AccessAbility

RSA issued its final rule: sheltered workshops are no longer an acceptable employment outcome for VR agencies! But the Bush Administration is reviewing all of Clinton's last actions. Workshops have started a mail campaign to get this rule reversed. Your letters in support of the rule are needed NOW. Write:

A forum where parents, educators, and other professionals can come together and begin a dialogue on the issues and barriers to the inclusion of students with disabilities in the mainstream classroom.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• Parents
• Classroom teachers
• Special education teachers
• School administrators
• CSE chairpersons
• OTs, PTs, SLPs, and other professionals working with students in school settings

Anyone interested in the education of students with disabilities


SESSION ONE

Baggage: The Baggage presentation demonstrates the importance of good communication between professionals, parents and individuals with disabilities. It brings to light in a positive and powerful manner communication obstacles, many of which stem from our emotional reactions.

Augmentative Communication and Literacy: Communication devices in the schools.

SESSION TWO

Strategies to Support Inclusive Education: The rationale for inclusive education will be reviewed, and a strategy presented for teams to plan instruction that meets a student's IEP in the context of regular education activities.

Assistive Technology - Tools for Inclusion: What's new and available and how to get it.

STIC welcomes four new staff members to our merry band:

Andy Sedor is our Loan Closet Assistant; he's the guy to see about borrowing a piece of equipment. Andy has been a volunteer here at STIC for several years, and we're pleased to be able to make his work a paying proposition for him.

Suzanne Gunter is our new part-time Peer Counselor. Say hi to her when you're on the third floor.

Ray Pierce has joined our Transition Services Program as Community Support Specialist for the Johnson City schools.

Barbara Kane is our new Development Assistant. She'll be helping with our golf tournament and other fundraising events, as well as doing some desktop publishing, grant writing, and publicity and marketing.

Welcome one and all!

by Clyde Robot

Hi! My name's Clyde. What? You think all robots are named Robby or Rodney or something starting with R? Well, I dare to be different! Anyway, I'd like to talk to you about an experience that has changed my life. I started out like any other toy: born on an assembly line, then stuffed into one of those annoying Styrofoam containers that you can never get to fit right once you take it off. Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is when you people take us toys out of those things and then just jam them back on and cram us into the box? It's like having a permanent wedgie! But, I digress. After the box came the long ride to the store and then the even longer wait on the store shelf. That's the worst part! It's toy prison!

I was so thrilled when someone plucked me off that crowded shelf and took me to the checkout counter. At last, I thought, I will have a child to play with me! What happened next, however, changed my life. I didn't go home to a child. I went to Tech Camp! At Tech Camp, I learned that there are many kids in the Southern Tier who love to play with toys, but who need some adaptations to allow them to do that. I was fitted with a battery adapter that plugs into an ability switch. Now, anyone can play with me! After graduation from camp, I landed a really great job in STIC's Lending Library. The Lending Library is a place where families of kids with disabilities can borrow all kinds of adaptive equipment, including toys like me, and try things out before making expensive purchases. It's a great job! I get to travel throughout Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, and Tioga counties. But, the best part is that I don't have one child to play with, I have many!

Sadly though, I am way overbooked. There just aren't enough of us Tech Camp graduates to keep up with the demand for adaptive toys in this area. That's why STIC is asking for your help. We need more toys who would like to go to Tech Camp and learn how to be adaptive, action-packed, Power Toys. We're not looking for expensive, high tech toys. Any battery-operated toy will do. We serve families of infants, toddlers, and school-age kids, so toys that are appropriate for any of these ages will work.

Sending a toy to Tech Camp is easy! Once you've successfully recruited a toy, all you have to do is send it to:

Southern Tier Independence Center
24 Prospect Avenue
Binghamton, NY 13901

Or, you may drop your Tech Camper off at our offices any time between 9:30 am and 4 pm Monday-Friday. Please leave your name and address with your toy so we can thank you properly. When you send a toy to Tech Camp, you'll receive a Tech Camp registration certificate and itinerary of camp activities from STIC. You'll also receive a letter from your toy, letting you know how things are going at camp, and a graduation diploma! For more information about sending a toy to Tech Camp, please contact Darlene, our Tech Camp Director, at 724-2111 (voice/TTY). Thanks!

Not long after taking office, President George W. Bush announced what appeared to be a sweeping and mostly positive approach to reforming national disability policy. Bush's "New Freedom Initiative" closely follows his campaign statements on the subject. Here are excerpts from the basic outline provided by the White House:

Assistive Technology Research and Development. The Administration will triple the Rehabilitative Engineering Research Centers' budget for assistive technologies, create a new fund to help bring assistive technologies to market, and better coordinate the federal effort in prioritizing immediate assistive and universally designed technology needs in the disability community.

Access to Assistive Technology. Assistive technology is often prohibitively expensive. In order to increase access, funding for low-interest loan programs to purchase assistive technologies will increase tenfold.

Fully Fund the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The federal government has not provided sufficient funding for IDEA; it has become a large unfunded mandate on state and local governments and is failing to meet the needs of disabled children. The Administration will work with Congress to increase funding for special education with the goal of meeting the federal obligations under IDEA.

Early Detection of Needs. To emphasize preventative efforts to identify children with special needs, funds will focus on elementary grade students, where math and reading difficulties can be corrected before children are diagnosed as needing special education.

Telecommuting. The Administration will provide $20 million in federal matching funds to states to guarantee low-interest loans for people with disabilities to buy computers and other equipment necessary to work by phone from home. Also, legislation will be proposed to make a company's contribution of computer and internet access for home use by employees with disabilities a tax-free benefit.

Swift Implementation of "Ticket to Work." On February 1, 2001, President Bush signed an Executive Order that directs federal agencies to swiftly implement the law giving Americans with disabilities the ability to choose their own support services and maintain their health benefits when they return to work.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance Assistance. Resources will be provided to promote ADA compliance and to help small businesses hire people with disabilities. The Administration will also promote the Disabled Access Credit, an incentive program created in 1990 to help small businesses comply.

Promote Homeownership for People with Disabilities. HUD's Section 8 rental voucher program for people with disabilities will be reformed to permit recipients to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance the down payment on a home.

Expand Transportation Options. The proposal provides $45 million for 10 pilot programs run by state or local governments in urban and rural areas to create innovative transportation plans that serve people with disabilities. It also provides $100 million in matching grants to promote alternative methods of transportation through community-based organizations. The funds will go toward the purchase and operation of vans, assisting people with down payments or costs associated with accessible vehicles, and extending the use of existing transportation resources.

Swift Implementation of the Olmstead Decision. On February 1, 2001, President Bush signed an Executive Order supporting the most integrated community-based settings for individuals with disabilities and calling for identification and removal of barriers to community placement.

National Commission on Mental Health Services. The National Commission, established by President Bush on February 1, 2001, will study and make recommendations for improving America's mental health service delivery system, including making recommendations on the availability and delivery of new treatments and technologies for individuals with severe mental illness.

Improving Access. $10 million in matching funds will be provided annually to increase the accessibility of organizations that are currently exempt from Title III of the ADA, such as churches, mosques, synagogues, and civic organizations. The Administration also supports improving access to polling places and ballot secrecy for people with disabilities.

Some of these proposals are vague, and others have a downside. For example, it is unclear what significant additional benefit will result from the Executive Order "supporting" the Olmstead decision; HCFA already seems to be doing a great deal in this area. Bush did not endorse MiCASSA (Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act), a bill to let people who are eligible for Medicaid-funded nursing home or ICF placement choose community-based services instead, though this would be the best way to "eliminate barriers to community placement". There are no specific proposals to improve polling place access beyond a pledge to "work with Congress" on the issue. Also, the fine print on the telecommuting proposal prohibits the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from issuing worker safety rules for "home offices." While it may seem absurd for OSHA to regulate what people do in their own homes, the computer and internet revolutions have made possible a not-too-distant future in which large corporations can save billions of dollars in expenses for real estate, office furniture and equipment, by requiring clerical and professional workers to work at home, using closely-monitored networked computer connections. Without regulations for worker safety, the result could be an epidemic of repetitive-motion, vision-related, and other injuries. Some advocates also criticize "swift implementation" of the Ticket to Work program, claiming that proposed regulations will lead to monopolization of services by state rehab agencies and inadequate reimbursement for private providers. These critics say more time is needed to craft appropriate regulations before "rolling out" the Ticket to Work. And, the plan to provide money to religious organizations to improve access raises serious church-state separation issues.

However, there are also some clear benefits in the proposal. The plan to fully-fund IDEA is in line with legislation proposed in both houses of Congress last year and would largely remove the strongest ammunition school districts have in their arsenal of IDEA-avoidance tactics. Allowing HUD Section 8 vouchers to subsidize a mortgage down payment is a much-needed addition to the program announced last year to let Section 8 funds be used for monthly mortgage payments (see "Buy a House through HUD" for details). A program to help people with disabilities purchase accessible vehicles would also be very useful, if universally available and adequately funded.

Bush's announcement is a promising first step; if other equally positive steps follow, we may actually see some "new freedom".

The federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has taken a big step forward in assisting people with disabilities to own their own homes. HUD's Section 8 vouchers can now be used to make monthly home mortgage payments.

Section 8 is a program that provides low-income people with rental assistance. A landlord agrees to make a house or apartment available under the Section 8 program, and agrees with HUD on a reasonable rent. The tenant is required to pay some portion of that rent based on their income, and HUD pays the difference between what the tenant pays and the agreed-upon rent.

The new program lets the HUD money be used for mortgage payments instead of rent. It is expected that banks will take this source of income into account when deciding if you are eligible for a loan. Here are the rules:

1. You can use the vouchers either for your own home or for a share in a co-op building.
   
   
2. If you have a disability, there is no requirement that you be employed. However, you are required to have a gross annual income at least equal to 2000 hours of work at minimum wage. If you have a disability, any welfare assistance you get must be counted toward that total. This essentially means you can work only part-time and still qualify.
   
   
3. You don't have to buy a home in the area served by the Public Housing Authority (PHA) that approves your voucher, if the PHA where you want to live has a voucher homeownership program and is accepting new participants. (So it would appear that your PHA isn't required to offer this option, and you may need to advocate for it.)
   
   
4. You can refinance your home to get better interest or mortgage terms, without penalty.
   
   
5. The sales contract is between you and the home seller, and you must arrange your own financing; the HUD subsidy is simply a source of funds from which you can make your payments.
   
   
6. At least 1% of the total price you pay for the home must come from your own resources.
   
   
7. Apparently, if you have a disability, the cost of a loan to finance making the home accessible may be ignored by HUD when determining how much Section 8 assistance you can get.
   
   
8. The PHA must approve a live-in aide if you need one. This may mean that when determining how big a home you need (and therefore how large a subsidy you will receive), the PHA must allow room for an aide if you need one.

And, President Bush has proposed that you also be permitted to receive up to one year's worth of Section 8 subsidies in a lump-sum to be used for your mortgage down payment (see "Bush's `New Freedom Initiative'").

For more information, contact your local Public Housing Authority, or check out the Section 8 Homeownership Rule page at the National Home of Your Own Alliance website.

ADOPT A SOUND AND EFFECTIVE MEDICAID BUY-IN PROGRAM
The Buy-In is a Medicaid option made available to the states by the federal Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999. It enables people with disabilities who want to work to "buy in" to Medicaid on a sliding scale when their income exceeds Medicaid eligibility limits.

Numerous Legislative leaders, including Assembly Speaker Silver and Assemblyman Stringer, and Senators Libous, Meier, Seward, Hannon, Larkin and Marchi, have sponsored legislation to implement this program. More recently, Senate Majority Leader Bruno voiced support for the concept and Governor Pataki's 2001 State of the State message proposed such a program. New Yorkers with disabilities are pleased and excited by this support. However, the details must be worked out in order to enact a program that achieves the goal of putting tens of thousands of people with disabilities to work in good jobs.

What is an effective Medicaid Buy-In?

The Buy-In must be immediately available to all eligible people with disabilities who go to work and earn up to 400% of the federal poverty level and retain up to $40,000 in personal assets. It must provide coverage for all items now covered by NYS Medicaid that are not covered by the participant's employer-provided health insurance, if any. It must not be "phased in" over a period of years or limited to a "demonstration project". It must take effect no later than April 1, 2001.

Why is this so important?

Description of chart--`Medicaid Buy-In'










Won't this increase NY's Medicaid costs?

The Medicaid Buy-In can actually pay for itself, when all costs are considered:

• New York already pays Medicaid costs for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities who aren't working or don't earn enough to affect their Medicaid eligibility. Data from other states that have implemented a buy-in indicate that no more than 10%, and as little as 2%, of buy-in participants are people who are not already receiving Medicaid.
  
  
• Many participants will reduce their use of Medicaid funds because their employer-provided health insurance will cover some costs previously paid by Medicaid.
  
  
• The program is a buy-in, not a "give-away". Participants whose incomes exceed the standard Medicaid threshold pay a premium for coverage, on a sliding scale up to 7.5% of their annual income.
  
  
• People with disabilities who earn up to 400% of the federal poverty level while keeping Medicaid will pay income taxes and use fewer public benefits. The US Census Bureau estimates that there are about 1.24 million working-age New Yorkers with disabilities. 70%, or 868,000, of them are jobless, according to the Harris Poll. If each one earns the average annual salary for people with disabilities in integrated jobs cited by NY State's Annual Status Report on Integrated Employment--$289/week--they'll pay annual NYS income taxes of over $286 million on total annual income of over $13 billion, pay up to $975 million in premiums, and reduce government benefits costs by $1.6 billion. This will make some $2.4 billion available annually to pay for the Buy-In (see chart).
  
  
• The Work Incentives Improvement Act makes available additional Medicaid funds that states can use over five years to cushion the initial costs of offering the Buy-In.

CREATE A MOST-INTEGRATED-SETTING PLAN

* Pass legislation to require all state disability service agencies to develop coordinated plans and timetables to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirement that people with disabilities be served in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.

More than ten years after passage of the ADA, New York State still has thousands of people with disabilities in institutions, nursing homes, sheltered workshops, and segregated school programs that are more restrictive than necessary to meet their needs. The Supreme Court's 1999 Olmstead decision found that the ADA requires states to serve people with disabilities in the most integrated setting. Thereafter, the US Department of Health and Human Services sent a memorandum to all state Medicaid Directors addressing how states can comply with the Olmstead decision and suggesting development of a state Olmstead Compliance Plan with input from people with disabilities and advocates. New York has not developed such a plan. As a result, the state faces a growing risk of potentially expensive and disruptive lawsuits.

Every state department/agency that operates, funds or regulates residential institutions and/or segregated congregate programs, including but not limited to: Department of Health, Office of Mental Health, Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, State Education Department, should be required to move people into the most integrated setting. A minimum of 1% per department/agency should be transferred from excessively segregated settings to more appropriate integrated services in FY 2001-2002.

The plan must be comprehensive and include:

1. Mandated reforms of state agency information systems to track consumer requests to move from restrictive state-operated or -funded programs to more integrated settings
   
   
2. Effective methods to directly inform every eligible individual, including those now in voluntary-operated facilities, of their right to a more integrated setting and the availability of services
   
   
3. Removal of all legal, regulatory, or administrative requirements that segregated settings be "backfilled" before people can leave them for more integrated settings
   
   
4. Removal of fiscal incentives that provide more funds to support segregated programs than to serve people with the same needs in integrated settings (e.g. the SSI "Congregate Care Level II" rate)
   
   
5. Long-range planning for the inevitable downsizing and closure of segregated facilities, including plans to support and compensate voluntary providers who make good-faith efforts to reduce their use of congregate settings
   
   
6. Sufficient oversight of local or regional jurisdictions, and where necessary, funding differentials, to ensure that movement to more integrated settings occurs with equal speed and in numbers equally proportionate to population density in every locality in the state

There is no acceptable rationale for keeping people in segregated settings. Public policy should support the fullest possible independence, inclusion, and participation in the community for adults and children with disabilities and elderly persons. Such a policy will cut government spending because integrated community-based supports are, on average, less expensive than restrictive, segregated programs. It will increase government revenue because people who live in their own homes with the support they need to travel in their communities are more likely to get jobs, pay taxes and contribute to the economy. It is the right thing to do. And it is the law!

CUT LONG-TERM CARE COSTS THROUGH COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES

Description of chart--Options for Living Supports

* Provide $1.59 million to Centers for Independent Living (CILs) to assist people to leave nursing homes and other institutions and move into their own homes and communities.

On average, CILs expend about 10 staff hours per week to assist a person to leave excessively restrictive settings and/or remain in the most integrated setting. For about $43,000--less than the cost of one year in a nursing home for one person--each CIL could create a new full-time Community Re-integration position and move 4 people back into the community annually, or 148 people statewide. With each such person served saving the state, on average, $46,000 each year, $6.8 million could be saved in expenditures on restrictive programs. Deducting CIL costs produces $5.2 million in net savings for disability services in New York State each year. These funds must be provided in addition to the cumulative cost-of-living increases requested by CILs.

* Pass legislation to mandate the Department of Health to seek and implement a Medicaid waiver to support people with any disability of any age who wish to leave congregate-care facilities and live like anyone else in the community.



This waiver must include funding for:

• Housing
• Assistive technology
• Personal assistance and/or safety monitoring at home or in any work or community setting

It should also fund other services to facilitate transition into the most integrated setting and maintenance of community living, including but not limited to "startup costs" to set up a household. It should permit variable levels of consumer responsibility for arrangement and oversight of services based on consumer preference. Waiver services must have state-wide uniformity. Development of the waiver must involve input from people with disabilities and advocates.

On average, homecare costs New York State 1/3 of annual institutional costs for persons with similar needs. The federal 2000-01 budget contains new funds to support state efforts to reduce use of segregated services for people with disabilities, and our State should take advantage of these opportunities. $50 million in systems-change grants are available from HCFA for states to eliminate institutional bias in their Medicaid programs, with no state-funds match required. An additional $20 million are available from HCFA for state projects to transition people out of nursing homes. This is another chance for the Department of Health to obtain funding for a waiver planning process similar to one DOH proposed two years ago, and which was rejected because the federal Department of Health and Human Services gave priority consideration to less wealthy states.

INCREASE JOB PLACEMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

• Provide $8 million in additional funding for VESID supported employment services in 2001-02.
  
  

This proposal would put an additional 1,250 people with disabilities into integrated jobs at competitive wages in 2001-02, as the first step in a 3-year plan to place 5,000 people who have been identified as ready to leave sheltered workshops. Supported employment costs less than any other "day" or vocational program in New York, and provides a measurable return on investment in the form of increased income tax revenues and decreased benefits costs.

EDUCATE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES FOR PRODUCTIVE LIVES

• Provide $2,775,000 to enable each of New York's 37 Centers for Independent Living (CILs) to implement School-to-Work Transition Services.
  
  
• Provide funding and authorization to enable students with disabilities aged 16 and older to receive supported employment and placement services for after-school and summer jobs.
  
  

CILs have proven their ability to: 1) get more high school graduates with disabilities into integrated homes and jobs; 2) cut the drop-out rate of students with disabilities by up to 50%; 3) reduce juvenile crime. Three CILs are in Year 3 of a VESID-funded pilot project to demonstrate Independent Living approaches to transition services. These projects have already achieved the above outcomes. Solid data indicate that the majority of youthful criminals have learning and/or emotional disabilities, and successful transition from school to work and integrated living substantially decreases the crime rate. Each CIL can operate such a transition program for $75,000 per year. This amount must be provided in addition to the cost-of-living increases requested by CILs.

REPEAL KENDRA'S LAW

• Repeal Kendra's Law (Mental Hygiene Law, Section 9.60) establishing Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT).
  
  

Recently, New York State enacted a law that enables court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) for people who, due to their treatment history and present circumstances, are "unlikely to survive safely in the community" without supervision. This law is a knee-jerk reaction to the horrific death of Kendra Webdale. These incidents are random acts of violence that will not be eliminated by this law. They have been distorted to promulgate the misconception that people diagnosed with mental illness are threats to society. Most of the people involved in these incidents weren't resisting treatment; rather, they had repeatedly sought treatment and were denied it.

AOT, a form of preventive detention applied only to people with mental health disabilities, grossly violates the civil rights of citizens. Involuntary outpatient commitment has not been shown to improve people's mental health. Controlled clinical trials, including the Bellevue Involuntary Outpatient Commitment Pilot Study conducted by Policy Research Associates right here in New York, that compare people who have been forced into outpatient treatment to people with similar diagnoses who received similar treatment on a voluntary basis, show that AOT does not work better than voluntary treatment. A national study published recently in the National Institute for Mental Health's Schizophrenia Bulletin found that fewer than half of the patients treated for schizophrenia are receiving proper doses of antipsychotic medications or appropriate psychosocial interventions. The study showed that psychosocial treatments are often prescribed at the point of hospital discharge but follow-through in the community is low. It's the treatment that works, not the force.

Our state must accept responsibility for guaranteeing the availability of effective voluntary treatment, instead of blaming the people who can't get that treatment. New York must increase investment in recovery-oriented community-based mental health services that preserve the dignity of the individual. Research like the Bellevue study shows that self-help works. What makes a difference is greater scope, flexibility, responsiveness and coordination of community-based psychiatric treatment and psychosocial services. Such services exist in consumer-run programs across the state; we need only expand them to achieve the goals that Kendra's Law envisions but pursues through oppression and force.

ENHANCE AND CLARIFY THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

• Pass legislation requiring that all state and local government programs be accessible to people with disabilities.
  
  

While New York State's Human Rights Law extends many of the same protections to people with disabilities as the ADA, some specific ADA requirements are only implied by New York law. This causes needless confusion for state agencies and operators of public accommodations. Putting the ADA's requirements for governments into state statute will strengthen the law and help to lessen confusion.

• Pass additional legislation requiring that public accommodations also be accessible.
  
  

Another law incorporating ADA public accommodations requirements will ensure continuity of regulations for business owners and make compliance easier. In 1997, our state became a national leader by passing the Reasonable Accommodations Act, which reiterated ADA employment rules as state law. It is again time for NY to blaze a trail, building on resolutions supporting the ADA passed by both houses of the Legislature, and add other facets of ADA to state law.

CONTINUE WORKING TO PROPERLY FUND INDEPENDENT LIVING

• Provide $500,000 in remaining cumulative cost-of-living increases owed to CILs through FY 1999-2000.
  
  
• Provide a 2.7% COLA, or $285,000, (based on the federal 1999 CPI) to recoup last year's losses to inflation.
  
  
• Provide $570,286 to bring NY's 3 newest CILs (Harlem, Cortland, and Center for Disability Rights in Rochester) up to the current minimum base level for state CIL funding, and incorporate Cortland and CDR into NYS Independent Living law.
  
  
• Include CILs on the permanent list of programs that receive annual COLAs.
  
  

After nearly ten years without a cost-of-living increase, NY's last two state budgets provided an additional $2.5 million for Centers for Independent Living (CILs). We're thankful to those who supported this welcome development. However, that amount still falls short of the $3 million total that CILs need to recoup losses from ten years of inflation, and it does not take into account ongoing increases in operating costs. In today's tight labor market, many CILs are losing valuable, experienced personnel to better-paid jobs at a growing rate. Employee health benefit costs continue to rise, and many CILs are still unable to restore staff training budgets.

CILs assist people with disabilities to leave segregated or restrictive programs and live safely, productively, and independently in the most integrated settings possible. In doing so, they provide major savings to New York taxpayers. The average annual savings when CILs help people move from excessively restrictive settings to the most integrated environments--taking into account all public costs for supports provided in both segregated and integrated settings--is about $46,000 per person. Yet CILs still only have the capacity to serve about 4% of those who could benefit. Here are some recent examples:

• A CIL advocated in court for a woman who was facing commitment to a state hospital. She was released and returned to living independently in her own apartment with ongoing peer support services, at a cost of $500.
  Annual Savings: $137,000
  
  
• A CIL provided information and advocacy services to a family whose child was facing discharge from a Home and Community Based Waiver. Without waiver support, the child would be placed in an in-patient psychiatric unit. The parents successfully appealed the discharge. Assuming average annual Medicaid Waiver costs of about $40,000, plus CIL costs of $1,000: Annual Savings: $96,500
  
  
• Due to inefficiencies in local service systems and her own limited self-advocacy skills, a woman who left a nursing home was experiencing difficulties in obtaining suitable personal assistance and physical therapy services. She was in danger of being returned to the nursing home. CIL advocates provided ongoing advocacy and skills training, and helped her win a Fair Hearing and remain in her home with appropriate supports for a total cost to the CIL of $7,000. Assuming average annual homecare costs of $16,000: Annual Savings: $23,000
  
  

Description of chart--`Total Requested CIL Increases'

CILs are free-standing, locally-controlled, non-residential non-profit agencies that are governed and operated by people with disabilities. They assist people with all disabilities of all ages to be as independent as possible. They also help families, businesses, agencies, and governments to better meet the needs of people with disabilities. Centers provide a broad range of services, such as architectural barrier, assistive technology, and housing assistance, benefits advisement, life skills training, peer counseling, advocacy and information/referral. Some Centers also provide sign language interpreters, supported employment, service coordination, personal assistants and more, depending on the needs of their communities.

People with developmental disabilities and/or their families must undergo a planning process in order to receive most educational or support services. If you answer "no" to any of the questions below, your planning process probably was not truly person-centered (some questions may not be applicable to young children).

? Did the consumer or family member decide when and where the meeting took place?

? Did the consumer or family member decide whom to invite to the meeting?

? Was the consumer or family member able to exclude any person from the meeting whom they did not want to attend?

? Were people who know the consumer very well and who might be able to help the consumer achieve his/her goals, but who were not being paid to work with the consumer--such as significant others, close friends, neighbors, employers--invited?

? Did the meeting take several hours and/or several sessions?

? Was the first thing that happened at the meeting a free-ranging discussion of the consumer's dreams, life goals, interests and preferences, without any attempt to impose limits on what might eventually happen?

? If the consumer is able to express him/herself, did he/she do most of the talking?

? If the consumer is able to express him/herself, was his/her input listened to and respected, and was it the basis for most of the discussion?

? Was much time spent planning for goals that are to happen more than 6 - 12 months in the future?

? Were ways to help the consumer achieve goals by connecting him/her with ordinary people and places in the community--such as neighbors, friends, churches, social clubs, or places to work or volunteer--a major focus of discussion?

? Were health and safety issues talked about only within the framework of the lifestyle the consumer chose for him/herself?

? If agency services were discussed, did the service coordinator present information on the full range of services available from all of the agencies that serve your geographic area?

? Did the service coordinator describe supports other than group homes, group day programs, or sheltered workshops?

? Did the service coordinator avoid urging the consumer or family member to accept a particular service agency or option?

? If a preferred item, service or support was simply not available, did people at the meeting make a plan to advocate to get that item, service or support in the future?

If you'd like to learn more about real Person-Centered Planning and how to use it, call our Person-Centered Planning Outreach Coordinator, Dawn Stone, at 724-2111 (voice/TTY). Dawn is not a service coordinator. She simply teaches people with disabilities, family members, service coordinators, and others how to do Person-Centered Planning. You'll still work with your preferred service coordinator during and after the process.