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February 8, 2008Adult Home Residents Rally at Capitol On Wednesday over 200 residents of adult homes in New York State (most from downstate) converged on the Capitol to talk to legislators and Governor Spitzer’s staff about issues concerning their quality of life. During the course of the day we heard from Assemblyman Peter Rivera, Dennis Whalen, the Governor Director of Human Services, David Wollner and Kelly Haskin—Tenenini from OMH, Mark Kissinger from the Department of Health and Gary O’Brien, the Chair of the Commission on Quality of Care. Significantly, we also heard from residents of adult homes who voiced their concerns about the quality of their lives in their residences. Several of us met with legislative staff to reiterate the significance of independent housing for adult home residents. There is a misconception that many adult home residents do not want to move out of their existing homes. The reality is that many are unaware that other options may be available. The vision we have of independent case managers is that they will be able to introduce concepts of more independent living by discussing housing options and providing information about housing applications, entry to the SPOA and other initiatives necessary to live more independently. The idea of ENABLE funding in the budget was to help to spur individuals in the adult home with the skill set necessary to live more independently in the home or in a more independent setting. If done properly, there can be coordination of care between the various adult home reforms that will ultimately result in better quality of life for the homes residents including this three tiered approach:
In addition, it is clear that there should be more funding for legal and lay advocacy for residents. Many of the residents at the speak out and in legislative meetings talked about the fear of intimidation by operators if they made any waves and raised controversial issues in the residents council meeting. There are certainly some homes where this does not happen but we have heard from enough residents that there clearly are many homes where this kind of intimidation goes on consistently. That is why legal and lay advocacy funding is significant. In addition more independent entities such as ombuds programs and models of oversight like Boards of Visitors should be given greater access to the homes as well. Adult home conversion is another important issue. We think it is very significant that Governor Spitzer has proposed adding funding for adult home conversions. We want to be able to convert adult homes that close into new housing for people with psychiatric disability. However, we think that the existing residents of the soon to be converted home should have right of first refusal for the new housing when they are forced to leave the home during the conversion process. Listed below is the press release announcing the report card. MHANYS was pleased to be involved in the planning and participation of the event. The adult home residents I have had the opportunity to meet over the last several years are among the most courageous, inspirational and resilient folks in the entire mental health community. Special thanks go to the leadership of the New York State Coalition on Adult Home Reform, the Coalition of the Institutionalized and Aged Disabled, SCAA and NYAPRS.
New York State Coalition for Adult Home Reform For
Immediate Release: Contact: NEWS RELEASE 5 Years After Times Exposé, Adult Home Residents Still Seek Promised Aid Residents
Urge Legislature to Dedicate Alternative Community Housing, Over two hundred New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities who live in state licensed adult homes came to Albany from across the state today to urge state officials and the Legislature to ensure that their platform of “Dignity, Respect, Choice and Recovery” for people living in adult homes be considered top priorities during this year’s legislative session. For the fifth successive year, the residents and their supporters hosted an annual Adult Home Speak Out in the Well in the Legislative Office Building in Albany. They spoke passionately about how previous state commitments to provide them critical aid have fallen far short of promises made in the recent past. “We come today with the hope that this Administration and the Legislature will help us make good on the promises of the past and give us the services and alternative housing we must have to restore the lives we lost when state policies abandoned us to inappropriate and, too often, scandalous, conditions in adult homes” said Norman Bloomfield, a representative of the Coalition of Aged, Institutionalized and Disabled (CIAD), a resident advocacy organization. In 2003, the Pataki Administration formed an Adult Care Facilities Workgroup that brought state agency officials and advocates together to address a history of abuse and neglect that was powerfully profiled by Clifford Levy’s Pulitzer prize-winning series of articles in the New York Times. After much study, the Workgroup developed far-reaching recommendations designed to reverse years of neglect suffered by adult home residents. Today, the residents released a Report Card, entitled “Progress of the Adult Care Facilities Workgroup – 5 Years Later” that graded the progress that the state has made in realizing – and in many instances, not realizing – the recommendations of that workgroup. The Report Card cited the state for often serious deficiencies in addressing numerous Work Group recommendations, including past commitments to move residents to alternative housing, to improve services and living conditions in homes and to boost case management services and lay and legal advocacy. They called for the creation of a permanent Commission on Adult Care Facility Reform. In presenting the report card, Irene Kaplan, a resident of Surf Manor, said, “The Workgroup raised expectations that the lives of residents in adult homes would improve. We should not have to wait for more front page headlines to see this happen. Residents are committed to making sure that New York State makes good on its promises.” Despite Workgroup recommendations that half of the 12,000 psychiatrically disabled adult home residents gain access to community housing over the next decade and state assments showing that over 500 residents were ready, willing and able to transition to those beds in 2004, only a few hundred have gained access to the thousands of new community housing beds created in recent years by the NYS Office of Mental Health. The Spitzer Administration has made a strong commitment to boosting community housing for people with disabilities and has created 4,000 new community beds over the past two years. Accordingly, the advocates urged the Legislature today to dedicate 25% of new supported housing and single-room occupancy (SRO) apartments for 500 residents with psychiatric disabilities who were ‘still stranded’ in adult homes. “In recent years, the state has dedicated community housing for specific groups, most notably the homeless and those living in state psychiatric centers,” said CIAD’s Geoff Lieberman. “Today, we’re asking state legislators to help us direct new housing resources to ensure that we keep our promises to residents who’ve been waiting to regain lost lives back in the community.” Cassandra Cox, a resident from Riverdale Manor in the Bronx urged state officials to “help me resume the active, productive life I once had.” Recognizing that adult homes were not intended and were not equipped to provide proper mental health support to residents with psychiatric disabilities, the Workgroup also recommended that the state create specialized OMH case management/peer specialist teams. Over the past few years, the teams have provided important support to almost 4,000 residents in 14 adult homes. The advocates asked state legislators to expand funding to the program to reach the remaining 8,000 residents who still await the promised help. At the meeting, adult home residents also voiced their support for the Mental Health Housing Waiting List legislation that would enable New York State to document the number of mental health consumers who are waiting for more appropriate Office of Mental Health sponsored community housing. Governor Spitzer vetoed the bill in 2007. In the absence of a state list, adult home residents decided to create their own. They call it the “People’s Waiting List” and more than 200 adult home residents have already signed on. Residents also supported the proposed funding to allow for a demonstration project to coordinate behavioral health and health services. CIAD President Woody Wilson said, “Improving and integrating our healthcare is a critical issue when people with psychiatric disabilities have an average lifespan twenty-five years less than the general population.” Better coordination will benefit residents who suffer from multiple conditions and often see several different specialists.
Memo from Dr. Lloyd Sederer responding to concerns of the Geriatric Mental Health Alliance and the Association of Hispanic Mental Health Professionals regarding the OMH Assessment Released in October Memo to Michael Friedman, Director Center for Policy and Advocacy, Mental Health Associations of NYC and Westchester, January 2008
In the OMH Assessment released in October of 2007, my colleagues and I provided a summary of issues and made recommendations for improvement in four major domains that pertain to mental health in the state of New York. These were:
Please let this letter serve as an Addendum to the OMH Assessment, for your distribution as you see fit. The OMH Assessment Report aimed to be inclusive and substantive but imagined it would try but not likely achieve such a comprehensive aim. As a result, the report offered an apologia in its text that recognized that it would surely omit important areas for policy and practice. As it turns out, we did not give adequate attention to the importance of the needs of the growing populations of elders and minorities. I am thankful to the Geriatric Mental Health Alliance of New York and the Association of Hispanic Mental Health Professionals for convening a briefing to discuss the OMH Assessment and areas where we could better recognize the needs the "elder-boom" and minorities, including Hispanics, Blacks and Asian Americans. I am also thankful to NYC Department for the Aging Commissioner Edwin Mendez-Santiago for his hosting our meeting and his contributions to the discussion. In our meeting we discussed the following important subjects and objectives:
As OMH further considers policy and service development, these ideas will be important considerations in our thinking and planning. We are thankful for the many groups that provided further input to the OMH Assessment and we look forward to collaborating with you in its implementation. Lloyd
Sederer, M.D. cc:
Super Bowl Win for Giants For the record, last week at this time, I predicted a Giant Super Bowl victory. Though I was wrong about the exact score, I was correct about the Giants three point win. What a game!. I will now give away the secret as to why they won. Two hours before the game, I had my son and his buddy go over to SUNY Albany where the Giants practice in the summer and they both said a prayer at the practice field. The rumors are not true that I will be flying them to Port St. Lucie where the Mets practice to invoke the same prayers. |
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