Who's
behind
Freedom
Clearinghouse?
Stuff
to know about . . .
Putting
HCFA dollars to work for us
The following is from an
e-mail Deidre
Hammon posted on our Advocates' e-mail list:
[...] a ton of advice on this one! Check out the Freedom Clearinghouse
material and the cartoon by Scott Chambers of before and after Olmstead
(where they are chasing us with a net before, and we are chasing them
after), this is the attitude that has got to spread. I can tell you in
Nevada, they are feeling chased! 
And a handful of people can do it.
Follow the Freedom Clearinghouse advocates manual, if possible get people
to visit the website, pay for their memberships in Freedom Clearinghouse,
so that people are empowered, and talk ~ always ~ like the movement will
not stop. Never!!
Nevada sounds a lot like New Mexico, twenty years behind the times, and
a service system that provides incredibly inadequate services and then
controls people so severely that they live in fear of losing benefits.
But like the our illustriuos DHR Director said, "people don't go
to work for the state to make your lives miserable..." (OK, some
of them do, and that's a fact) but most people in state bureaucracies
really want to "help."
A friend of mine from North Carolina did exactly what you suggested and
went door to door to enlist community members (real community members)
in starting one of the most successful Family Resource Centers in the
nation. It worked because the community bought in with time and energy
and the community decided what services they wanted : not the state.You
may have to map out a strategy for face to face contact. But if New Mexico
is like Nevada, five committed souls (who speak for a hundred and can
pull off the illusion that they are thousands) can change the world!
Speaking the truth about our experiences makes a huge difference. To bring
people into the process, have them write or dictate letters about their
experiences, help them to understand the civil rights violations, help
them to get angry! Look for the tobacco money, if your state got any,
try to get a piece of it, and hire them to free people from institutions.
The reason I mention Ticket to Work is because HCFA is providing ridiculous
amounts of funding to states to "coordinate" bringing people
with disabilities and community groups to the table. Find out if your
state has applied for the funding.
If
no one in your state has the answer, you can write to this woman:
Marilyn Lewis-Taylor
HCFA
7500 Security Blvd.
Baltimore MD 21244-1850
Figure out how to get involved with this money if it comes down the pike
in your state, and use your involvement to make the state folks go door
to door with an advocate... or figure out some creative way to
spend it that ~ based on your experience ~ will actually work.
Brainstorm with other people and say, what has worked in the past?
What got me involved... get people with disabilities to the table, and
ask them why they get fired up about certain issues. (It's typically because
when we get to design and direct services, they actually work for us ~
what a novel concept!) Keep the brainstorming positive, cuz it's easy
to fall into that "nothing ever works" mentality. Just keep
moving!
Feel free to contact me anytime on this list serve, or at <mailto:d.hammon@gte.net>d.hammon@gte.net
Notice the dot after the d, or some poor guy in Texas will get your mail.
Be well, and raise hell.
Deidre Hammon, cadre
Candace Hawkins' Advice to Advocates
Feeling Blue? I'll bet you thought that since your elected state officials are not in session, you'd have no chance to copy Missouri's success. Well, snap out of it. There's a golden opportunity between now and the November election. This is the time when you can make a meaningful difference.
First
Your state officials are home so there's no travel or hassle to reach them. Plus they may be running for re-election in the August primary and November general election. That gives you a big edge. These folks are never more accessible nor willing to listen than when they are up for a vote. So get in gear, call them up, go to their community meetings, and press conferences. At meetings you can educate the general public about your issues as well as give candidates the chance to show their support for Olmstead. Whenever possible bring along a person trapped in an institution--put a face on the issue. First person stories have great power. Use it!
Second
State agencies are busy during the summer months pulling together their budget requests for the next fiscal year. Most have to complete their requests by Labor Day. (I know, I know the new fiscal year just started. But this is government, remember.)
Clearly they will need dollars for Olmstead training, printing and public awareness efforts. Plus they should be requesting spending flexibility to allow Medicaid dollars to follow the person as well. A two-pronged effort will help convince your General Assembly about the urgent need for spending flexibility.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to invite your state's long-term care administrators to join you in a meeting with legislators who control long term care cdollars.
Third
Visit facilities -- yes, nursing homes, long-term loony bins, and developmental centers [Link to page with downloadable pdf file of the regs spelling out advocates' right to do this.] and spread the good news to people incarcerated therein. Freedom is theirs for the asking. The promise of Olmstead is within their reach. But they gotta ask. So tell them: Ask, doggone it, ask. [Link to HHS-OCR complaint form]
And you thought there was nothing more could be done this summer. Get going! Time's a-wasting. People, our people, are waiting in utter despair. Don't leave them out of your summer plans.
Freedom Clearinghouse is a project of
Free Hand Press,
publisher of Mouth
magazine.
Website developed by Cliffwood
Organic Works.
Website hosted by DIMENET.
| E-mail | Home |