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Ethan Saylor Alliance

DRM Paralegal, Teri Sparks, served on the Governor’s Commission for the Effective Community Inclusion of People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The Commission brought together law enforcement, advocates, state agencies, family members, including the family of Ethan Saylor, and self-advocates to develop recommendations for the training of law enforcement that would provide awareness about intellectual and developmental disabilities and would lead to safe interactions.

Self-advocates made clear their wish to feel safe, understood and included.  DRM served on the subcommittee to draft training objectives that were adopted by the Maryland Police Training Commission, for cadets and veterans of law enforcement. In 2015, Maryland passed legislation creating the Ethan Saylor Alliance for Self-Advocates as Educators.

Subsequently, the Maryland Department of Disabilities established the Ethan Saylor Alliance Steering Committee, staffed by Department of Disabilities staff Jennifer Eastman and co-chaired by  Teri Sparks from DRM and Erica Wheeler, Self-Advocate & Trainer.  The steering committee works to insure that appropriate training and supports are in place for self-advocates to participate in meaningful ways as trainers of law enforcement.  In 2018, the steering committee awarded funds to two organizations, including Loyola University, to develop and implement curricula to prepare self-advocates to participate in meaningful ways as trainers of law enforcement. You can learn more about the Ethan Saylor Alliance by visiting: http://mdod.maryland.gov/about/Pages/Saylor-Alliance.aspx

CBS Baltimore shared coverage of a police training session at Loyola University. Actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities perform reality-based training scenarios to improve police encounters with people with disabilities:

On January 17, 2019, Ethan Saylor’s mother, Patti Saylor, was featured on WYPR’s “On the Record” discussing the officer training sessions.

Learn more about the program, “Learning to Lead: Training Self-Advocate Educators for Law Enforcement” on Loyola University’s website.

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DRM Reports: “Segregation & Suicide at MCIW”

12/14/2018

Disability Rights Maryland hosted a Press Conference at our offices today to announce the release of our report, “Segregation and Suicide: Confinement at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (PDF). The report was completed by DRM and Munib Lohrasbi, a community fellow with the Open Society Institute of Baltimore (OSI). 

The report discloses the extreme isolation and harm, or risk of harm, to numerous women with significant disabilities housed in the segregation, infirmary, and mental health units at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCIW). Conditions in the units varied, but DRM observed problems with access to outdoor and indoor recreation; natural light; mattresses or bedding; insufficient treatment plans; and a lack of confidentiality for health  care services. The harm caused by segregation practices is pointedly evidenced by the suicide of a young woman with mental health issues who was incarcerated for a non-violent offense and who took her life while in segregation. 

DRM’s investigation, set forth in the Report, finds that MCIW failed to exercise reasonable standards of care during the time period surrounding her suicide. The Report offers recommendations for less harmful and safer correctional practices that conform to professional standards and comply with federal and Constitutional requirements.

DRM’s Director of Litigation, Lauren Young remarked, “The use of segregation in prison – the extreme isolation, the lack of physical and social engagement, sometimes combined with a lack of bedding, clothing, natural light or exercise, are conditions which Maryland has been shamefully slow to reject, especially as applied to individuals with serious disabilities; and compared with other states. We share this information because it is indispensable to the reforms that must come, but which will not succeed if conditions are kept from public consciousness.”

View a recording of the press conference on our Facebook page (embedded below).

 

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NDRN Statement on Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting

For Immediate Release
10/29/2018                        

Washington, DC – Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, issued the following statement in response to the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and other recent acts of hate and terror in the United States:

“I am profoundly saddened by the acts of violence that have taken place in Pittsburgh, Louisville, and by the mail bombings targeting political leaders and the news media. But I am not surprised. This is the inevitable outcome of the hate filled rhetoric that has infected our national discourse. Our leaders must do better. We all must be better. Hate has no place in America and it must stop now. The National Disability Rights Network joins with the entire civil rights community to mourn those we lost. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and our nation.”

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View original press release on NDRN’s website

The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is the nonprofit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and the Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals with disabilities. Collectively, the Network is the largest provider of legally based advocacy services to people with disabilities in the United States.

Contact: David Card
202.408.9514 x122
press@ndrn.org

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Views from the Field: Medicaid and Long-Term Care

Views from the Field: Medicaid and Long-Term Care

By Sarah Steege, Attorney for Disability Rights Maryland  |  August 14, 2018, originally posted on Medicaid Supports Maryland. 

One of the great successes of Medicaid is in providing community-based long-term services and supports (LTSS). This enables people with disabilities of all ages and the elderly to remain in their own homes and communities and avoid or leave institutions. Over 15,000 people with developmental disabilities in Maryland receive community-based Medicaid LTSS, compared with fewer than 100 remaining in institutions. Approximately 12,000 people with disabilities and the elderly receive community-based LTSS through other Medicaid programs. As the nation’s largest payer of LTSS, Medicaid thus plays a crucial role in helping seniors and people with disabilities to live full lives in the community, rather than in institutions such as nursing facilities.

Community-based LTSS programs pay for direct care professionals, home modifications, technology and other forms of support for people who need assistance in living independently. While Medicaid also pays for LTSS in institutions such as nursing facilities, the desire for community-based LTSS has resulted in an increasing shift toward funding home- and community-based services (HCBS) so as to avoid institutional placement that limits the person’s choices and that generally costs the state more money.

For instance, if you need help with day-to-day tasks such as bathing, toileting, dressing, taking medication, preparing food or eating, the Community First Choice (CFC) program can fund a personal care aide to come to your home and provide this assistance. By definition, people enrolled in CFC would otherwise require nursing facility care; instead, many people with disabilities and seniors are able to continue living at home, whether independently or with family, with CFC support. Medicare does not fund long-term personal assistance, nor do most private health insurance plans. Medicaid fills that gap, playing a unique role in helping thousands of people to have the choice to remain at home.

In addition, Maryland’s Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) supports people with developmental disabilities by providing direct care staff in their homes or provider-owned homes, employment assistance (such as training, career planning and on-the-job supports) and home modifications and technology, among other services. Particularly after people with disabilities complete school, DDA programs thus offer continued opportunities for community engagement.

Under the federal Medicaid Act, states are not required to cover these and other community-based LTSS programs; therefore, these services are at greater risk of funding cuts than mandatory services like nursing facilities. In 1999, however, the U.S. Supreme Court found in Olmstead v. L.C. that unnecessary institutionalization of people with disabilities is segregation, which Congress had sought to avoid by enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). States must therefore provide community-based services to people with disabilities who choose that option, unless doing so would require a fundamental alteration to the program involved. Ensuring robust community-based LTSS funding conforms to the government’s obligation under the ADA. Community-based LTSS programs are also generally less expensive for the state and federal governments than institutional care. Funding a strong HCBS system thus provides the winning combination of supporting people in living a more complete life in the place they choose, complying with federal anti-discrimination law and saving money for the state and Medicaid program overall.

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2019 Annual Survey

DRM would like to hear from you! We are developing our annual Advocacy Services Plan and would like to know what issues are important to the community. Please take 10-15 minutes to complete our annual survey and help us plan next year’s work. Please submit your response by August 31, 2018. Thank you!

Alternative methods to submit annual survey: 

A PDF version of the survey is available2019 ASP Survey

Please return your paper copy by email: Feedback@DisabilityRightsMD.org

by mail: 1500 Union Avenue, Suite 2000, Baltimore, MD 21211

by fax: 410-727-6389

or call us: 410-727-6352 ext. 0 to give your answers by phone. 

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