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Volume 12 Issue 2 |
RCOMO NEWS |
December 2005 |
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Parent Power |
Parent Power |
Parent Power |
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WORKSHOPS DOING MORE ...WITH LESS Missouri sheltered workshops are different from shops in many other states because they depend heavily on contracted work, and the revenue from that work, to maintain operations. They are actually small businesses employing individuals with disabilities. On the average, workshop contract (sales) revenue accounts for 70-80% of workshop revenue, government assistance 10-24% and the balance from other grants, donations and contributions. Because of the dependency on contract revenue, Missouri workshops readily respond to customer needs relating to quality and turn-around time. Jobs performed include packaging, assembly (simple to complex), marketing and public relations services (collating, stuffing, and sorting mailings), products (pallets, wire spools, first aid kits, poultry watering systems, office products, furniture items, etc.). Services are also provided by workshops including janitorial work, grounds maintenance, commercial laundry operations and microfilming to mention a few. Workshops also provide work crews that work in customer facilities Each workshop is a not-for-profit corporation overseen by a volunteer board of directors. Board members include local business people, educators, lawyers, accountants and family members of the employees. The board determines the long-term goals and objectives for a given shop and hires an operational manager for the day-to-day operations. There are 93 workshop corporations located around the state of Missouri. These shops provide employment for approximately 7,500-8,000 people with disabilities (per year) and approximately 900 non-disabled staff. The majority of workshop employees are mentally retarded or developmentally disabled. Other common disabilities include mental illness, head injury, blindness, deafness, seizure disorders and physical disabilities. Prior to being hired for employment in the workshop, people must be assessed by an Extended Employment Certification Specialist who will certify that they are not able to work in a competitive environment at this time. Besides the obvious, providing employment, especially for people with disabilities, workshops also put money back into the community. Payroll, purchase of goods and services and participation in the community affairs are a few of the ways that workshops contribute to the community. In 2003, Missouri workshops paid approximately $114,000,000 back into their communities, providing a significant contribution to the commerce of those communities. The workshop program is extremely cost effective for the taxpayer. General revenue contributions are less then half of the alternative day programs. People with disabilities are offered the opportunity to be contributing members of the community and they do this by generating significantly more revenue than is contributed by the state. In FY03, workshop employees generated $4.34 in sales production for every $1 in state aid. In return, employees with disabilities gain a sense of self worth, confidence, work experience, a social environment they are comfortable with, and the knowledge that they are contributing to the economic community. By Larry Young, Director, EESW, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education For more information, go to www.moworkshops.org
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From the MRC of Missouri
We have recently contracted Gail Willis McCray as our Legislative Consultant beginning in January 2006. Gail is a lawyer licensed in the states of Missouri and Kansas who has worked at the capitol in Jefferson City for the last six (6) years. She will be following legislation related to sheltered workshops, state schools, the Department of Mental Health services and practices as well as the Division of Social Services. Gail will be working with bill sponsors and legislators to pass any favorable legislation as well as providing timely updates as to the progress of these bills. Gail will be providing us with a valuable service during the next legislative session. WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU, GAIL! |
confidential..
Per diem
increases for sheltered workshops
THANKS TO CASEY’S GENERAL STORES |
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for another successful fund raising event in 2005 Casey’s
General Stores will be teaming up with MRC of Missouri again in 2006.
New canisters will be placed in all Casey’s stores across the state of
Missouri. Thanks for giving generously.
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Mothers Were Asked How They Found Out Their Babies Had Down Syndrome Earlier this year, Brian Skotko, a student at Harvard Medical School published papers in two academic journals, based on a survey of more than 1,000 mothers. The survey asked an unusual question: How were they told that their child had Down syndrome? One woman said that after her baby was born in 2000, “the doctor flat out told my husband that this could have been prevented...at an earlier stage.” Of 141 women who learned through prenatal testing, many said they felt urged to terminate the pregnancies. One said that after learning her amniocentesis results, the doctor told her “our child would never be able to read, write or count change.” Mr. Skotko, whose sister has Down syndrome, saw his project swept up in a complicated debate over the termination of fetuses diagnosed with disabilities. It raised a provocative question: Can what a doctor says influence how a woman chooses? There are no national statistics on how many women continue pregnancies after receiving a diagnosis of Down syndrome. Researchers at the University of Connecticut Health Center...estimated the number of Down syndrome live births in the US declined 7.8% from 1989 to 2001. They suggested the drop was due to the use of prenatal diagnosis and the termination of pregnancies. A 1991 study of 14 hospitals in the Southeast found a more than 90% termination rate for fetuses diagnosed with certain chromosomal abnormalities including Down syndrome. A study last year reported that more than 80% of pregnancies involving a fetus with Down syndrome at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital were terminated in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Lewis Holmes, an author of that study, says despite the high rate, he doesn’t believe “the system is tilted toward termination of pregnancy.” Dr. Holmes….says most doctors make “an enormous effort to make sure couples hear both sides.” Deciding whether to continue such a pregnancy is a “personal, private agony,” he says. Mrs. Beth Allard (a mother of a Down syndrome child) told about the day she received the results of her prenatal test. “It was as if we were handed a death sentence,” she said. Instead of offering referrals or support, she said doctors told her and her husband the child would be “constantly hanging off of you, drooling, unable to speak, read or write,” They were warned that if they had other children, “he will just become more of a burden,” Mrs. Allard said. She felt “like I’d done something wrong.” The couple decided to continue the pregnancy. They say their son, Benjamin, now 6, is doing well. Mrs. Allard has since had another child, who doesn’t have Down syndrome. Mr. Skotko sent 3,000 surveys out to five Down syndrome parent-support groups across the country. Of 1,126 responses, close to 1,000 were from women like Mr. Skotko’s mother—who didn’t have a prenatal testing and learned at delivery that their child had Down syndrome. Many said they weren’t given adequate or current information on the condition. Others said they felt anxious and guilty about their child’s birth. Among the smaller group who found out through prenatal testing, many said they underwent the tests convinced they would continue the pregnancy no matter what, or were undecided about what action they would take. In his article on prenatal diagnosis, Mr. Skotko...wrote that the mothers offered a “constructive” message, suggesting ways to improve the process. They asked that doctors not begin by saying things like, “Unfortunately, I have some bad news.” They said parents should hear about the range of possibilities for children with Down syndrome, including success stories. They appreciated doctors who gave them contacts for local support groups. Information taken from an article in the Wall Street Journal written by Amy Dockser Marcus, October 3, 2005
Families and guardians of the severely mentally retarded are deeply troubled over the future security of our loved ones who need the services that are provided at state habilitation centers. These facilities are vital to the lives of those who require supervision and services around the clock. There are no facilities in the community that can equal what habilitation centers are equipped to do for the mentally retarded with serious multiple handicaps. There are now 10 empty homes on the grounds of Bellefontaine Center and a waiting list of mentally retarded who need these beds. We ask you to consider the waste involved by closing Bellefontaine Center homes. Also, to consider the increased cost to the state and taxpayers by moving habilitation center residents to community provider facilities where they will try to receive scattered services. Keeping Bellefontaine Habilitation Center open at full capacity is crucial to the lives of Missouri’s most vulnerable mentally retarded. In fiscal year 2005…the state lost $4,268,432 in federal funds due to the reduction of residents at Bellefontaine Center.
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CLICK HERE FOR A MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Our question is, “WHO WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE WHEN DMH REMOVES A MENTALLY RETARDED PERSON FROM A HABILITATION CENTER AND PUTS THEM INTO A PRIVATE HOME?”
For two years the Department of Mental Health kept sending mentally retarded people to a privately run home, even though its owners had a history of abuse and neglect and were barred by state law from caring for them. During that time period, 11 residents at the Kansas City area home were choked, slapped, kicked, pushed to the floor and hit with a broom. One resident died. The audit also found that three other homes—two in the Kansas City area and one in St. Louis—employed workers with criminal backgrounds to care for mentally retarded residents. Before they were fired, the three workers sexually abused residents at those homes.
The findings have parents fretting about what will happen to their severely mentally retarded children if the state-run Bellefontaine Habilitation Center closes, as Gov. Matt Blunt wishes. Some of the center’s 300 residents have lived there a half-century. Bellefontaine is the only home many residents know. It’s where their friends are. It’s where they eat and sleep. Where they work. Where they swim. Where they play. The case (George Holmes) prompted Auditor Clair Mc Caskill to do the audit to see how well the Mental Health Dept. cares for and protects Missouri’s 140,000 mentally disabled residents. Her audit showed that the department investigated 1,572 claims of abuse from July 2003—August 2004 at state run and private residential care centers.
Of those investigations, 1,180—about 75% - involved mentally retarded residents living in homes run by private businesses. The remaining 392 involved residents in state run facilities. These numbers are based on just the complaints that the department knew about and investigated. But two state audits have accused privately run homes of failing to report all of their abuse allegations.
To Mickey Slawson, president of the FHC parents association, the audit findings are terrifying for the parents being asked to move their child into private care. Slawson and several other parents are standing firm in refusing to move their children out of Bellefontaine. They say they fear their children will be at risk for abuse and could die if sent to privately run homes. They worry that workers here can hide abuses more easily than at Bellefontaine, where a larger support staff means more checks and balances. “There is no oversight at the private facilities,” Slawson said. “If they want to report abuse, they can. But, if they don’t want to, they don’t.” DMH spokesman, Bob Bax, said that since January, 61 residents had moved out of Bellefontaine. He said 20 were wards of the state. Just one of those residents has been returned to BHC.
But the circumstances surrounding the resident’s return have the parents upset. On June 22, the state moved the resident to a new group home Shannon’s Neighborhood, 92 miles south near Perryville, MO. Parents of other longtime residents describe the resident as a mentally retarded man in his 50’s who had spent most of his life at BHC. He suffers seizures, is obsessed with food and is non-verbal. Within a month, Shannon’s Neighborhood workers returned the man to BHC. He had a black eye, a nose cut closed by multiple stitches and a swollen stomach and feet, officials said.
Cindy Bruce, Shannon’s administrator, said the man had suffered a seizure and had fallen on his face. The fall caused the facial injuries, she said. Bruce said BHC officials had told her staff the man suffered seizures, but she said they failed to mention his compulsion to eat everything in sight. At dinners, he would attack other residents for food and grab it off their plates. Three times, Shannon’s workers had to take him to the emergency room—once for the fall and twice for stomach problems from eating too much food, Bruce said. “We had a really hard time keeping him away from food,” she said. “He is not really suitable for community placement.”
Bax said his department gives private-care providers all of the necessary information. “Any placement begins with very thorough and detailed planning to see if the provider can meet the client’s needs.” Bax said. “We’re not going to place them in a facility that’s not safe.” After an investigation, Bax said his department cleared Shannon’s of any wrongdoing.
Older parents of BHC residents are anxious that they will not live long enough to ensure their children are kept at Bellefontaine. Slawson said allegations of abuse at BHC stemmed from the fact that workers are often required to work 16 hour shifts. What’s more, she said, the state give Bellefontaine its toughest cases. Many are mentally retarded and have behavioral disorders thay only the experience workers at BHC can handle, she said. “Bellefontaine has corrected its problems,” Slawson said, referring to an inspection report for the federal government showing the center had cleared up previous problems.
Two parents who took their children out of state-run habilitation centers and put them in privately run homes said problems soon arose. Once a critic of BHC, Mary Skinner said she will never move her son, Ben, out of the center because the scrutiny placed on the center has made the workers even more professional and courteous to the residents. Her son has lived in three different privately run homes and he could not make it there. “Every one of them was a disaster,” Skinner said. “There was no supervision. And every one of them cost the taxpayers at least triple what it costs for Ben to be at Bellefontaine.”
Betty Bressler said her daughter, Donna, spent 23 years at BHC and then was moved to South County, where she was urged to send Donna to a community setting. Bresler hired a private provider, rented a house two blocks from her home, furnished it and placed her daughter there with two other mentally disabled women. After a while, her daughter began having behavior problems. The staff increased her medication. By Easter, Donna was in the hospital, and the group home refused to take her back. She is now back at South County. “I had nowhere for her to go,” Bresler said. “I’m 74. I can’t handle this. I’m worried what will happen after I’m gone.”
Excerpts from an article by Carolyn Tuft in the Post Dispatch Oct. 17, 2005. Headline—PARENTS OF MENTALLY RETARDED FEAR PRIVATE HOME PLACEMENT Reprinted from the Parents Association, Inc., SLSSH Bellefontaine Habilitation Center December 2005 Newsletter
Mentally Retarded Citizens of Missouri - www.rcomo.org - E-Mail: info@rcomo.org - Phone: (800) 417-8275
MRC of Missouri, Inc.
PO Box 831
1310 Southern Expressway
Cape Girardeau, MO 63702-0831