Category Archives: Belvedere Brain Injury Program

Belvedere Says No to Survivors’ Coalition

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I’d like to say I’m  surprised that the Belvedere Brain Injury Program owned by John Mccooey will not let the Kahrmann Advocacy Coalition, founded by brain injury survivors, the very people Belvedere claims to serve, meet with fellow survivors in the Belvedere program, but this has always been an honest blog and I see no reason to change that.

Of course, preventing a coalition founded by those you claim to care about from meeting with survivors who participate in your program is a red flag if ever there was one. But I am not surprised. I worked for and with Belvedere for quite some time. I actually interviewed with them on 9/11. At first it was a troubled provider but it appeared as if owner John Mccooey truly wanted to develop the best possible services for the brain injury survivors in the program and it actually became a really good program, until, that is, Belvedere opened a substance abuse component. When that happened, everything changed.

Michael Loiselle who headed up and, to my knowledge, still heads up the substance abuse program, was about as dictatorial as one can be. More than once I heard him inflict one of his favorite expressions, “Too bad, so sad,” on a survivor who was talking about some tough time they were having. Moreover, Mccooey, then and now supports Loiselle even though Loiselle and the entire substance abuse program dictates to survivors what workshops they will or won’t attend. Never mind that the TBI Waiver, governed by the New York State Department of Health demands that the program be driven by the survivors. Loiselle and Mccooey couldn’t get me out fast enough. In fact, I once lightly touched Loiselle’s shoulder while talking with him and like a whiny little boy he ran to upper management and charge me with workplace harassment because I touched him. Not surprisingly, an investigation determined that he was, well, wrong.

As for John Mccooey, I’d call him a wolf in sheep’s clothing but I happen to like wolves and see no reason to insult them by dragging them down into the filth.

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Criminalize Dehumanizing People with Disabilities

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If you deny someone their equal rights you deny them their freedom, and for that you should face criminal charges.

This happens all to often in the world of disability. I’ve seen it, endured it, fought it, and will fight it until the end of my days.

If you are going to treat someone with a disability as if their humanity is less whole than yours, you should be charged with a crime. If you are going to treat people with disabilities as if each and everyone of them is a cottage industry for you to profit from, same thing, criminal charges should be brought to bear and if you are convicted you can do the community service by going to jail. In other words, leave the community.

I hear many things from many people on many fronts, particularly in the world of people like me who live with brain injuries. Sometimes I can reveal my sources, sometimes not. Sometimes discreetness is the wisest choice, sometimes in your face is. I am willing to play both cards if I genuinely believe doing so will further equal rights and or hold accountable those who willfully deny others their equal rights.

Here is an example that typifies a lot of what goes on. I know someone who lived with a brain injury. She is extremely bright and nobody’s fool. Were she in a coma she could likely outwit 99 percent of the people I know. Anyway, she was attending a day program and made it known she wanted to get a part time job. So the program tells this woman that they will clear out a little office space they have and set it up with candy and soda that she can sell a few hours a week and she can keep some of the money. This woman said to me, “Do they think I’m stupid or what? Do they think I don’t know that the only reason they’re offering this is so they can bill for the hours I’m in selling their damned candy?” In other words, all this Albany-based provider cared about was not losing the money they would lose if this woman had a part time job in the, wait for it, community!

There was a time in life when I believed that in everyone’s heart of hearts there rested an active or untapped reservoir of compassion for others. Wrong. There are plenty of people that simply don’t care, not at all. And they are the ones that need to be exposed,  criminally charged when possible, and given a leave of absence from the community, and if not the community, a permanent leave of absence from working in an arena designed to help people reach their maximum level of independence.

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Ramblings From a Writer & Advocate

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My blog “pen” has been still for a time now and I am pulled back to this page because I feel a kind of welcome connection to the more than 1,500 people that read this blog every month. Any writer not humbled by that kind of attention is a fool. And, I’ve missed you all.

I’ve been fairly active. I’ve written three short stories recently and am, dare I say it, fairly pleased with them. I eyed the possibility of trading in my car for a new one and was reminded that if  you want honesty in your life, you’re not likely to find it in a car dealership.  But most on my mind, at the moment, is a recent presentation by several healthcare providers claiming to be experts in helping those who live with the dual challenge of substance abuse and brain injury. I don’t know all the players but two of the presenters were Albany-based Belvedere’s Brain Injury Program and Northeast Center for Special Care in Lake Katrine, New York.  One of the people from Belvedere explained that Belvedere’s counselors have sessions with survivors in their cars for privacy.

Those I talked to who attended were not only not impressed, they were horrified. Survivors of brain injuries were referred to as “those TBIs” – TBI stands for Traumatic Brain Injury – and one presenter said a survivor he knew had been a garbage man before his injury and so was probably special ed anyway.  No matter how you hold that disgusting observation up to the light, it is packed with bigotry. Survivors were talked about like they were products and, well, less than human.

Do these fools not realize that when you say all TBIs you’re spewing the same kind of bigotry as the voices who say all Blacks or all Jews or all Latinos or all gays or all lesbians? And don’t miss that the people who offered these presentations were picked by their company owners and leadership to represent their companies and, one would suppose, their views. Troubling, very troubling.

Anyway, it is good to be back. More soon. My best to you all.

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Living With Brain Injury – Part IV: Those Around Us

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When you face the challenge of a brain injury in life, there are several things you should be able to count, from those who love you and from those whose job it is to help you manage the injury: respect, equality, dignity, honesty and the best treatment available. What you do not deserve is disrespect, condescension, dehumanization, and dishonesty. Tragically, there is far too much of the latter.

Let me say at the outset that there a lot of things my state, New York, has right. It has a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) waiver, a form of medicaid reimbursement that provides services so some with brain injuries can live in the community and, in some instances, return to living in the community. There is no question that more people with brain injuries are living in the community as a result of the waiver.

However, there are problems, and while the problems might understandably call for finger pointing, finger pointing rarely gets us anywhere. The waiver is overseen by the New York State Department of Health. The TBI Waiver manual is a nice document, it says the person with the brain injury is the person who drives their treatment plan, or service plan as it is called in waiver parlance. Sometimes this happens, sometimes it does not. But the waiver is well thought out on this front.

What appears to be lacking in the waiver manual are regulations. There are guidelines for sure, but they are accompanied by a paucity of regulations, and that is troubling.

One thing I am sure of is this. For any therapeutic environment to be as effective as possible, it needs to be an emotionally, spiritually and physically safe place for the person getting the care. Key to this safety is, among other things, honesty. That the people who treat you or influence your treatment or the rules governing your treatment are who they say they are.

One problematic case that does call for finger pointing is the case of Timothy J. Feeney. Feeney has been a contract employee with the NY DOH for on or about 15 years and continues to refer to himself as Dr. Timothy J. Feeney when he is nothing of the sort. By his own admission, both his PhD and his Master’s Degree were obtained from Greenwich University, a non-accredited school that enriches countless diploma mill lists on and, I would imagine, off the web. On a resume of his provided to this writer by the state, Feeney openly lists Greenwich University. Greenwich U was a diploma mill that operated out of California and Hawaii until 1998 when it moved to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia. It closed its doors and 2003. There is an Australian Government Alert available on the web that makes it clear Greenwich was not a recognized university in that country.

However, do not be quick to villainize the NY DOH in its entirety. Feeney’s contracts, also provided to this writer by the state, do not require he have any degree to head the neurobehavioral project for the DOH. One has to wonder who wrote the contracts? It is, I think, reasonable to assume that there are those in the DOH who are good and honest people who may inherited this hot potato.

The bottom line is this. Learning how to manage daily life when you live with a brain injury is hard enough. It becomes even harder when people aren’t honest with us. Any value they may actually have is entirely undermined once their dishonesty comes to light.

We Are Not Children, We Are Not Slaves: Living With a Brain Injury- Part I

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Discrimination denies people what they deserve – their freedom.

I have lived with a brain injury for nearly 20 years and have worked in the field for nearly 15 of those years. Raised in a civil rights family I am very much an advocate for every individual’s right to be who they are, in safety, with equality, in the world they live in. When I talk with survivors of brain injuries in this state and others, the number one complaint I hear is They treat us like we are children. Tragically this is true.

My injury was sustained when I was held-up and shot in the head at point blank range in 1984.

The dehumanization of people with brain injuries (of people with disabilities) is epidemic in scope. In too many instances those who live with brain injuries are treated by health care providers as chattel. Living things used to make money for the greedy. No matter how you hold this truth up to the light, it is a form of slavery: emotional, spiritual and physical slavery.

My state, New York State, offers what in common parlance here is referred to as the Medicaid Waiver. The waiver is a form of Medicaid reimbursement for healthcare providers who offer services to people with brain injuries who live in the community. While the lives of many brain injury survivors has improved as a result, the lives of many on the waiver have been turned into a form of community-based incarceration.

This is not a situation that calls for broad brush strokes. There are waiver providers in this state who, in my view, do an extraordinary job. The Cortland Community Re-Entry Program in Cortland and Living Resources in Albany are two superb providers. Others, like the Albany-based Belvedere Brain Injury Program is not even close to its website’s claim that it is “the Capital District’s leading traumatic brain injury community rehabilitation program”. An arrogant and unfounded claim if ever there was one.

to be cont’d