raise the minimum wage in Arizona to
no less than $6.75, the Proposition 202 authors did not include an
exemption for the developmentally disabled.
These are workers whose cognitive ability, often combined with serious
emotional and physical handicaps, limits their potential to compete for
jobs. We are speaking of somewhere between 1,500 and 3,000 Arizona
citizens, the majority of whom have managed, despite all their
limitations, to find real work. Real, productive, emotionally satisfying
work.
But it is not the sort of work, nor at the sort of pay level, that
satisfied the authors of Proposition 202. So they intentionally left out
of Proposition 202 the exemptions that the federal minimum-wage law it
replaces had allowed.
You thought it was an accident? An oversight? You thought the stories you
read about centers that employ handicapped workers closing were about a
big mistake by ballot-initiative writers who failed to dot all the i's?
Well, you would be wrong.
A coalition of six organizations, including the Governor's Council on
Developmental Disabilities, proudly acknowledges that, hey, it was us! We
did it!
Under the heading of "Minimum Wage: Myths and Facts," a prominent
myth-busting fact promulgated by the six organizations is that the lack of
an exemption is intentional: "A conscious decision was made to include them
with other workers."
Now, an almost immediate consequence of this "conscious decision" was that
several centers providing work for many disabled closed their doors.
Because no one could justify paying the mandated minimum wage to these
workers and because continuing to pay less might jeopardize their status
with the federal Department of Labor, several work centers now are shut.
But this is not judged a bad thing among some of the more zealous
disabled-people advocate groups.
In a meeting Thursday, the director of one of the organizations snorted
with contempt at the suggestion that plenty of parents and caregivers of
disabled workers disagree with her conclusions about a mandated minimum
wage. In this debate, only the votes of the self-assigned "advocates"
count. Parents and caregivers get sniffed at.
So, by the knowing hand of advocates, we have worry, angst and turmoil
among some of the people who least need another measure of any of it. And,
as it is turning out, totally unnecessary worry, angst and turmoil.
Even as state Attorney General Terry Goddard concluded that it would be
illegal for the state Legislature to create an exemption for
developmentally disabled workers in Proposition 202, a compromise deal is
being worked out - this time by what appears to be the entire community of
the disabled, not just the self-assigned ones.
The details are in the works, but the gist of it follows:
Rather than view the disabled as contract workers, as they have been, the
Industrial Commission of Arizona would reclassify developmentally disabled
people working at designated support centers as "trainees" rather than
workers. They would not be paid an hourly wage but rather would receive a
stipend similar to what summer interns often get. And there would be a
time limit on their stay at these training centers, likely no more than 54
months or so.
So why were all these weeks of angst necessary? What an interesting
question, that.
Even some of the most over-the-top disabled advocates - the sort of people
who fulminate about the absolute right of developmentally disabled workers
to earn a minimum wage, even if they lose their jobs because no one will
be able to pay it to them - are supporting this compromise. But,
effectively, it
does little more than change a few definitions and sets an artificial,
angst-inducing time limit on the workers' status as "trainees."
Actually, it does accomplish one thing the "advocates" seem to cherish.
The disabled workers no longer are "workers" - they are "trainees."
And while that little distinction may not matter to most people, it
apparently matters a lot to somebody.
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2. CALIFORNIA: Few like Agnews Developmental Center prison scheme
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By Brandon Bailey and Edwin Garcia
Mercury News
San Jose officials denounced it. Democratic legislators dismissed it. And
even state corrections officials were unwilling Tuesday to embrace a
suggestion from Republican lawmakers that Agnews Developmental Center could
be converted into a temporary state prison.
Republicans plan to meet with officials next week to discuss their
proposal, but Tuesday's reaction raised questions about whether the
proposal is likely to prevail.
``It's a bad idea,'' said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, one of several local
officials who said the prospect would interfere with longstanding plans for
commercial and residential development in North San Jose.
The 80-acre state-owned Agnews site, which has long been a residential
center for the developmentally disabled, is surrounded by new homes and
high-tech campuses, including the headquarters of Cisco Systems Inc.
``Major corporate investments have been made by world-class businesses,''
said Joseph Horwedel, the city's planning director, who said the prospect
of a prison would cause those companies to rethink their plans for an area
he called ``the heart of our economic engine for San Jose.''
The idea, first floated Monday by Republican Assembly members as a way to
help ease the state's prison housing crunch, also fell flat with their
Democratic counterparts. And while the state prison guards' union said it
was worth exploring, a spokesman for the state corrections agency said the
Schwarzenegger administration has no interest in building temporary
facilities.
``You could not build a temporary facility that would meet the custody
standards, that would provide the level of safety and security you need in
a prison,'' said Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Most of the state's prisons are in rural areas, as opposed to major cities
like San Jose. But the GOP lawmakers said they want to explore the idea of
converting state-owned centers such as Agnews into temporary prisons.
The state is gradually reducing the population of its regional
developmental centers by placing clients in smaller group homes, although
Agnews is the only one formally slated to close.
Agnews is now home to about 250 developmentally disabled clients, many of
them older people who have lived there for many years. Kathy Kinser, a
deputy director for the state Department of Developmental Services, said
the current plan calls for closing Agnews in mid-2008, but she said that
will only occur when appropriate housing has been found for each of the
current residents.
Cisco, which previously built on another portion of the Agnews campus, has
an option to buy the remaining property if the state decides to sell. A
Cisco spokeswoman said she didn't want to comment on the prospect of a
prison next to the company's headquarters.
Officials said it's not clear how the plan would proceed. Assembly
Republican leader Mike Villines, R-Fresno, said he'll host a meeting next
week with officials from the corrections department, Kinser's agency and
the governor's office.
But several Democratic legislators, who would rather solve overcrowding by
changing the state's sentencing rules, were critical of the idea.
``It's not a proposal ready for prime time,'' said Assemblyman Jim Beall,
D-San Jose. He said the old buildings at Agnews would need expensive
refurbishing.
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, whose district includes
Agnews, said she would put up a fight if state agencies planned to displace
Agnews patients in favor of prison inmates.
Villines had suggested Monday that the developmental centers could be
converted to prisons on the governor's order, thus avoiding a likely battle
in the Democratically controlled state Legislature. Democratic lawmakers
suggested the conversion would need funding approved through legislation.
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3. CALIFORNIA: Families Outraged Over New Agnews Proposal
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PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Mary O'Riordan, President, Sonoma Developmental Center Parent Hospital
Association
VOR Board Member
(Eldridge, CA) Families of profoundly disabled residents of State
Developmental Centers expressed outrage today in response to Legislators'
comments regarding the use of Developmental Centers as prisons. Mary
O'Riordan, President of Parents' Hospital Association, denounced the
proposal to convert Agnews Developmental Center, home to over 250
profoundly disabled adults, into a prison to ease the state's prison woes
as irresponsible and inexcusably callous. Responding to comments made by
Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, R-Fresno to the San Jose Mercury
News, O'Riordan stated "This is an insult to disabled people throughout the
state and their families. First, the government puts a bounty on our
children's heads, and now they put a bounty on our children's homes."
O'Riordan was referring to reports last October in the Contra Costa Times
that the Department of Developmental Services was requiring North Bay
Regional Center to meet secret quotas to force elderly disabled residents
out of Sonoma Developmental Center into the community, or face fiscal
penalties.
Brian Boxall, President of the Association for the Mentally Retarded at
Agnews, echoed these sentiments, saying "They told us that Agnews was too
expensive to care for my disabled brother and had to be closed. Now they're
saying that they want to keep Agnews open for prisoners. Are they saying
that my brother's life is worth less then the care and feeding of felons?"
O'Riordan expressed fear that looking to Developmental Centers to solve
prison overcrowding would only add to the pressure of pushing medically
fragile disabled clients into a community care system -- a system, they
maintain, which is inadequate to meet the care needs of their disabled
family members.
O'Riordan and Boxal point to the story of 63 year-old Donald Santiago, who
was forced out of Agnews Developmental Center and into a community care
home, only to die a year later after that care provider delayed for one
week to seek medical care for the profoundly disabled, non-communicative
man.
"For years, the Administration has pushed our family members out of
developmental centers into homes that provided inadequate care where many
died, and the Legislature seems to let them do it", added O'Riordan. "Now
they tell us they care more about the comfort of prisoners than the
survival of our disabled children. Could they hurt and insult us any more?
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4. PENNSYLVANIA: Tight funds deny services to state's mentally disabled
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Summary: Waiting list crisis: To get care, some of the more than 22,000
adults with mental retardation in Pennsylvania have to fight for the spot
of someone who dies.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Ann Belser
Monday, January 29, 2007
Statewide, the numbers are staggering. The waiting list for services in all
of Pennsylvania has 22,759 names on it, despite a statewide budget of $1.5
billion.
Those on the waiting list include 3,800 people who need services urgently
enough that they have been given emergency status.
When housing or services become available, more often than not it is
because the previous client has died, said Donald J. Clark, the deputy
director for Allegheny County's Office of Mental Retardation/Developmental
Disabilities.
Stacy Kubala, the executive director of Southwinds Inc., said it costs
about $65,000 a year to house an individual in a fully supported group home
and another $35,000 for a day program.
The shortage of money is leaving people, who need housing, home care and
day services sitting in front of televisions or wandering the streets with
nowhere to be during the days.
This was not supposed to happen. In 2001, then-Gov. Tom Ridge submitted a
budget with a plan to increase spending for services for the mentally
retarded and developmentally disabled by $859 million over the next five
years. That plan was designed to eliminate the waiting lists for services
in the state. But it never went into effect.
In 2003, there were 12,603 people statewide waiting for services with 1,537
people given emergency priority. Now, twice as many people are on the
emergency list and there are 10,000 more waiting overall.
Gov. Ed Rendell is aware of the shortages, said his spokeswoman Kate
Philips.
"It's a sad reality but in the times we're living in, we have a federal
budget that slashes budgets to the states," she said.
The state provides more than half of the $1.5 billion budget for
community-based services for the mentally retarded, with $789 million.
Locally, advocates for the mentally retarded hope to see more money to
address the growing need for services.
"I think there's going to be a substantial waiting list initiative in the
governor's budget proposal," Ms. Blanco said. That proposal is due to be
released Feb. 6.
Ms. Philips said she would not release details of the spending on programs
for the mentally retarded before the budget announcement. But she said
under the Rendell administration, people have come off the lists because of
increased funding in services. "The bottom line is he cares about it," she
said.
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5. MARYLAND: Psychiatric System Crunch Worsens / Waits for Beds
Increasingly Exceed Md.'s Legal Maximum
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Summary: For VOR members and other choice advocates, this article, which
focuses on the deinstitutionalization of persons with mental illness and a
corresponding rise in emergency room visits, the parallels to
deinstitutionalization the MR/DD population will be obvious. The articles
states, "The bottleneck of mental health patients in emergency rooms has
been in the making for years, as the number of psychiatric beds in public
and private hospitals has decreased. The long delays are worrisome to
health care officials and patient advocates because they say the waits
often worsen patients' conditions and overburden already-busy emergency
departments. This is a national problem,' said Patricia Petralia, vice
president and chief operating officer at Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health
Center in Rockville. They're not receiving active treatment.'"
Psychiatric System Crunch Worsens / Waits for Beds Increasingly Exceed
Md.'s Legal Maximum
By Ernesto Londono
Washington Post
Monday, January 29, 2007
Because of a shortage of beds at Maryland psychiatric hospitals, a growing
number of patients, including many who are involuntarily committed, are
spending days in emergency rooms, often in
violation of a state law that mandates that they be placed at a
comprehensive care facility within 30 hours of commitment, heathcare
officials and patient advocates say.
In some cases, they say, this has forced doctors to release patients
regardless of their mental state, sometimes only to have them involuntarily
committed again with no guarantee that they will be placed promptly at a
psychiatric facility.
The bottleneck of mental health patients in emergency rooms has been in the
making for years, as the number of psychiatric beds in public and private
hospitals has decreased. The long delays are
worrisome to health care officials and patient advocates because they say
the waits often worsen patients' conditions and overburden already-busy
emergency departments.
"This is a national problem," said Patricia Petralia, vice president and
chief operating officer at Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health Center in
Rockville. "They're not receiving active treatment."
State officials acknowledge the problem, but they say cases of patients who
are not referred to inpatient psychiatric facilities within 30 hours are
not widespread. They say they are trying to address the issue by quickening
the referral process and monitoring patients more closely to make sure they
get access to the type of treatment they need.
"The number of beds available has not kept up with the demand," said Brian
Hepburn, the executive director of the Maryland Mental Hygiene
Administration. "Anytime you have someone released on a technicality means
they're not getting their needs met."
Elsewhere in the region, Virginia has no time limit prescribed by state
law, but also often faces problems placing involuntarily committed patients
into facilities.
"We hear anecdotal complaints of people waiting in emergency rooms for
extended periods of time," said James Reinhard, commissioner of the
Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance
Abuse Services.
In contrast, the District's St. Elizabeths Hospital has 420 beds for
psychiatric patients, more than enough to meet demand in the city. "We're
not experiencing a crunch," said Linda Grant, spokeswoman for the D.C.
Department of Mental Health. "Traditionally, we have not had a problem
with placement."
The number of beds at Maryland state psychiatric hospitals declined by 72
percent between 1982 and 2005, according to a report released last month by
the Maryland Health Care Commission. The drop from 4,390 to 1,235 beds
during that period came as three hospitals closed and others downsized. The
number of beds at private licensed psychiatric hospitals fell by 36 percent
during
that period, dropping from 830 to 519.
The number at state and private psychiatric hospitals in Virginia also has
dropped sharply in the past 30 years. The reasons for the decreases, health
experts say, include the deinstitutionalization of many patients and the
difficulty of making psychiatric hospitals financially solvent.
Neither Maryland officials nor the patient advocates could provide specific
numbers of people affected by the delays caused by the shortage of beds.
But they agree they are increasing.
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Tamie Hopp
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