Tag Archives: feeney

The Hottest Places in Hell

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On the one hand you have New York State Department of Health officials who will proclaim their commitment to making sure brain injury survivors in New York receive the best services possible under the TBI Medicaid Waiver. But the DOH signs a contract with Southern Tier Independence Center in Binghamton knowing full well STIC will hand the work to a clinical predator like Tim Feeney who prances about proclaiming he has college degrees he doesn’t have.

Then you have STIC, the Southern Tier Independence Center and their executive director Maria Dibble who would no doubt proclaim their loyalty to people with disabilities, yet Dibble and STIC have no problem giving work to a man they know lies about his credentials to the very people STIC and Dibble claim to care about.

At least the DOH has enough respect for a consumer led advocacy coalition to sit down with us and while some of their position related to the Feeney debacle is, in a word, indefensible, there are other things the DOH is doing that are admirable. Not so STIC and Dibble and sure as hell not so Feeney, all of whom simply ignore requests for answers for the consumer led advocacy coalition.

I’m in the early strides of penning a book about my experience as a brain injury survivor as well as my experience working in the field. Feeney and his enablers are certainly great examples of yet another reality dramatically wrong with the health care system. Just as troubling are those who go along with the ruse. NYSARC again hiring Feeney for a presentation knowing damn well he is a fake.

Soon a round of interviews will begin, with elected officials, law enforcement officials, DOH officials and many more. Meanwhile, it appears time to do all I can to bring the media in on this. In addition to inflicting Feeney and his enablers on men and women (and for Feeney, children too) with disabilities, there is more than a quarter million in state dollars being paid to the contract that pays Feeney and his crew.

For any advocacy group to not take a public stand against this means, by default, they are standing for it.

As Dante Alighieri said, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.”

 

NYSARC & Feeney: the Corruption Continues

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One has to wonder what St. Lawrence NYSARC is thinking about by inviting Tim Feeney to present at an upcoming conference on brain injury. St. Lawrence NYSARC his he is not a PhD yet accepting the fact he represents himself as such.  The brochure lists Feeney as “ the Clinical Director of the New York Neurobehavioral Resource Project at STIC (Sothern Tier Independence Center in Binghamton). The clinical corruption with a hefty incestuous streak becomes clearer by the day.

Feeney, as you may recall, was issued  a bogus “masters” degree as well as a bogus “PhD” by the now defunct  diploma mill, Greenwich University.

Consider this.

  • Emails to Maria Dibble, the executive director of STIC from the Kahrmann Advocacy Coalition, founded by and run by brain injury survivors and their families, the very people STIC and Feeney claim to care about, have simply been ignored.
  • Despite being fully informed about the fact Feeney does not have a valid PhD or a valid Masters degree, STIC appears to be perfectly comfortable with his misrepresenting himself, which does not say much for either’s opinion of survivors of brain injury and their loved ones, nor does it say much for their respect for the honest health care providers who are battling under great financial strain to provide the best services.
  • As for the hefty incestuous streak, add up the following facts:
    • Pat Gumson, the former DOH employee who, along with Bruce Rosen, oversaw the state’s TBI waiver, used to be a STIC employee.
    • This will be the second time STIC has, for all intents and purposes, acted as a front for Feeney.
    • The State Education Department oversees Independent Living Centers in the state. Who is the State Ed’s manager of the state’s ILCs, Robert Gumson, Pat Gumson’s husband.

What you can be sure of is the days of this corruption are numbered. I am not at liberty, yet, to disclose why this is so, but it is.  In the meantime, the tragedy is that a clinical predator like Feeney is enabled by the likes of STIC and others and this simply underscores what many of us who live with disabilities deal with on an all too regular basis; the message that somehow we are less valuable than others.

TBI Waiver’s New Beginning Maybe – Part II

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The New York State Department of Health deserves enormous credit for its consistent willingness to interact with the Kahrmann Advocacy Coalition. Any notion some of us  may have had that there would be resistance to interacting with us was quickly erased by DOH officials, and in  discussions with KAC members subsequent to my  recent meeting with DOH officials, the gratitude is very real.

Assurances that Timothy J. Feeney’s will not have the contractual authority he had under previous contracts (there were three five-year contracts, one with STIC who subcontracted the work to Feeney and two directly with Feeney’s company)  were deeply appreciated, especially since DOH officials fully acknowledge that two of Feeney’s college degrees are not valid (he does not have a valid masters degree or a valid PhD).

There are some things that need to kept front and center and in focus. While it is true that the DOH is entering into a contract with STIC (Southern Tier Independence Center in Binghamton, NY) and not with Timothy J. Feeney’s companies, School and Community Support Services Inc. and School and Community Support Services (one is for profit, one is not-for-profit), the DOH entered into the agreement knowing full well STIC would be giving  Feeney they work and that Feeney will be misrepresenting his credentials when he does the work the contract calls for.

One of the things that has been again made clear to me over the past 24 hours is this. Survivors of brain injuries and their families and quite a few providers are disgusted that anyone would knowingly enter into a contract knowing the contract’s deliverables will be provided by someone who will be clinically misleading the very people he is supposed to be helping.

What would officials say when  the mother of a brain injury survivor who asks, “Why is it okay for my son to be treated by someone who says he’s a doctor when he’s not?” Would anyone actually say, That’s not the point, his educational credentials are not the point, the contract deliverables don’t involve that.

What would they say to the wife who asks, “How is it that the state pays a couple of hundred thousand dollars to someone knowing that Feeney does have the credentials he says he does? Would they be okay if he was treating their husband?”

What would they say to the Vietnam Veteran who said, “I’ve been through enough shit in life, they expect me to listen to this fraud and they’re paying him?”

These are real questions from real people. They deserve answers. The answer they feel they are getting is that they do not deserve the best. Giving someone clinical power in the lives of others knowing that he or she is willfully misleading them is inexcusable.

However, it is in a very real way reassuring to all to hear that Feeney will not have the power he did before. And, it was clear to me that all the officials that I met with will not tolerate any intimidation tactics whether they be aimed at consumers, families or providers. Officials made a good point too when they said people have to report these tactics, file complaints. They were clear about this, and I believe them.

Reflections of an Advocate, September 17, 2010

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Bigotry is inhumane.

For as long as far back as memory allows me I have always found it troubling when people were being treated inhumanely. This may explain why two of my childhood heroes were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Geronimo. They still are heroes of mine. The hero list for me has grown since then. It now includes Elie Wiesel, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Frederick Douglass, Coretta Scott King, Dorothy Height, Father Mychal Judge and others.

Anyway, today’s reflections revolve around those moments all advocates face when you simply can’t believe the challenge you are facing is even there in the first place. For example, it boggles my mind that there is even a question about making sure polling sites are accessible to all. There is even a cluster of numbnuts who call themselves, I swear to God, the Lever Lovers. They seem to think  voting machines with levers are the only way to go, too damned bad if you are paralyzed. Boggles the mind, at least it does mine.

And then there were two moments this morning that boggled my mind in similar fashion.

First, I left a voice mail for Timothy J. Feeney asking why his company’s voice mail (call them yourself) has, for some time now, said they are under contract with the Department of Health whey they’re not and did he intend to continue to misrepresent his credentials to adults and children with disabilities.

Second, an email was sent to Maria Dibble, executive director of STIC (Southern Tier Independence Center) in Binghamton, NY, again asking her to explain why STIC, which is likely to be under contract with the New York State Department of Health for the Neurobehavioral Resource Project, plans to give the work to someone like Feeney.

There was a moment when I sat back, took a sip of my coffee, and shook my head. It struck me as somewhat unbelievable that any of us have to deal with someone prancing around pretending to have degrees they don’t have much less ask questions of a provider like STIC, that apart from this situation has a good reputation, why they plan to give work to the prancing ninny.

But, when I find myself shaking my head over perplexing challenges like these, I remind myself of the days people were made to ride in the back of the bus or drink and eat in specific locations because of the color of their skin. That was pretty unbelievable too.

So, the bad news? Bigotry marches on. Only bigotry would allow someone to think it is okay to be or to hire someone who is misleading an entire population of people.  The good news? Advocacy, including this advocate, marches on as well. I like my role models: King, Geronimo, Height, Mandela, Gandhi, Douglass, Wiesel.  Who might the role models for the bigots be? Maybe the likes of Bull Connor, Lester Maddox, David Duke, George Lincoln Rockwell, Adolf Hitler.

I like my role models better.

Who Pressured NY DOH into Bringing Back a Clinical Predator?

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Someone must have pressured the New York State Department of Health to enter into a contract that allows a clinical predator back into the lives of brain injury survivors, their families and those who provide services to them. Some political favor or debt has called in, someone with some pull who clearly cares absolutely nothing about brain injury survivors.

I make this observation because it is the only thing that makes sense. There are some truly good people working at the DOH who really do care about brain injury survivors. But who among them (or anyone for that matter) can say with a straight face that they are comfortable with the department’s entering into a contract that allows Timothy J. Feeney, who by all accounts is nothing but a full-blown narcissist, back into the lives of those of us living with brain injuries.

There are some good people at the DOH and I dare say many would be forced to bite deep into their tongues in order to get themselves to say, “I think it is fine that someone who lies about his credentials to everyone provides services related to the TBI Waiver.” Don’t forget, Feeney and his company are already an approved provider of waiver services which makes one wonder what will be done about the obvious conflict of interest now that the clinical predators are back as the “neurobehavioral project.”  But Feeney doesn’t stop there. Let’s not forget that only this week Feeney was up in Washington County’s Fort Ann School District working with disabled children, never mind that school officials know his credentials are bogus. So much for putting children first.

A DOH official who  I will not name said the DOH has been assured by Maria Dibble, the executive director of the Southern Tier Independence Center, the recipient of the more than $250,000 contract that will hand the work to Feeney, that the provisions of the contract will be carried out in the highest professional manner. As presented, Ms. Dibble’s reassurance would actually be funny were it not so morally and clinically troubling – not too mention absent any relationship to  reality. How on earth can you provide quality services when you know the person providing them is lying about their credentials?

An email asking Ms. Dibble to explain STIC’s support for Feeney has gone unanswered.

Back to the question of the day. Who is pulling the strings? Is it solely a coincidence that Patricia Greene Gumson, a former DOH employee and Feeney supporter used to work at STIC? Sources have made it clear that both Ms. Gumson and current DOH employee Bruce Rosen had the reality of Feeney’s invalid college degrees brought to their attention and they did nothing about it.  There is no doubt that Gumson and Rosen did some admirable things over the years, no doubt at all. But this truth does not spare them accountability for supporting a clinical predator who likes to call himself “the angel of death” and has been known to be a bully. I’ve heard him refer to himself like this and the late Dr. Mark Ylvisaker often referenced Feeney’s penchant for this macabre moniker.

But back to the question at hand. Who pulled the strings for Feeney? To where or to whom does the corruption thread lead? One possible clue would be to watch which provider Feeney buddies up with.

Anyway, the truth will out.