Feds launch probe of N.C. mental health system

Published Wed, Nov 24, 2010 01:39 PM
Modified Wed, Nov 24, 2010 01:48 PM


RALEIGH The U.S. Justice Department has opened a formal investigation into
North Carolina's struggling mental health system, the first step in a
process that could trigger a federal edict for sweeping reform.

The probe is the result of a complaint filed in July by the advocacy group
Disability Rights North Carolina, which contends that the state is
violating
the Americans With Disabilities Act for failing to provide proper housing
for people with mental illness.

Nearly a decade after the state Department of Health and Human Services
closed thousands of beds in government-run psychiatric hospitals as part
of
a reform effort, more than 6,400 people with severe mental illness are
housed in adult care homes scattered across the state, living in sometimes
squalid and dangerous conditions.

The mental patients, their care typically paid for with taxpayer money,
are
often far younger than the elderly residents with whom they are housed. In
the last two years, at least four residents with mental illness have been
killed by fellow patients who had histories of severe mental illness and
violence.

Vicki Smith, the executive director of Disability Rights, said the federal
investigation could force the state to take actions to fix the mistakes
made
during North Carolina's 2001 reform effort, which has also resulted in
people with mental illness routinely languishing for days in emergency
rooms
because no bed in a psychiatric facility is available.

Word of the federal investigation also comes as the state is debating
further cuts to the state's mental health system and moving to close
Dorothea Dix Hospital.

"Now DHHS is going to have to answer a whole series of questions about why
mental health reform has failed," Smith said. "This is huge, from our
point
of view. Huge."

The Justice Department informed the state of its pending investigation
through a five page letter received by DHHS administrators in Raleigh on
Thursday. However, the state department did not publically reveal the news
until it issued a three-sentence media release earlier today, hours before
the start of the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Renee McCoy, a spokeswoman for the state agency, said there would be no
comment beyond the media release, which said the state will "work with the
Department of Justice to provide all necessary documents and information
in
response to the complaint."
michael.biesecker@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4698

Anne Ford and Allegra Ford Scholarship

Dear Friend,
Our Anne Ford and Allegra Ford Scholarship is a unique opportunity offered only to seniors in high school who have an identified learning disability. Qualified applicants may be eligible for one of two $10,000 awards. For more detailed information and to download an application, please visit our Anne Ford and Allegra Ford scholarship page. Applicants should download all materials and send them in one package to our office in New York (as noted on the application checklist).

http://ncld.convio.net/site/R?i=EN2o_EU5RE8G-QpEewPfWQ..

The application deadline is around the corner! All materials must be postmarked by December 31, 2010.


To find other financial aid and scholarship opportunities, please visit our Financial Aid and Resources section.

If your child or student is not eligible for this year’s award, please forward this email to someone who may know an eligible candidate. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply.

Regards,
The NCLD Team

Answers to some of the Questions around the new "Waiver"

This is a PowerPoint with some of the questions asking about the new "waiver" that are coming to Western Highlands Network. We are not promising that this will answer all the questions but maybe a start.

http://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/waiver/nccounciddwaiverhandout%20-5-20-10.pdf

F.I.R.S.T. needs your Support!!

Dear Friends of F.I.R.S.T.,

Since 2003, F.I.R.S.T. has been supported by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. This project of F.I.R.S.T. directly support parents as they navigate the Special Education process by training and supporting parents including attending Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. We have served all families with a focus on rural and Latino families. Unfortunately, our proposal was approved for funding but did not score in the top ten in the county to receive money. At this point, if F.I.R.S.T. does not obtain additional help, it will have no choice but to suspend this project for lack of funds.

As you know, F.I.R.S.T. is a non-profit organization that provides free information, training, referral, and advocacy to parents and caregivers of children with disabilities and special needs. We serve families of children of ages birth to 26 years old and all disabilities (i.e., physical, intellectual, learning and emotional). Our goal is to help parents learn to advocate for their children and to be meaningful participants in their child’s progress. We do this by offering information and direct support to parents and caregivers regarding special education and disabilities to enable them to be effective members of their child's Individualized

Furthermore there is no other organization in Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and Yancey counties that provides this type of educational, individualized attention to families of children with all disabilities. Over the last year, F.I.R.S.T. had over 6800 contacts with families including attending 107 IEP meetings with families. In addition to supporting families with their school system, we also help connect them to community supports which improve the outcomes for the whole family.

Please join the F.I.R.S.T. Board, staff, and other F.I.R.S.T. supporters in doing everything possible to continue providing these much needed services to families:

§ Make a tax-deductible donation with the form enclosed or by going to our website http://firstwnc.org/support.html

§ Providing a short letter noting how F.I.R.S.T. has made a difference in your life and your ch

Please be clear that F.I.R.S.T. is not closing our doors. F.I.R.S.T. continues to be a source of information and support to families of children with disabilities. Our SUNSHINE Project, Incredible Years Parenting Class and P.L.A.Y. Project are fully funded and will continue. We also have secure funds for our summer programming including a day camp for teens with disabilities and Drama Camp. But for F.I.R.S.T. to provide direct support to families around the special education process funding is necessary. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

The Board and Staff of F.I.R.S.T.

NC Relationships Upcoming Events

NC Relationships Flyer - Family and Service Provider

http://www.westernhighlands.org/images/stories/nc_relationships_flyer_-_family_and_service_provider.doc

NC Relationships Flyer - Self Advocates

http://www.westernhighlands.org/images/stories/nc_relationships_flyer_-_self_advocates.doc

Monica J. Foster is a dynamic advocate. She is also a community organizer and a professional life coach and speaker. In September, she contacted Liberty Corner to see if there were individuals, families and staff who would be interested in being part of the North Carolina Relationship Initiative. Monica explained that she is working in partnership with the Human Services Research Institute and the North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities on a grant to unite people with disabilities and those who care about and support individuals (personally and professionally) to engage in conversation around supporting healthy, safe relationships and social opportunities in the community. She further explained that the Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) proposes to engage self-advocates, family members, and staff to establish a safe and supportive environment in which self-advocates can experience healthy social and emotional relationships.

On October 21st, 2010, Monica will be facilitating two separate focus groups including individuals with disabilities and families and staff. Meetings will be held in the training and conference rooms at LCE. Participants in the focus groups will: (a) identify barriers and supportive factors to healthy relationships, (b) receive education and training to address barriers and promote healthy relationship development, (c) take action in their own lives and communities to address barriers and promote healthy relationship development, and (d) share lessons learned with self-advocates, family members, providers, and other stakeholders across the state.

Please pass the word to anyone who may be interested in this very important topic of discussion. For more information, contact monicajfoster @butterflywheel.com or gbyrd@libertycornerent.com.

Free Clinic for Children with Special Needs

Saturday November 6, 2010
Easter Seals UCP, Asheville, NC

305 Stone Ridge Blvd

Asheville, NC 28804

Call John Robsen for Free Clinic appointment 828-423-3173

Anat Baniel Method for Children

Bring your child and experience this cutting edge gentle approach to working with children with special needs. Movement and awareness are the main tools utilized for communicating with the brain to help form new neural connections and patterns. The Anat Baniel Method expands on the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. It is a non-medical, learning based approach that uses gentle touch and movement to enable the child with special needs or a learning disability to improve physically, mentally and emotionally. It asks children to move only in ways which are within their true capabilities, creating a feeling of safety, encouraging a willingness to expand into new abilities. Practitioners certified in this method provide learning experiences that help children develop beyond their limitations. Infants' and children's progress often surpass medical expectations.

Who can benefit from the Anat Baniel Method?

Conditions that have been improved by this method are numerous but include

· Autism Spectrum Disorder

· Brachial Plexus Injuries

· Brain Injury/Brain Damage

· Cerebellar Atrophy

· Cerebral Palsy

· Delayed Development

· Down's Syndrome

· Failure To Thrive

· Fragile X Syndrome

· Hydrocephaly

· Macrocephaly

· Microcephaly

· Multiple Sclerosis

· Muscular Atrophy

· Premature Birth

· Sensory Integration Dysfunction

· Stroke


This event is free but pre-registration is required

For more information or to register call John Robson at (828) 423-3173 or email john@honestevolution.com

Clinic conducted by
John Robson
Anat Baniel Method for Children
Feldenkrais Method

Your Opinion is Wanted!!!!!!!!

Families and other persons that are impacted by CAP services please give your feedback regarding the CAP-MR/DD waivers; current and creation of new tiered waivers. Please use the link below and follow instructions BEFORE September 30, 2010.

http://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/cap-mrdd/index.htm

Guitar Hero Adapted for Persons with Disabililites

Enabling Devices Adapts Guitar Hero

Hawthorne, NY – August 24, 2010 – Enabling Devices today announced that it has adapted the bestselling music video game, Guitar Hero.

According to Steven Kanor, Ph.D., President of Enabling Devices: “One of the goals of our company is to adapt bestselling games and toys so that people with disabilities can enjoy them along with their family and friends. We are thrilled that we have been able to adapt the electronics of Guitar Hero and create an easy to use tabletop control center.

Gail Cocciardi, Director of Product Development, says: “Our development team at Enabling Devices wanted to create a device that would allow our customers to have easy access to this popular game. Now there is no need to strum a guitar to join in on the fun. What makes it even more exciting is that the user can play at different levels of difficulty from beginner to expert – all with our tabletop controller. We’ve put together a great package which includes the tabletop control center, two software packages, and a guitar, all at a very reasonable price.”

Guitar Hero #4065

Guitar Hero Controller

Features:

Our brand new unique state-of-the-art tabletop control center allows you to play five colored buttons in sync with the musical notes.

• Control has select button, an up arrow to select the song and a start/stop button
• Easy beginner level allows the user to hit any colored button to go to the beat of the music without having to follow a pattern
• The guitar is fully functional so others can join in the fun
• Package includes: Control Center, Les Paul Guitar, and Two Playstation 3 software packages: Guitar Hero World Tour (with beginner level) and Hero Legends of Rock
• The control center can also be used with your Playstation 2 and Playstation 2 software

About Enabling Devices

Enabling Devices is a company dedicated to developing affordable learning and assistive technology devices to help people of all ages with disabling conditions. The company specializes in creating custom devices for individuals with severe disabilities. Founded by Steven E. Kanor, Ph.D. and originally known as Toys for Special Children, the company has been creating innovative communicators, toys, switches, and sensory devices for the physically challenged for more than 35 years.

For Information: www.enablingdevices.com or

Thank you from the cast of Peter Pan

A special Thank You to Community Foundation Summertime Kids program, Cyberonics, Asheville Community Theater, Makeup at the Grove Arcade, Dave Bortle, Starr Hogan. A GREAT Big thank you to Debbie Lombard of Exceptional Theatre Company, Asheville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Dept, TR Program and F.I.R.S.T.

GREAT job to all the actors and shadows.

Participate in One of the Listening Sessions Being Held Across the State -- We Want to Hear from You!

Over the next three months, Disability Rights North Carolina will host public Listening Sessions across the State. At these sessions, Executive Director Vicki Smith will lead conversations that will help define our organization's issue targets for the next three years.

This is a great opportunity for you to share your thoughts with Disability Rights NC. Don't miss these Listening Sessions if . . .

• You are curious about how Disability Rights NC selects the cases it accepts;
• You want to have input into the types of cases Disability Rights NC accepts;
• You want to share critical information with Disability Rights NC about the violation of the rights of people with disabilities in our State.

All Listening Sessions are open to the public. Pass this email along to other people you know who want to ensure that all people with disabilities in North Carolina are treated equally and fairly, and have full access to the community.

If you plan to attend and need an ASL interpreter, please contact Janice Willmott at janice.willmott@disabilityrightsnc.org to request assistance.

Thur., October 14

Asheville

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Public Works Building

Room A11

161 S. Charlotte Street

other sites available across the state. Check their website disabilityrightsnc.org

“Recognizing and Treating Children Whose Minds Play Tricks on Them”

Family Support Network of WNC

Will present

“Recognizing and Treating Children Whose Minds Play Tricks on Them”

Children normally experience flights of fancy, including imaginary friends and conversations with stuffed animals. However, some of them are also having hallucinations and delusions which may included unprovoked aggression and nonsensical “lies”. These might be the early signs of psychosis. This family-oriented workshop will provide an informal discussion to learn more about ways that childhood psychosis presents itself, possible methods to manage and appropriate services to pursue. Discussion will cover some of the benefits and controversy of antipsychotic medications and the impact on individual well-being, social and educational function.

Linmarie, Sikich, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill. The majority of her work is focused on evaluating and developing treatments for severe neurodevelopment disorders such as autism and schizophrenia using standard efficacy measures, effectiveness measures that also consider the tolerability and acceptability of treatments, and neurocognitive outcomes.

Update on direction of NC schools

Keep your eye on the North Carolina Joining Our Businesses and Schools (JOBS) Commission that was established about a year ago. The lieutenant governor Walter Dalton heads up the Commission. Dalton was instrumental in establishing North Carolina's early college program which is nationally recognized. More info follow the link
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08school.html?_r=1&ref=us

Top 20 Most Livable U.S. Cities for Wheelchair Users

By Sara Vigneri

Every American deserves access to our country's cities-it's the law. But what does it really mean for a city to be accessible?

For more info http://www.christopherreeve.org/site/c.mtKZKgMWKwG/b.6150343/k.F282/Top_20_Most_Livable_US_Cities_for_Wheelchair_Users.htm

Your Opinion is Wanted!!!!!!!!

http://rtc.umn.edu/fast/main/index.asp

You are invited to be in a national research study of supports for families of youth with disabilities. This Survey is for the parent or primary caregiver of a young person with disabilities between 12 and 22 years old. If you qualify please click on the above link to partake in this research study.

Getting A Life - Not A Program

by Derrick Dufresne, CRA cra@aol.com

Please read article, a must read for all families

People with disabilities in this country have been attending programs for the better part of 60 years. For too long, we have measured inputs (i.e., number of times the person attended) rather than outputs (i.e., did he/she want to attend at all?) It is critically important, as Tom Nerney once said,”

not to measure the number of times the person got out of bed in the morning, but why get up at all?"

Ultimately one of the things that separate us from lower forms of life is that humans seek meaning. For too long we have neglected this important truth and instead focused on an activity, a need, or a program. If we are really interested in quality, we must look to measure different things to get different outcomes.

First and foremost, it is important not to confuse quality and compliance. Systems determine compliance - people determine quality. Many years ago Michael Smull taught us true quality can only be measured by that which is important "to" someone other than that which is important "for" someone. This changes the nature of the discussion.

Systems are capable of compliance assurance, not quality assurance. Health and safety (now considered one word) have often been used as a reason to limit liability or to focus on a minimal set of expectations for the individual. This lowers rather than raises the bar. It is about time that we raised rather than lowered expectations if we truly are about helping people get a life.

The new barometer of quality is not about systems, but about people. We no longer measure community presence, but value community participation. We are no longer impressed when people are in the community, but value people being of it. We no longer value people being clients of programs, but being citizens of their community.

What an exciting change! This new reality in no way diminishes the importance of staff or agencies. It simply changes what we measure as success. We now measure not the program's success, but the individual’s success. We no longer measure how visible staff are in people's lives, but how visible friends, connections, and community participation are in someone's life.

Staff become invisible supports - there to nurture, to build bridges and foster connectors. Most importantly, I am now totally convinced that many people with disabilities will not get a life without us. At the same time, we need to make certain that we are not the person’s life.

Finally, personal outcomes are incredibly important and must be utilized as a benchmark to indicate the first layer of quality that we measure. However, this is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for true quality. Neither is choice any longer to be considered an icon or an absolute measure of quality. Maybe it is indeed about freedom and contribution. If we truly are seeking to have people be full citizens of the community, then we need to change the nature of the discussion

It is not just that it is better for people with disabilities to be in the community. It is also better for our communities that people with disabilities are there - side-by-side at our churches, schools and community events and truly part of, not just in the community. To truly value personal outcomes we must also promote community contribution. As citizens we have a responsibility, not only to ourselves but also to those who make up our broader community. We must all have the opportunity to contribute to the betterment of the communities in which we live and work.

To deny people with disabilities the same opportunity is to focus on clienthood rather than citizenship. If we truly believe that all people have gifts, then everyone must be allowed to make a contribution.

It is truly time to raise the bar. The people we support deserve no less.

-Written for Hammer Discoveries, Issue 85/Spring 2010, p. 1

www.hammer.org

Hammer Residences, Inc.

Wayzata, MN

If you or someone you know did not get a diploma because they did not pass the Competency Test - READ THIS!!

Please see the following from NC Voc. Rehab and NC Schools

Attachment: DPI letter.pdf

Attached is a letter from DPI-NC School Board regarding the “Competency Test”. Basically if any student did not receive a regular high school diploma because they did not pass the competency test they can go back to their high school and request and receive a high school diploma. The competency has been given since the 1980. The letter is attached for proof. The key is they had to have completed all other required course credits except passing the Competency test.

They passed all required credits for a high school diploma but did not pass the competency test so they received a certificate instead. Many of these students may have taken the GED so they would have that rather than nothing. So it may effect some GED graduates.

This would make a difference for students that need an actual high school diploma and not a GED or certificate.

Alma P. Taylor, M.S.

Program Specialist for Transition Services

N.C. Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services

Phone: 919-855-3572

Fax: 919-715-0616

Alma.Taylor@dhhs.nc.gov

http://dvr.dhhs.state.us.nc