Category Archives: cuomo

Ethics Welcome (Needed!) in NY State

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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s directive that his staff along with top officials undergo ethics training is a breath of fresh air. There is nothing like fresh air to displace the pollution of unethical behavior, the stench of the latter being no more pronounced than it is in the way the state’s department of health manages the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Waiver.

I can’t imagine the  governor will be at pleased when he hears the DOH and their contract employees continue to present Timothy J. Feeney as being Dr. Feeney or Timothy J. Feeney PhD. despite the demand for ethics from the new administration. In fact, I suspect he will be angry. And, in all likelihood, not surprised. As Bloomberg news recently reported,  “New York’s legislature has fought off efforts to require disclosure of the amount and source of their outside income and be subject to an independent commission with the power to monitor and enforce ethics rules” so the unethical behavior coming out of the DOH is not new news.

Recently, Joan Barbieri, Long Island’s lead Regional Resource Development Specialist for the TBI Waiver sent out an email to waiver providers telling them at their  “February 16, 2011 Provider meeting Dr. Timothy Feeney Program Director from the Neurobehavioral Resource Project at Wildwood Institute will be in attendance and discussing the program." Not only is he not a doctor (the only valid college degree he does have is a bachelors) he is also no longer connected to Wildwood. I sent an email to the providers letting them know the information they were given was false. While providers need to be ethical, they bloody well deserve honesty and ethical behavior from the others.

Additional emails have also been sent to the DOH, Barbieri, and Maria Dibble, the executive director of the Southern Tier Independence Center (STIC). STIC subcontracts to Feeney knowing full well he lies about his credentials. No response from any of’m. Let me end this missive here.  Thought it might be nice to end without a surprise.

Actions Speak Louder than Words

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Actions speak louder than words. A cliché. When I was a boy my father reminded me there are reasons clichés become clichés, and the reasons are often good ones, which I believe to be the case with actions speak louder than words.

As one who lives with a disability, in my case a brain injury, I am weary of the many who offer up words of advocacy and support for brain injury survivors yet when it comes down to standing up to those who deny our rights they do nothing.  In the world of brain injury there are all kinds of people in the profit and non-profit arenas who, when it comes to taking a stand for equal rights, fail miserably. Too many who claim to care remain silent when they know brain injury survivors are being denied equal rights, real quality care and support, meaning, in part, that those providing the care are qualified to provide the services they are being paid to provide, paid with taxpayer dollars no less!

And so it is that this year my eye will be on the actions versus words arena. When the actions don’t match the words, I’ll say so. Yes, I know, I will upset some. I don’t care. Why should I? The ones I’ll be upsetting are the ones spewing lip service. They  don’t deserve caring, not when the rights of others are being denied and their silence and inaction makes them one of the forces contributing to the denial those rights.

Everyone and every organization is fair game. I am overjoyed that my state’s new governor has made it clear ethical standards are a must and in some instances in this state, they are severely lacking. True that governor.