Category Archives: tbiscc

Feeney Facts Plain and Simple

Posted on by
1

It is  amazing how stone cold facts sometimes get a bit foggy,  or so some would hope. So, I thought I’d lift the fog a bit.

Fact: Timothy J. Feeney continues to say he has a valid PhD and a valid Masters Degree when he doesn’t.

Fact: The Southern Tier Independence Center in Binghamton New York may well get the contract from the New York State Department of Health to be the Statewide Neurobehavioral Project for New York’s Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver.

Fact: All indications are Southern Tier has every intention of giving the work, once again because they did it before, to Feeney and his team. 

Fact: The New York State Department of Health and the Southern Tier Independence Center are fully aware of  Feeney’s bogus degrees and both parties have received communication from brain injury survivors, family members and, in some cases, providers, asking to be protected from having Feeney and his company in their lives. Some providers have said they will stop providing services if Feeney returns.

Fact: If the Southern Tier Independence Center gets the contract and gives work to Feeney and the state doesn’t step up and stop this from happening that means that the Southern Tier Independence Center and the NY State DOH are okay with a dishonest and unqualified individual impacting the lives of the 2700 or so brain injury survivors on the waiver, their families, and the dozens of honorable healthcare providers trying to provide waiver services.

Fact: If the last Fact were to happen, it would mean Southern Tier and the State are not putting the survivors, their families, and the providers first.  And, by the way, it would mean both parties are sticking  it to the taxpayers because it is taxpayer dollars that would foot the bill, and taxpayers deserve honesty too.

Fact: The Kahrmann Advocacy Coalition, whose membership will soon be larger than that of the prestigious Brain Injury Association of NY State, is paying close attention, which is fairly relevant since the coalition was founded by brain injury survivors and their loved ones, they very people all the aforementioned parties say they care about.

_________________________________

Equal Rights Needs No Competition

Posted on by
Reply

Groups promoting equal rights should never be in competition with each other. The fight for equal rights needs and deserves as many honest voices as it can get.

I am most directly involved with promoting the equal rights of people with brain injuries, with their right to live in the most integrated setting.

Fortunately in my state there are some solid voices involved in this fight. The Brain Injury Association of New York State is the leading advocacy organization in the state;  the Providers Alliance is comprised of companies and individuals who provide services so some who live with brain injuries are able to live in the community: the Kahrmann Consumer Advocacy Coalition is a statewide coalition founded by and run by survivors and their families;  the Brain Injury Coalition of Central New York is comprised of an extraordinary group of survivors, family members and health care professionals; the National Brain Injury Foundation in Utica brings hope and empowerment to survivors and their families; the Traumatic Brain Injury Services Coordinating Council (TBISCC) was formed by an act of the New York State Legislature to advise the Department of Health regarding service needs of persons who have sustained a traumatic brain injury, and the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities.

Given a recent productive meeting between the KCAC and Mark Kissinger, deputy commissioner for the New York Department of Health and his staff,  along with my knowledge and experience of those in all of the aforementioned groups, New York State is blessed to have them all and very much needs them all. There is no such thing as too many groups working for the right of all survivors of brain injury to live as independently as possible in the most integrating setting as possible.

The KCAC will be meeting with the Mr. Kissinger and his staff again in the next few months and has already reached out to the Brain Injury Association of NY and the Providers Alliance for a meeting. Moreover, we are already talking with both the NBIF and the BIC of Central New York. What is true about those in all the groups mentioned in this missive – including the DOH for those who may doubt it – is everyone’s heart certainly appears to be in the right place.

I hope and pray all of us are wedded to my favorite definition of humility – humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it is thinking less about yourself  – and  join together, work together, and urge each other on. If any of us get caught up in the destructive winds of competition and ego, we hinder the very thing we are all really about – equal rights.

This is not the life path I was on when I was shot in the head 1984. I was writing, driving a New York City cab, and pondering a career as a paramedic. But the squeeze of a teenage finger changed all that. And so here I am, connected to some wonderful people and some wonderful groups throughout this state.

And so we keep on moving, one day a time, humble and humbled up, which is at it should be. Life happens to us whether we like it or not. It does not go on forever, so let us all join together and work  heart and soul to make the world a better place for all people. And that includes each other.

_____________________

Kahrmann Coalition Meets with NY DOH Officials

Posted on by
1

In a wide ranging conversation marked by mutual respect and openness, representatives of the Kahrmann Consumer Advocacy Coalition met with Mark Kissinger, deputy commissioner for the New York State Department of Health, and members of his staff.

As founder of the KCAC, and one who will never blink when it comes to my support for the equal rights of all people, in this case, people with brain injuries and their families, today’s meeting very much appeared to be the beginning of what I suspect both sides hope will be an ongoing healthy dialogue.

The DOH said a newspaper article reporting that a hold had been put on the transfer of brain injury survivors consumers to licensed home care agencies was mistaken. While Kissinger and his staff  could not guarantee no consumers would wind up in nursing homes as a result of the transfer of services,  they assured us they were working on a daily basis with providers, focusing on each individual consumer, to make sure consumers are not going without the home and community support services they deserve. Moreover, the DOH said it is strongly discouraging nursing home admissions.

As for the timing of the late-December 2009 directive to providers requiring they transfer home community staff services to licensed home health care agencies in 30 days, Kissinger and his staff said waiver providers were told in 2006 that all agencies providing home and community services were required to be licensed home care agencies and, in 2007, were notified  of this requirement in writing. According the DOH, providers were directed to be in compliance by the end of September, 2009,  had that deadline extended to the end of December 2009, and then had that deadline extended another month.

A number of other possibilities were discussed, including, but not limited to:

  • Quarterly meetings between the KCAC and the DOH.
  • Quarterly meetings between the KCAC, the DOH and an alliance traumatic brain injury waiver health care providers.
  • Increase reimbursement rates for providers
  • The establishment of reimbursement for staff training relevant to the population being served.
  • Including KCAC members as unpaid participants on  DOH survey teams.
  • KCAC meeting consumers across the state in day programs offered by waiver providers.

As a civil rights advocate on all fronts: women, gay and lesbian, people with disabilities, blacks, Latinos, Jews, Muslims, and so on, and as one who lives with a brain injury, I, like many others, know only too well  what it is to be condescended to, or patronized. We were in no way treated like this by Mark Kissinger and his staff.  We were not condescended to or patronized, we were not rushed to end the meeting, and while all the answers were not every inch of what we hoped for, no question we asked was ducked or avoided. We were treated as equals. And that, no matter how you slice it, is good news.

Today was a good beginning for the relationship between the KCAC and the Department of Health. Next, we will be seeking to meet with the Providers Alliance and, of course, we look forward to a follow-up meeting with Mr. Kissinger and his staff.

______________________________

Notes From an Advocate

Posted on by
Reply

The last thing you encounter as an advocate is a shortage of dishonesty. It comes at you from every direction.

As readers of this blog know, the New York Department of Health has directed anywhere from eight to 18 agencies across the state to transfer brain injury survivors living in the community from their care even though many of the providers have adhered to all DOH requests, even though the lives of the survivors will be brutally disrupted and traumatized, and even though some survivors will likely find themselves back in nursing homes because there are no agencies in their area to pick up the slack, and even though the DOH has not talked to the survivors about this.

DOH Deputy Commissioner Mark Kissinger and his staff held  a telephone conference yesterday with the leadership of the TBISCC (Traumatic Brain Injury Service Coordinating Council). The TBISCC is headed by Michael Kaplen (former president of the Brain Injury Association of NY State and a man who has fought hard for the rights of brain injury survivors for years) and comprised of a group of people whose hearts and souls are committed to fact that all people living with brain injuries deserve a chance to reach their maximum level of independence. While I was not present at the meeting, I can tell you from firsthand experience that Kaplen and Council members advocate for survivors with all their might. So does the Brain Injury Association of NY State.

During this meeting Kissinger told the council that something along the lines of 63 brain injury survivors would have their lives disrupted by the DOH directive. He is misinformed or lying. Sources tell me more than 100 survivors in the New York City area alone will be effected by this and there is non-NYC provider faced with having to discharge 50 survivors. In other words, the number of brain injury survivors who will have their freedom of choice, meaning their independence ,meaning their rights as American citizens denied, is probably in the hundreds, if not more.

Yesterday morning I called Kissinger’s office and spoke to a person named Sheri. I told her that as head of the Kahrmann Advocacy Coalition I wanted to schedule a meeting with Kissinger and do so before we say, organize a sit-in in the lobby and bring the media. She said she would get back to me and she did, by email, later in the day, saying they were working on putting together the “phone conference” I requested with Kissinger. I wrote back reminding her – as if she needed reminding – that I did not ask for a phone conference, I asked for an in-person meeting.

As to why this is all happening? Here’s a thought. The DOH directive (see recent blog pieces for more complete explanation) will likely send quite a few people back into nursing homes. Given that some areas of the state will be left without agencies to provide community support staff, other survivors won’t be able to be discharged from nursing homes. Take these observations and connect them to this one; NY’s Nursing Home Transition Waiver is designed to allow people to leave nursing homes and return to life in the community. Is is possible this directive will short circuit that? If so, would it not be reasonable to ask if maybe the Nursing Home Lobby is behind all this?

Anyway, more notes to come. Keep the faith.

_______________________________