Conn. Families Fight Proposed Cuts

Keep up the good fight Nutmeggers.

HARTFORD — The signs of influence were there: About 30 legislators showed up at a rallying point Wednesday as dozens of parents of children with intellectual disabilities prepared to fan out through the Capitol complex and press lawmakers to resist $47 million in proposed cuts to services.The consensus in the crowded meeting room Wednesday was that parents, schooled by advocates to become their own champions, have in recent years fully conveyed what they see as an unjust system that favors expensive, outmoded state institutions serving a fraction of the population.

NYSARC Sees Rough Year Ahead

Not exactly an uplifting story for the start of 2016, but important nonetheless.

People with developmental disabilities and their families are really worried about the New Year. Leaders at NYSARC, New York State’s largest advocacy and helping agency for disabled people, said they’re facing potential budget cuts and strict, new rules from the state. They also fear caretakers might quit their jobs in search of higher pay.

NYS Coming Up Short

Over the past four years, organizations supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities — including autism — have undergone significant funding cuts as New York State resolves issues with the federal government regarding Medicaid. While the State of New York is responsible for the overcharges and misuse of these funds, private agencies like the Arc of Westchester have served as the “piggy bank” for New York to rectify these issues. Over the past few years, our organization has suffered reduction in funding in excess of $3 million, while we are expected to provide services for the growing needs among families and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Advocates Attack Malloy Budget Cuts

HARTFORD — Groups advocating on behalf of Connecticut's developmentally disabled adults and children took to the Capitol to criticize Gov. Dannel Malloy's rescissions from more than ten days ago. One Democrat in the Connecticut House even took the governor's administration to task and backed GOP calls for a Special Session to address funding deficiencies.More than $7 million of the cuts were aimed at the Department of Developmental Services that handles adult home and day services for adults living with mental struggles.

Budget Roundup: Fighting Planned Cuts

The message is coming from so many states that we decided to compile a roundup. First piece addresses New Jersey cut and is by Tom Toronto, president of United Way of Bergen County

We are deeply concerned about the position the state of New Jersey has recently taken with respect to housing opportunities for those with disabilities and special needs.

The state is contemplating a rule change that will limit housing choices for people with developmental disabilities to either four-bedroom group homes or set-aside units that are 25 percent or less of a large multifamily development. Bergen County's United Way believes that people with developmental disabilities have the right to choose from a full array of housing, lifestyle and support-service options.

Charlene Smith-Scott, an employee with The Arc Baltimore, responds to Maryland cuts.

Before Gov. Martin O'Malley left office, he cut funding that my colleagues and I were counting on to stay ahead of minimum wage. Now, Gov. Larry Hogan is doing the same thing with the new budget. People in my profession are not state employees, but we are doing work that is the responsibility of the state. Maryland doesn't seem to take that seriously because we are paid as the lowest of the low among our comparable peers in health care, elder care and the like.

NEWARK, Del. — The conflict among caretakers and community advocates for Delawareans with intellectual and development disabilities came out in full force during a public hearing Monday discussing how taxpayer-funded community housing and work placement funded is offered in the state.The hearing, held at Delaware State Police Troop 2 headquarters in Newark, provided a forum for the community to evaluate Delaware's preliminary transition plan to adapt a new federal rule that changes how subsidized home- and community-based services are funded.

Editorial: Connecticut Budget Hits 'Weakest Members' of Society

If, as Gandhi once said, “a nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members,” then the part of this nation that’s called Connecticut isn’t doing so great.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy recently announced another round of budget cuts, and the Department of Developmental Services is taking the biggest hit — $8.4 million, on top of the cuts it suffered in 2012 and 2014. The colleges and the courts were also asked to tighten their belts, and that’s certainly a problem; both of those institutions have already had to make cuts.

Opinion: Connecticut Budget Cuts Reflect 'New Level of Inhumanity'

Powerful Op-Ed piece in The Hartford Courant by Stanley and the Rev. Kathleen Peters, parents of an adult child with ID/DD.

Enough is enough. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Office of Policy and Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes have shown a whole new level of inhumanity with their continued cuts to the Department of Developmental Services budget. As two of the thousands of parents of an adult child with an intellectual/developmental disability, who has been on the department's waiting lists for residential funding, we are sickened by the Malloy administration's indifference to our children and all the children affected by the budget cuts.

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are among the most vulnerable members of our society and the least able to personally advocate for themselves. We can only think that it is because of their vulnerability that the governor and the secretary of policy and management feel that they are an easy target to take the brunt of cuts to balance the state budget.

DSPs Expected to Feel Md. Budget Cuts

Washington County providers of services for the developmentally disabled would feel the pinch of a 2 percent across-the-board budget reduction to Maryland state agencies that a state board approved this week.

The reduction is part of a plan to cover a $410 million budget shortfall. It would cut in half a 4 percent increase in funds for developmental disability community services  for this fiscal year that the Maryland General Assembly passed last year.

A Message to Arizona Governor and Legislators: 'We Are In Your Community'

A guest column from azcentral.com by Mark Jacoby, executive director of Gompers Habilitation Center and chairman of the Arizona Association of Providers for People with Disabilities.

Gov. Jan Brewer, Arizona legislators: Are you listening?

A provider of developmental-disability services in Vail has been forced to discontinue providing respite services, leaving the community with no one to turn to. A Phoenix provider has closed six group homes. Children with autism have to endure long waiting lists in order to receive critical behavioral treatments. A children’s program in Kingman closed. A Phoenix provider closed a dental center that exclusively served individuals with disabilities. Services for children with developmental disabilities age birth to 3 have closed all across Arizona.

Critics Turn to Academics To Do Cost-Benefit Analysis of OPWDD Services

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  -- Faced with a $90 million cut to the state Office of People With Developmental Disabilities, Staten Island advocates for the disabled have been highly critical of the borough's Albany lawmakers for not doing enough to prevent what amounts to a 4.5 percent reduction in aid. 

Donna Long and Laura Kennedy
are among those critical to the cuts.

But now Assemblyman Michael Cusick and one of the sharpest critics of the cuts to OPWDD, parent and activist Laura Kennedy -- who branded the reductions "cruel and shameful" -- told the Advance Thursday they've come up with a "plan of action" going forward.

Budget Cuts and the Meaning of Work

From The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Unfortunately, you can change the names and the location to almost anywhere around the country and find the same thing.

If you don’t have any direct experience with them, it can be hard to understand just how profound an effect Linn County’s recent budget cuts have had on people who rely on Mental Health and Developmental Disability services. That’s why a handful of families are speaking out, specifically about the cut to work programs.

Most of us are taught from childhood that work is an important part of becoming an adult — a source of pride and identity — and developmentally disabled adults in Linn County are no exception. Here are a few of their stories as written by family members:

Editorial: Autism and the Budget Crisis

The prevalence of autism is continuing to rise, with an increasing number of families facing the reality that there will be cuts to both services and programs affecting people with autism unless we all take action. Tax revenues continue to decline during the current economic woes and the budget reserves are drained. Most states in America are proposing sweeping and deep budget cuts that will affect families through reductions in services that are proven and needed.

The cuts that are proposed are coming at a time when the experience of autism has become a national health care crisis, something that affects every single community in the nation. The current delivery system for services is often times unresponsive, ineffective, inefficient, and inappropriate where provision of quality and seamless services over a person with autism’s lifespan is concerned. The evidence is particularly noticeable in the adult services sector.

Pleading for Restoring Human Service Funds

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- After three years of deep budget cuts and declining revenue, Fairfax County is showing signs of fiscal equilibrium as property values and revenues begin a slow uphill climb.

But human service agencies in the county are still feeling pinched by three years of cumulative cuts to their budgets, shrinking state and federal dollars, and increased demand on services.

More than 30 agencies and individuals showed up to testify during last week’s public hearings on the proposed $6.7 billion fiscal year 2013 budget to deliver a unified message to the Board of Supervisors.

Minn. Budget to Hurt People with Disabilities

A perspective on the Minnesota budget cuts and the impact on health and human services from Pat Mellenthin, CEO of The Arc Minnesota.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- State Rep. Jim Abeler writes in his July 21 commentary ("A job well done on health, human Services") that the bill "minimized reductions to disability services." This is an overstatement, to say the least.

We understood going into the 2011 legislative session that funding for human services would likely take its share of cuts, but this bill is far more disappointing than we imagined, in a number of ways.

Under the final health and human services (HHS) budget, hundreds of millions of state and federal dollars that would have paid for services for persons with disabilities in the community will be lost.

Some of these cuts are cruel and unwise and could force Minnesotans with disabilities into nursing homes or other institutions, which will only add to the state's future budget woes.

Penn. Social Services Cuts Draw Criticsm

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The administration of Gov. Tom Corbett is piling up a string of changes it ordered to social and human services before seeking outside input, according to advocates for the poor and disabled who have protested that the changes are both damaging and counterproductive.

At least four such orders were pulled back after an outcry. But advocates for those who use the services, such as people trying to re-enter the work force or live independently, say the record stirs deep concerns, especially given the broader authority that state lawmakers just gave the Corbett administration to cut programs without public review first.

Privatization Could Challenge Nonprofits

HARTFORD, Conn. -- As the Malloy administration prepares to cut spending in social service agencies -- part of the plan the governor released Tuesday and wants the legislature to approve -- the nonprofits that provide many safety net services for low-income and disabled residents are wondering what the changes could mean for them and their clients.
People who work with nonprofits say they could take over some state services, particularly group homes and local mental health authorities, which provide theraputic and crisis intervention programs. Private providers already operate some of both.
But some cautioned that the nonprofits themselves are in precarious financial positions and would need more state funding to take on additional responsibilities. And nonprofit leaders worry that the budget cuts could instead mean cuts in the rates private providers are paid by the state.

ARC Early Learning Center Closing

MADISON COUNTY, N.Y. -- Madison County ARC (now the Madison Cortland ARC) in 1968 developed a program for pre-school and school aged children with intellectual and other developmental disabilities. Founded by families of children with special needs, this program paved the road to the creation of the wide range of care and supports offered at Madison Cortland ARC.
What was originally known as the Day Care Center for the Mentally Retarded 42 years ago, evolved into providing State Education and Health Department approved school age, pre-school, and early intervention programs. The name was changed to The Early Learning Center and it became an inclusive program that included children with and without special needs.
The Early Learning Center has helped hundreds of children with special needs in Madison County. Unfortunately, funding for the programs at the Early Learning Center has not kept up pace and the program has been running a deficit for many years. Madison Cortland ARC can no longer support a program that runs a deficit. The Early Learning Center programs will be closing the end of June.

Tennessee Budget Cuts Mean Big Changes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- With budget cuts looming, Tennessee is cutting nursing and personal assistance services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the new fiscal year, limiting aid services and placing more people in community-based homes.
As of May, about 1,827 persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities received letters that their one-on-one nursing services would be reduced to 12 hours a day and personal assistance services limited to 215 hours a month, according to a Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities news release.

Minnesota Government Shutdown Looms

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Less than two weeks before the far-reaching mechanisms of Minnesota's government might come to a halt, Jessica Lund's mind is filled with thoughts of snikerdoodles. Lund, 38, has Down syndrome and was helping to bake the cinnamon-sugar cookies with a care worker in a group home on a recent afternoon. Five other adults with developmental disabilities live with Lund in this 2,000 square-foot rambler that looks like any other on a suburban block of Golden Valley — one of many homes run by Hammer, a private non-profit that's funded almost entirely by taxpayer money. Like the thousands of the state's most vulnerable citizens, Lund doesn't have a voice in the legislative brinkmanship that threatens to disrupt her life.
Minnesota's political leaders failed to pass a budget by the end of the legislative session on May 23. Now, the clock is ticking down to a fiscal deadline of June 30, the end of the current budget biennium, when lawmakers are required to pass another two-year budget that will close a $5 billion deficit.

Illinois Families Relocating for Services

Chrisa Hickey, a northwest suburban mom whose 16-year-old son hears voices, has bought property in Wisconsin with an eye to the future.
She wouldn't leave Barrington for career, retirement or the more languid pace of small-town living. Her relocation plans are strictly a way to keep Tim in his $85,000-a-year residential treatment center, currently funded by the state of Illinois.
"People ask, 'Why spend that kind of money on one kid?' And I tell them that he's 6-foot-2, 200 pounds and could pick up a desk when he was 4. If he gets angry in class, do you want him sitting next to your kid?"
Although no one tracks why people leave one state for another, anecdotal evidence suggests Hickey is one of several who are planning to leave Illinois — or has already left — because of diminishing human services here.