Archive for April, 2012

 Update to “Looking at NYS Care of the Disabled”

 This is an update to the prior SOS News Flash article introducing Danny Hakim, award-winning writer for the NY Times.  His recent (May 4th article) describes NYS’s response to the enormous criticism which has been leveled at it and documented in Mr. Hakim’s articles, criticism even from the federal government. The collection of references to Hakim’s articles posted  here  earlier can be found on this Blog under “Looking at NYS Care of the Disabled.”

This  article is also by  Hakim, and describes an attempt at some intervention and advocacy for, among others, those housed in NYS facilities under Commissioner Burke’s oversight.  One has to wonder why is it seems to always be just one more new gov’t agency that will solve all the ills?  Yet, who can deny that serious reform is needed? 

Burke’s programs and attitude show that there are at least 3 sides:  those in her care and their families, the communities from whom facilities are either foisted, withdrawn or both (like Middlesex), and the fat cats with teeth bared in Albany.  To date we have seen no responsiveness from Burke on either of the first two constituencies. The May 4th article is excerpted and highlighted below and can be found at:    https://omrmail/owa/redir.aspx?C=8643fca1270d48b2bd67fee7a6940935&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nytimes.com%2f2012%2f05%2f07%2fnyregion%2fgovernor-to-propose-new-agency-to-fight-abuse-of-disabled.html%3f_r%3d1%26ref%3dnyregion%26pagewanted%3dall

Please read the entire article for more detail.

Cuomo Seeking New Agency to Police Care of Disabled

ALBANY — “…. Cuomo, seeking to strengthen the state’s chronically weak response to abuse of disabled people who live in publicly financed homes, plans …  to propose https://experience.tripster.ru/experience/Zaraysk/sights/ creating an agency dedicated to investigating problems with the care of nearly one million vulnerable New Yorkers.”

“A new law enforcement and oversight agency would monitor those in state or private care who have developmental disabilities” ….The agency would employ a special prosecutor and would be granted subpoena power and authority to convene grand juries… The administration is also proposing tougher laws to punish those “who abuse people with developmental or other cognitive disabilities …”  (1)

… “the state had been transferring abusive employees from group home to group home, abuse cases were rarely referred to the police, and employees were hired with criminal records”.  (2)

… the agency would take over many administrative investigations currently performed by six state agencies including the OPWDD (3)

The new agency would have hundreds of employees and be “paid for in part with money taken from the budgets of the six existing agencies”.  (4)

…the nonprofit sector housing those vulnerable would be subject to the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). … The new state agency would provide legal staff to help the nonprofits respond … and “redact documents as needed”.  (5)

… an independent nonprofit organization would serve as an “outside advocate” … “could bring litigation against the state.” (6)

The federal Department of Health and Human Services … sharply criticized NY’s “care of developmentally disabled and mentally ill people, …has pushed the state to move in such a direction…” (7)

“… the agency would administer criminal background checks of those applying for employment at state agencies or nonprofit providers, consolidating what has been a porous and error-filled process” … “maintain a register of abusive employees at all state and private facilities to prevent workers fired by one provider from being hired by another.” (8)

Deciphering state-speak?

(1)    Care of those being displaced from theMonroeDevelopmentalCenteris being forced on the nonprofits, but with financial incentive.  Thus, after they pick who they want, little communities like Middlesex will be left with the worst populations as neighbors.

(2)    What exactly is the difference between transferring abusive employees from house to house, and transferring an unsuspecting population from one abuser to another?

(3)    Good….get the fox out of the henhouse.

(4)    In other words, the taxpayer is of course paying, again.

(5)    Or as necessary to defeat the purpose of FOIL, it sometimes seems.

(6)    Can we hope that potential plaintiffs might include the 12,000 developmentally disabled who are already waiting for beds and their families?  And can anyone really be an “outside advocate” when NYS is employing both?

(7)    Please consider writing to Washington, and the Dept. of Health and Human Services, to complain about the abuse of previous Middlesex occupants of the IRA and their families in the way they were transferred, and also to complain about the abuse of our community, so HHS can add those complaints to their own list.

(8)    Most shocking to think this wasn’t already happening and needs a new law! 

 

 PRIOR POST:

Danny Hakim, award-winning writer for the NY Times, wrote a timely article published on March 22, 2012. Here is a link  to the article,  excerpted below.   In 2011, Mr. Hakim and a Times colleague, Russ Buettner, collaborated on a series of articles called “Abused and Used” that focused on abuse, neglect and deadly mistakes in New York’s system of caring for developmentally disabled people.  In April 2012, the series was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The Pulitzer board said the series “revealed rapes, beatings and more than 1,200 unexplained deaths over the past decade of developmentally disabled people in NYS group homes.”

A leak of the 2010 report points to giant shortcomings in the system to care for the disabled, including OPWDD (Office of People With Developmental Disabilities) which Courtney Burke now heads up.  She was appointed in March, 2011 but since the 2010 report hasn’t been issued, it seems unlikely that we will soon be seeing any evidence that she’s made any improvement. 

It is in this environment, of secrecy and unreleased documentation, that decisions about closing the Monroe Developmental Center, privatizing care with less experienced care-givers, sending people such as sex offenders willy nilly into communities which don’t want them, not coordinating with towns or being willing to hold hearings, that the Middlesex IRA and our community finds itself.  Can the following build any feelings of confidence?

 “State Faults Care for the Disabled”

“Nearly 300,000 disabled and mentally ill New Yorkers face a “needless risk of harm” because of conflicting regulations, a lack of oversight and even disagreements over what constitutes abuse, according to a draft state report obtained by The New York Times.

In 2010, the number of abuse accusations at large institutions overseen by the State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities outnumbered the beds in those facilities…

…Problems were found at all six state agencies that provide residential service to children and adults with an array of disabilities, mental illnesses or other issues that qualify them to receive specialized care by the state.

According to the report, a regulatory maze has complicated and in some cases constrained the state’s response to claims of abuse.   At one agency, the police are summoned if “there is reason to believe that a crime has been committed,” while another agency does so only if a potential felony has been committed.   A third agency turns to law enforcement only if a local district attorney has “indicated a prior interest,” ….

Claims of firing people, or improving administration, or making up new rules  (such as criminal background checks of staff members who work with the vulnerable) don’t mean much unless the statistics are supplied.  And are these the “extra staff” Michael Feeney referred to at Emergency Meeting #2 or not?  Should we be worried about the staff as well as the potential occupants?

“…we are currently working on a transformational reform plan based on the report that will be announced soon,” said Richard Bamberger, the governor’s communications director.

,,, Michael Carey, an advocate for the developmentally disabled whose son with autism died in state care in 2007, said he was concerned that the governor was waiting to address the issue until after legislative budget negotiations, which could make it more difficult to find money for new programs.  “It’s gross negligence that that report has not come out, and it’s beyond frustrating,” Mr. Carey said, adding, “The reforms to date are baby steps towards monster problems.”

The Times last year identified numerous problems with the state’s care for the developmentally disabled: only 5 percent of abuse accusations were forwarded to law enforcement, and employees who physically or sexually abused the disabled were often transferred among group homes instead of being fired.  Ten percent of deaths of the developmentally disabled in state care were listed… from unknown causes, suggesting widespread failures in efforts to determine why people die in state care.

… executives at some nonprofit organizations hired by the state to care for the disabled have been earning seven-figure annual compensation packages and taking a wide range of Medicaid-financed perks for themselves and their friends and families.

… six state agencies … oversee residential programs for vulnerable populations, at an annual cost of $17.9 billion.

If you use the link above to read the whole story, be sure also to digest some of the readers’ comments at the end.  Very enlightening. 

Here are some of the headlines of stories under this topic previously written by Mr. Hakim: Read more: Update to “Looking at NYS Care of the Disabled”