Good December and happy ChristmaKwanzaKa to everyone. We hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving. Now it is time to start our busy time of year. In this edition we will be talking more about the Rosewood, legislation, and much, much more as always.
Rosewood
There has not been any more news on the Rosewood front. The Office of Health Care Quality O.H.C.Q will be going back into Rosewood this month to make sure that all of the residents are safe and don’t present any harm to themselves or others. They’ll also be looking to see if staff have had more training and care plans have been updated and are being carried out correctly. There have been many articles about all of this in local newspapers. You can read the articles on our web site at: http://www.thecdrc.org/informatiom_files/Rosewood_info/rosewood_information_page.htm The Maryland Disability Law Center is forming a Rosewood workgroup for advocates, self-advocates, Rosewood survivors and professionals to discuss certain issues. The group, known as the Close Rosewood Coalition, will meet December 6th at 1:00 and will be held at the Maryland Disability Law Center, 1800 N. Charles St. Baltimore. CDRC, of course, is a member of the coalition and several of our members will be in attendance at this meeting. We’ll keep you posted on the groups activities.
Elections
As everyone knows by now, we will have a new Governor
beginning in January. The former
Mayor of Baltimore, Martin O’Malley will be sworn in as Maryland’s 60th
Governor on January 17th 2007. We
would like to congratulate Mr. O’Malley for a hard fought victory.
CDRC hopes to work closely with Mr. O’Malley and his team. The
Governor’s race wasn’t the only race that Marylander’s were able to vote
for in November. Some of your state officials were up for re-election as well.
CDRC will be meeting with legislators beginning in December.
We currently have meetings scheduled with Del. Hubbard, Sen. Astle, Sen.
Kramer and Sen. Zirken to discuss the 2007 legislative session and CDRC’s
priorities for the year. We would like to get the new legislators familiar with
CDRC and what our beliefs are before the 2007 legislative session begins.
CDRC members may get a call from John & Kenny to join us for these
meetings so we hope you’ll be able to join us for these important talks with
our elected officials.
MM!MD Conference
On November 17th, Medicaid Matters Maryland (MM!MD) held it’s second conference at the Nursing School of John’s Hopkins University in Baltimore. Medicaid Matters Maryland is a group of 70 organizations that represent, Seniors, Children’s Advocates, Low Income population, and Person’s with Disabilities on Medicaid issues in Maryland. CDRC is a founding member of this organization. This year’s conference was very informative on issues such as: The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA), Medicaid Issues in other states, and Solutions for Maryland. The Key Note speaker was Dr. Beilenson, former Health Commissioner for Baltimore City. Some think he may become the new Secretary for the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DHMH).
CommunityChoice
Listening Sessions
On November 21st,
the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) and DHMH held two
“Listening Sessions” for consumers (people on Medicaid) on “What they want
from a CCO under the CommunityChoices waiver. CommunityChoices is a possible new
way Medicaid will be run. CDRC members in attendance at the meetings said that
they want the Living At Home and Older Adults waivers (the ones people use to
get out and stay out of Nursing Facilities) to stay out of CommunityChoices.
CDRC members and others feel “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In other
words, these programs work well. Please don’t mess with them! Other topics
discussed were access to specialists of the consumers choosing and other
important issues such as the DRA.
MAC
Well it’s back to the MAC (Medicaid Advisory Committee)
for John. Now that CDRC Co-Leader Little John is back to work, he’s back to
all of the Advisory Groups and Sub-Committees CDRC participates in. The November
MAC discussed quality assurance (how happy are people with Medicaid, and well is
it doing what it’s supposed to do), and the CommunityChoice proposal. CDRC
made it clear that no information was presented in regards to how well managed
care works for people with disabilities and that this information needs to be
presented in the future. DHMH said that persons with disabilities were part of
the study but since they are a small part of the study group, their information
may have gotten lost in the sample. DHMH indicated that they have received a
grant to look at the disability population more closely. We look forward to
working on getting this information gathered correctly.
SunShine Folks
Class #2
The second class of the Sunshine Folks has begun. The Maryland Disability Law Center is training another small group of CDRC members and others who have survived State Residential Centers and Nursing Facilities to become SunShine Folk. This is great news, because the more CDRC members who get trained to get folks out of Nursing Facilities and SRCs, the more people we can help get back their stolen lives.
Internship
Kenny has secured an internship with Senator Rich Madeleno. Senator Madeleno was elected to the seat that was vacated by Senator Sharon Grosfeld. Senator Grosfeld is the Senator Kenny has interned for for the past two legislative sessions. Kenny is very excited to have another opportunity to be interning in Annapolis during the legislative session and looks forward to working with a new Senator.
Board Of
Leadership
This is your LAST chance.
CDRC will be electing a new Board
Of Leadership (BOL) in December. If you want to run for a spot
on the BOL and be a part of CDRC’s decision making process, please let
John or Kenny know as soon as possible. We
have included an application in the newsletter mailing. You can also get a copy
of the application from our web page http://www.thecdrc.org/index_files/application_form_for_cdrc.htm.
Requirements for BOL participation are located at: http://www.thecdrc.org/index_files/BOL_requirements.htm.
After you fill the application out, you can send it to: 49 Old Solomon’s
Island Rd. Suite 205, Annapolis, Md. 21401.
Attn: John or Kenny. Deadline
for applying is Monday, December 11th.
CDRC meeting dates for 2007
January is almost here. So, here are the CDRC meeting dates
for 2007.
1) January 28, 2007
2) February 18, 2007
3) March 25, 2007
4) April 22, 2007
5) June 24, 2007 6)
August 26, 2007
We will continue to meet in the same location until a new larger meeting
space is found. This is a priority project for John this month.
Please mark your 2007 calendars and plan to attend. We want to see as
many people at the meetings as possible. Note: The February meeting date is the THIRD
Sunday of the month rather than our usual fourth Sunday. This is due to library
availability.
The next CDRC meeting will be a week early because of the holidays.
December 17
1:00 – 4:00
3501 Russett Common
(Library)
Laurel, Maryland