Please email the following two Chairs of the State House Judiciary Committee to ask them to release these bills from their committee in a timely manner:
Chairman Eugene L. O'Flaherty
State House, Room 136
Boston, MA 01233
617-722-2396
Chairwoman Cynthia Stone Creem
State House Room 416-B
Boston, MA 02133
617-722-1639
House Bill 3529: An Act Relative to the Safety of the Children in the Commonwealth;
House Bill 3528: An Act Relative to Protecting Children from Exploitation; and
House Bill 3527: An Act Relative to Sex Offender Registration
Thank you,
Robbin Miller
Blog Facilitator
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Ethics Reform for the Mental Health Profession
The State of Massachusetts is implementing ethics reform in how it handles pensions, benefits, etc for their state employees and politicians.
What do you think of the Mental Health and Social Work professionals looking at ethics reform on how some clinicians choose to bill for services that are not honest.
For example, some clinicians will bill an insurance company an hour for an individual session when they only saw the client for 15 or 30 minutes. Their rationale is that they have to make productivity or being laid off or demoted to fee for service status. Furthermore, if an agency conducts a customer service call to their clients, their clients will vouch that they saw their clinicians for hourly appointments and not for a 30 minute or for a 15 minute appointement.
What do you think?
Robbin Miller, LMHC
What do you think of the Mental Health and Social Work professionals looking at ethics reform on how some clinicians choose to bill for services that are not honest.
For example, some clinicians will bill an insurance company an hour for an individual session when they only saw the client for 15 or 30 minutes. Their rationale is that they have to make productivity or being laid off or demoted to fee for service status. Furthermore, if an agency conducts a customer service call to their clients, their clients will vouch that they saw their clinicians for hourly appointments and not for a 30 minute or for a 15 minute appointement.
What do you think?
Robbin Miller, LMHC
Saturday, June 20, 2009
A Case for Social Justice:
Below is an article in today's Worcester Telegram and Gazette talking about a women who I personally know who was denied access to a public bus due to an operable lift. This issue of inoperable lifts have been going on for years where the bus company always apologizes but offers no compensation for these riders who are left out in the "cold." I have called on my advocates and the Office on Civil Rights and Disabilities in Worcester to address this problem as a civil rights issue. What do you think?
Robbin Miller, LMHC
Facilitator
Woman is left behind
WRTA fails rider with walker twice in one day
By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFFlhammel@telegram.com
3 comments Add a comment
WORCESTER — As the No. 8 bus pulled away from Jean Bourgeois and her walker on Franklin Street on Wednesday afternoon, there was a sense of déjÀ vu. It wasn't just in the mind of the 84-year-old resident of Seabury Heights. It's something that she said happened repeatedly last summer. Five times in a month last summer, she said, lifts on Worcester Regional Transit Authority buses failed to operate, and the buses left without the driver offering to call RTA Transit Services to provide her an alternative. Last summer, RTA Transit Services, which operates the transit authority's buses, said the problem was twofold. The aging fleet of buses had finicky wheelchair lifts that sometimes broke down the same day they were fixed, and there were too few mechanics to do anything about it. It left the company with no choice but to violate not only company policy, but Federal Transit Authority requirements on how often buses can leave the garage with inoperable lifts, according to John F. Carney, general manager of the bus contractor. But by Aug. 30 the company hired another mechanic and put eight new buses on the road, retiring the worst vehicles. “After Aug 30, if the lift's not working, the bus won't go out,” he vowed last summer. Yet this week Mrs. Bourgeois was unable to get on not one, but two WRTA buses in a single day because the lifts did not work. Mr. Carney said the company knew that one of them wasn't working before it left the garage. Despite his promise last year, he said Thursday “When push comes to shove, we do” operate buses with malfunctioning lifts because “we have to make service.” The first time, about 1:40 p.m. Wednesday, the lift did not work on the No. 30 bus to Wal-Mart in West Boylston, Mrs. Bourgeois said, so she waited for the 2 p.m. bus. She and her companion, Panteles Demis, returned to Main Street opposite City Hall to transfer to the Route 8 bus that leaves from the Franklin Street side of City Hall for Seabury Heights, 240 Belmont St. There, trouble resumed when the lift could not be operated on the 4 p.m. bus. The driver of the 1:40 p.m. bus, who took over at City Hall for the employee who drove the bus earlier in the day, could not locate the key necessary to operate the lift, Mr. Carney said. He acknowledged that the lift on the 4 p.m. No. 8 also was inoperable. But he said that he was informed that the driver at least followed procedure. That would have meant calling a starter, requesting a backup van, and offering the customer a choice between waiting for the backup or walking back to Main Street to catch the No. 24 bus to Seabury Heights, which Mr. Carney said would have been quicker for the customer. Because the No. 24 driver knew that a passenger had been inconvenienced by the No. 8 bus, he delayed leaving City Hall for five minutes after he should have left, Mr. Carney said, but Mrs. Bourgeois did not show.
That's because Mrs. Bourgeois said she'd had enough. Contrary to the policy Mr. Carney outlined, Mrs. Bourgeois said the bus driver said he was told by the company that no backup van was available and he instructed her to walk back to Main Street to catch the No. 24 bus. Mr. Demis confirmed he does not recall hearing the driver offer an alternative to walking back to Main Street. She did not walk back to Main Street because “I'm handicapped. I hurt, and I just walked down there, and I get worn out.” One of the reasons she hurts, she said, is “I'm still recovering from the bus accident” — when an RTA bus driver had to slam on his brakes to avoid an accident last summer. “I took off like a missile” — out of her seat and into a pole on the bus. At the time, she had nearly recovered from back surgery, and said that 11 months after the accident “my back kills me” and “my head doesn't feel good.” Mr. Carney said there were times last year that seven or eight buses a day without operable wheelchair lifts were on the road. “Now if I have one or two on the list, that's a lot.” The day Mrs. Bourgeois encountered both of them, the company picked up, without incident, 24 other passengers needing the lifts, the general manager said. Christopher W. Bruce, head of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 22, who was critical of the company's record with wheelchair lifts last summer, said, “I believe it's much better than it was.” Mr. Carney said of Mrs. Bourgeois, “I can do nothing but apologize. We'll try to do better.”
Robbin Miller, LMHC
Facilitator
Woman is left behind
WRTA fails rider with walker twice in one day
By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFFlhammel@telegram.com
3 comments Add a comment
WORCESTER — As the No. 8 bus pulled away from Jean Bourgeois and her walker on Franklin Street on Wednesday afternoon, there was a sense of déjÀ vu. It wasn't just in the mind of the 84-year-old resident of Seabury Heights. It's something that she said happened repeatedly last summer. Five times in a month last summer, she said, lifts on Worcester Regional Transit Authority buses failed to operate, and the buses left without the driver offering to call RTA Transit Services to provide her an alternative. Last summer, RTA Transit Services, which operates the transit authority's buses, said the problem was twofold. The aging fleet of buses had finicky wheelchair lifts that sometimes broke down the same day they were fixed, and there were too few mechanics to do anything about it. It left the company with no choice but to violate not only company policy, but Federal Transit Authority requirements on how often buses can leave the garage with inoperable lifts, according to John F. Carney, general manager of the bus contractor. But by Aug. 30 the company hired another mechanic and put eight new buses on the road, retiring the worst vehicles. “After Aug 30, if the lift's not working, the bus won't go out,” he vowed last summer. Yet this week Mrs. Bourgeois was unable to get on not one, but two WRTA buses in a single day because the lifts did not work. Mr. Carney said the company knew that one of them wasn't working before it left the garage. Despite his promise last year, he said Thursday “When push comes to shove, we do” operate buses with malfunctioning lifts because “we have to make service.” The first time, about 1:40 p.m. Wednesday, the lift did not work on the No. 30 bus to Wal-Mart in West Boylston, Mrs. Bourgeois said, so she waited for the 2 p.m. bus. She and her companion, Panteles Demis, returned to Main Street opposite City Hall to transfer to the Route 8 bus that leaves from the Franklin Street side of City Hall for Seabury Heights, 240 Belmont St. There, trouble resumed when the lift could not be operated on the 4 p.m. bus. The driver of the 1:40 p.m. bus, who took over at City Hall for the employee who drove the bus earlier in the day, could not locate the key necessary to operate the lift, Mr. Carney said. He acknowledged that the lift on the 4 p.m. No. 8 also was inoperable. But he said that he was informed that the driver at least followed procedure. That would have meant calling a starter, requesting a backup van, and offering the customer a choice between waiting for the backup or walking back to Main Street to catch the No. 24 bus to Seabury Heights, which Mr. Carney said would have been quicker for the customer. Because the No. 24 driver knew that a passenger had been inconvenienced by the No. 8 bus, he delayed leaving City Hall for five minutes after he should have left, Mr. Carney said, but Mrs. Bourgeois did not show.
That's because Mrs. Bourgeois said she'd had enough. Contrary to the policy Mr. Carney outlined, Mrs. Bourgeois said the bus driver said he was told by the company that no backup van was available and he instructed her to walk back to Main Street to catch the No. 24 bus. Mr. Demis confirmed he does not recall hearing the driver offer an alternative to walking back to Main Street. She did not walk back to Main Street because “I'm handicapped. I hurt, and I just walked down there, and I get worn out.” One of the reasons she hurts, she said, is “I'm still recovering from the bus accident” — when an RTA bus driver had to slam on his brakes to avoid an accident last summer. “I took off like a missile” — out of her seat and into a pole on the bus. At the time, she had nearly recovered from back surgery, and said that 11 months after the accident “my back kills me” and “my head doesn't feel good.” Mr. Carney said there were times last year that seven or eight buses a day without operable wheelchair lifts were on the road. “Now if I have one or two on the list, that's a lot.” The day Mrs. Bourgeois encountered both of them, the company picked up, without incident, 24 other passengers needing the lifts, the general manager said. Christopher W. Bruce, head of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 22, who was critical of the company's record with wheelchair lifts last summer, said, “I believe it's much better than it was.” Mr. Carney said of Mrs. Bourgeois, “I can do nothing but apologize. We'll try to do better.”
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Boston Globe supports Disabilities as a Disparity
The Boston Globe
Editorial
June 9, 2009
What 'access' really means
PUBLIC HEALTH officials have long recognized - and tried to eliminate - the sharp disparities in health among racial and ethnic minorities. But there is another group as well that ranks well below average on many measures of health: people with disabilities. When the state launched its universal access to healthcare law in 2006, it created a council to monitor and correct health disparities. The Legislature should pass a bill that would have the council address the barriers to good health faced by people with disabilities, as well as other minorities.
According to a report released this spring by the Disability Policy Consortium, adults with disabilities have four times the average risk of developing diabetes and a 20 percent higher risk of obesity. The diagnosis of cancer in a late stage is 41 percent more common among people with disabilities than in the population at large.
The report shows that it is not enough for health facilities to comply with the physical access and other requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. People with disabilities face other obstacles in getting the medical attention and education they need. The report deplores health programs and systems "that lack the cultural competency to provide appropriate healthcare services and education to people with disabilities."
Insurance coverage for nearly 98 percent of the population is an impressive achievement by the state, but the persistence of disparities in health outcomes and at-risk behaviors indicates that a strictly medical model for providing care is insufficient. Public and private health providers have to address the needs of people with disabilities from the broader social perspectives that they have already begun to use with racial and ethnic minorities.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
Click here to download the report, Disabilites and Disparities.
Editorial
June 9, 2009
What 'access' really means
PUBLIC HEALTH officials have long recognized - and tried to eliminate - the sharp disparities in health among racial and ethnic minorities. But there is another group as well that ranks well below average on many measures of health: people with disabilities. When the state launched its universal access to healthcare law in 2006, it created a council to monitor and correct health disparities. The Legislature should pass a bill that would have the council address the barriers to good health faced by people with disabilities, as well as other minorities.
According to a report released this spring by the Disability Policy Consortium, adults with disabilities have four times the average risk of developing diabetes and a 20 percent higher risk of obesity. The diagnosis of cancer in a late stage is 41 percent more common among people with disabilities than in the population at large.
The report shows that it is not enough for health facilities to comply with the physical access and other requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. People with disabilities face other obstacles in getting the medical attention and education they need. The report deplores health programs and systems "that lack the cultural competency to provide appropriate healthcare services and education to people with disabilities."
Insurance coverage for nearly 98 percent of the population is an impressive achievement by the state, but the persistence of disparities in health outcomes and at-risk behaviors indicates that a strictly medical model for providing care is insufficient. Public and private health providers have to address the needs of people with disabilities from the broader social perspectives that they have already begun to use with racial and ethnic minorities.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
Click here to download the report, Disabilites and Disparities.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Testimony to the Joint Committee on Public Health
June 1st, 2009
My name is Robbin Miller. I am a healthcare advocate for persons with disabilities. I am supporting Senate Bill 858 to include “Disparities” as part of the work the Health Disparities Council conducts in promoting policy making for ethnic and minority groups.
I have one story to demonstrate on how attitudinal barriers in the healthcare profession can discriminate against persons with disabilities.
Sheba is a 40 year old thin build woman who has Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Sheba told me that one day she went to Boston to get x-rays of her back at an outpatient facility for her doctor who specializes in MS treatments and research. The technician directed Sheba to follow her to the room that would take her x-rays. The technician asked why Sheba did not bring her personal care attendant (PCA) to assist her on the table. Sheba said she was told that she did not have to bring her PCA due to the technician that would assist her instead. Sheba told me that the technician made an angry face at her and said something under her breath. As the technician proceeded to assist Sheba on the table (from her manual wheelchair), Sheba heard the technician moaned several times on how heavy she was and that she needed to lose some weight. Sheba was horrified by these remarks and did not know what to say.
Sheba was afraid to be assertive with this technician for fear of being left on the table with no one to assist her back in her wheelchair. Sheba said she will never go back to this facility due to the verbal abuse she encountered with this technician.
The technician’s actions are unacceptable in mistreating Sheba as a human being. Healthcare facilities that perform outpatient medical services will benefit from receiving disability sensitive training like they do for working with ethnic and minority groups. They will learn how to interact appropriately with persons with disabilities in a professional manner.
I summarize my testimony in asking the Joint Committee on Public Health to support Senate Bill 858 to include “Disabilities” as part of the work that Health Care Disparities Council conducts for ethnic and minority groups. As an advocate, I have offered many healthcare facilities an opportunity to receive a program on “Disability Sensitivity Training” when interacting with persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, their gatekeepers feel that Disability is not a cultural competence. Disability leaders want to let members know of this committee that disability is a culture that needs to be respected equally along with minority and ethnic groups that this council serves.
Respectfully submitted,
Robbin Miller
Advocate
June 1st, 2009
My name is Robbin Miller. I am a healthcare advocate for persons with disabilities. I am supporting Senate Bill 858 to include “Disparities” as part of the work the Health Disparities Council conducts in promoting policy making for ethnic and minority groups.
I have one story to demonstrate on how attitudinal barriers in the healthcare profession can discriminate against persons with disabilities.
Sheba is a 40 year old thin build woman who has Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Sheba told me that one day she went to Boston to get x-rays of her back at an outpatient facility for her doctor who specializes in MS treatments and research. The technician directed Sheba to follow her to the room that would take her x-rays. The technician asked why Sheba did not bring her personal care attendant (PCA) to assist her on the table. Sheba said she was told that she did not have to bring her PCA due to the technician that would assist her instead. Sheba told me that the technician made an angry face at her and said something under her breath. As the technician proceeded to assist Sheba on the table (from her manual wheelchair), Sheba heard the technician moaned several times on how heavy she was and that she needed to lose some weight. Sheba was horrified by these remarks and did not know what to say.
Sheba was afraid to be assertive with this technician for fear of being left on the table with no one to assist her back in her wheelchair. Sheba said she will never go back to this facility due to the verbal abuse she encountered with this technician.
The technician’s actions are unacceptable in mistreating Sheba as a human being. Healthcare facilities that perform outpatient medical services will benefit from receiving disability sensitive training like they do for working with ethnic and minority groups. They will learn how to interact appropriately with persons with disabilities in a professional manner.
I summarize my testimony in asking the Joint Committee on Public Health to support Senate Bill 858 to include “Disabilities” as part of the work that Health Care Disparities Council conducts for ethnic and minority groups. As an advocate, I have offered many healthcare facilities an opportunity to receive a program on “Disability Sensitivity Training” when interacting with persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, their gatekeepers feel that Disability is not a cultural competence. Disability leaders want to let members know of this committee that disability is a culture that needs to be respected equally along with minority and ethnic groups that this council serves.
Respectfully submitted,
Robbin Miller
Advocate
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