We are sad to report that Kimberly Warsett will be leaving DPC on February 28th. Kimberly's work at DPC was tied to a grant that will run out at the end of this month.

 

DPC is grateful to Kimberly for her many contributions to DPC. We are especially grateful to Kimberly for the voice she brought to the DPC in our work with people with lived experience of a psychiatric diagnosis. She has brought this voice to policy recommendations put forward by DPC and to her work on YESHealth and the larger PCORI (Patient Centered Outcome Research Initiative) project she was a part of during her tenure.

 

DPC remains committed to Community-Based Participatory Action Research and preserving the voice of the recovery community in our work.  More information will be made available about next steps with YESHealth and other research initiatives in the coming months.

 

In the meantime, Kimberly will be missed and we wish her best as she moves on to new opportunities.

John Winske 

  jwinske@dpcma.org

The Kaiser Family Foundation had a very good issue brief last week on Medicaid Block grants and Per Capita Caps.  You can read it here.

From MCDHH Commissioner Heidi Reed:

As we know, the mission of the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing (MCDHH) is committed to providing accessible communication, education and advocacy to consumers and private and public entities to that programs, services and opportunities are fully accessible to persons throughout Massachusetts who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The Governor's House 1 Budget (H.1) was announced this week and funds MCDHH to continue our mission for FY18 as summarized below.

H.1 line item 4125-0100 allocates $5.6M for MCDHH. This figure is a $243K (5%) increase over FY17 estimated spending, and will fund MCDHH at a level equal to the FY17 GAA. (General Appropriations Act).

H.1 Snapshot: 

* Level support for Referral, Case Management and Social Services, and Communication Access Technology & Training Services. These MCDHH programs provide interpreters and CART services for more than 30,000 requests, provide more than 1,000 families with support for navigating state services, and train state agencies, elderly services, police, and emergency responders on the needs of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities.

* Level support for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Independent Living Services (DHILS). In FY16, DHILS delivered over 23,000 service hours by providing information and referrals, peer mentoring, advocacy and skills training and a variety of independent living skills.

* Provides Assistive Technology (AT) funding which serves as a last resort for highly vulnerable and elderly constituents who primarily request hearing aids in order to manage progressive and permanent hearing loss. Funding will support approximately 54-55 elderly constituents.

* Supports collective bargaining and step increases.

* Includes MCDHH cost savings from reducing $76K in renegotiated office leases and from 9C cuts of $200K during FY17.

MCDHH will continue to be authorized to have revenue from interpreter fees. Our revenue funds are reinvested for communication access.

4125-0122 Chargeback revenue, capped at $250,000.

4125-0104 Interpreter services Revolving/Trust fund revenue $350,000

We at MCDHH look forward to continued collaboration and partnerships with the Baker administration, the Legislature, and our constituents in our strong commitment to improving accessibility and quality of services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing adults and children throughout the Commonwealth.

Thank you for your dedicated service to the Commonwealth through partnership with MCDHH.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has calculated that eliminating Supplemental Security Income for children with disabilities would save a total of $113 billion over the next decade.  Most of the savings ($104B) would be in payments, the remaining $9 would be in administration costs.  You can read about it here.  

The fact that that such a drastic step is even being discussed is very, very troubling.

The Blaze had a story about Kevin Shinkwin, a member of Britain's House of Lords who was born with disabilities. By law, in the United Kingdom, abortion is legal until 24 weeks.  However, if the fetus has a disability, there is no limit.  You can read more here.