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California Care Court Bill

By DNW Contributors / 2022-05-10
Posted in ,

The California Legislature is considering creating a “CARE Court” to fast track determinations of mental competency to mandate treatment.

The Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court Program is being proposed to both the California Assembly (AB2830) and State Senate (SB1338).

This bill is being strongly opposed by many disability rights organizations with letters from Human Rights Watch and a coalition led by Disability Rights California.

What is your opinion?

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Key points

1. Homelessness in California

Address housing and you address a large number of problems. If you drive around California cities and actually look around, you’ll find streets lined with RVs, campers, and cars where those who can’t find or afford housing are living rough. This is in addition to those who are living both homeless and car-less on the  streets.

2. Grossly underfunded disability and mental health services

Since the first Great De-institutionalization under Reagan, home and community based services have never been adequately funded. Also, the because Disability Services are funded as Benefits (like welfare) and not Insurance, disabled people are essentially forced NOT to work, build assets, or even get married to protect their meager services.

3. Second class citizens (or worse)

In addition to being denied the actual right to participate in our economy, disabled people are already subject to punitive court action through Conservatorships which can casually strip them of their rights (and it can happen to anyone) with minimal oversight or recourse – as seen most recently in the FreeBrittany case for Brittany Spears… unfortunately, most people subject to conservatorships don’t have millions of fans and fame to help them.

4. … and then there’s Race

Diagnoses of mental illness are quite disproportionate by race. This starts in our schools with “Emotional Disturbance” diagnosis falling on African American boys far out of their proportion of the population and proceeding through adulthood.

Quotable

CARE Court promotes a system of involuntary, coerced treatment, enforced by an expanded judicial infrastructure, that will, in practice, simply remove unhoused people with perceived mental health conditions from the public eye without effectively addressing those mental health conditions and without meeting the urgent need for housing. We urge you to reject this bill and instead to take a more holistic, rights-respecting approach to address the lack of resources for autonomy-affirming treatment options and affordable housing. – Human Rights Watch

“There’s no compassion with people with their clothes off defecating and urinating in the middle of the streets, screaming and talking to themselves,” Newsom said. “There’s nothing appropriate about a kid and a mom going down the street trying to get to the park being accosted by people who clearly need help.” (Knight)

What can be done?

Let’s start working the pervasive problems rather than the rare symptoms

1. Get really serious about addressing housing

Housing people is the right thing to do. And, many studies have shown that it is also much cheaper overall to guarantee housing rather than provide services on the street

2. Fully fund Home and Community Based Services

Providing a solid safety net for all disabled, mentally ill, and elderly people so that they can live in their communities will help many people and radically reduce the number of people whose condition will decline to where they are perceived to be a “public nuisance”.

3. Transition to Universal Disability Services Insurance

Change our model for mental health and disability services so that people can work and participate in our society as much as possible instead of continuing our “Poverty by Design” benefits system

4. End Mental Health and Disability Hot Potato

California has many overlapping, gap-filled, competing and mostly confusing systems for supporting disabled, elderly, and mentally ill people. Finding services, separately applying to each agency, working the different systems would be exhausting for a healthy person who doing this as a full-time job. No one is in control. No one is accountable. This new CARE Court is a patch on top of a Rube Goldberg Device held together by tape and band aids.

These systems need to be combined, integrated, and made accountable before we contemplate adding yet another system.

 

Human Rights Watch’s Opposition to CARE Court – https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/24/human-rights-watchs-opposition-care-court#

Disability Rights California & Coalition’s Letter in Opposition to CARE Court – https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/latest-news/disability-rights-california-coalitions-letter-in-opposition-to-care-court

Exclusive: Gavin Newsom has a bold new mental health plan, inspired by the misery on S.F. streets. Will it work? Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle – https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Gavin-Newsom-Care-Court-mental-health-16973070.php

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Hope is not an action word

By DNW Contributors / 2022-02-01
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I am attending a mini-writing retreat today and tomorrow and just wrote this from a prompt.
Thinking about Rosemerry Watola Trommer’s poem, “Hope.”
I hate the word hope. I always have.
This could be a reflection of my lifelong battle with clinical depression or my adult life as the mother of a now 33 year old son with special needs and his daily roadblocks to “hope.”
Contributed by Marcie Lipsitt
This could be my decades of advocacy and activism fighting for children, teens and young adults with disabilities, public education and civil rights.
What I do know is that “hope” is not an effective action word that creates urgency and commitment to the changes I have tirelessly worked and fought for. Hope is a weak, wishy-washy verb that can’t make up its mind.
I have never seen hope lead to meaningful action. I could hope everyday for public education to provide a globally enviable education to ALL and Every child. I could hope for Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act to be implemented and enforced. I could hope voters across Red and Blue states would vote for civil rights, children and the institution of public education. I could hope parents would organize in their communities, states and at the federal level for students with disabilities to have measurable expectations of growth that would lead to them reaching their potentials. I could hope as a nation we would hold the institution of public education in the highest regard and put it at the very top of our domestic agenda.
I did more than hope in 2008 when I filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education over Michigan’s alleged violations to the “highly qualified teacher” provision in both the No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. A complaint that took nine months to investigate and led to Michigan having to change the teacher certification requirements for all secondary special education teachers.
Yes, so much more than hope. I researched the teacher requirements for secondary special education in all 50 states having stumbled upon the Michigan Department of Ed’s and being outraged that a secondary special ed teacher in my state only had to pass the MTTC Elementary Teacher Exam! Seriously? So pushing aside the “hope” that I could sprinkle magic fairy dust to create truly highly qualified teachers, I researched the requirements in all 50 states. Only Michigan had removed the requirement for our secondary special education teachers to also be endorsed in subject matter content and they pulled this stunt without requesting a formal waiver from the U.S. Department of Education.  It has always angered me that teachers and school administrators assume students with learning disabilities cannot learn and master the content standards in Algebra 1. Then when I uncovered Michigan’s dirty little secret, I started shouting from my roof-top, “how can our 9th graders with learning disabilities master the content and pass Algebra 1 when their special education teachers staffing resource rooms and co-taught classes can’t?”
“Hope” as a verb or a noun did not push me to research 50 states, or to file a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Ed. Only my outrage and anger at the poor outcomes of Michigan students with IEPs and especially those with learning disabilities that were losing their educations and legal right to be prepared for Post-Secondary, an eventual vocation and life of independence fueled my actions and commitment.
Fast-forwarding to December 10, 2015, yes I lost hope for the dream of Michigan and America having a globally enviable teaching force. This died with President Obama’s signature on the reauthorization of the Elementary-Secondary Education Act, now regurgitated as the Every Student (won’t) Succeed Act as just saying “No Child Left Behind” resulted in name-calling and anger from misguided parents, teachers and education advocates and activists.
“Hope” in any definition of the word just made me angry during the four hellish years of Trump and DeVos.  From January 1, 2017 to January 20, 2021, I fought my way through 1440 days of maintaining my intractable commitment to America’s children, public education and civil rights. Did I on any of these 1440 days “hope” for better public schools or an overhaul to archaic, ineffective teacher preparation programs or implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act? No I did not because “hope” in any sense of the word lacks action and forward motion. I hear weekly from some kind or considerate person, “You need to slow down because you are going to burn out.” My response has never wavered. I respond and say, “I have not burned out over my lifetime. I don’t burnout because my passion for children, public education and civil rights is not built on anything other than my tortured mission that children deserve everything we can give them to become happy and successful adults and as independent as their brains and bodies allow.
People can hope all they want. What does it really get them? So going back to Rosemary Wahtola Trommer’s poem, yes hope has holes that can be crater-sized and filled with hot-air and inaction. Hope can lead people to say, “this is too big for me and I will leave it for others to do.” Hope can lead to Don Quixote-idealism and “tilting at windmills.” I do believe we put one foot in front of the other from the moment we get out of bed until we get back into bed after another day of fighting for whom and what we believe in and in my case knowing I won’t live to see an institution of public education worthy of America’s K-12 students and seven million with IEPs; and a Federal Office of Civil Rights with the dollars and leadership needed to enforce civil rights. Still, I will forge on and ahead in the spirit of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s breathtaking musical Hamilton, “Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.”  A depressing way to spend my days as an advocate and activist? Yes it is. Is there any other choice? Not for me there isn’t.
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Working Differently or Not at All: COVID-19’s Effects on Employment among People with Disabilities and Chronic Health Conditions

By DNW Contributors / 2022-01-05
Posted in

“COVID-19 is accentuating pre-existing structural disadvantages and inequalities. Although employment levels and income have rebounded for individuals and households who were more advantaged prior to the pandemic, this is not the case for lower income households and less advantaged groups. Many continue to remain insecure with fears of falling off an income cliff. We not only point to the crucial role of employment for economic security but also illustrate that it is not the only factor. This becomes all the more salient during crises that generate exogenous shocks to social, political, and economic systems, whereby individuals cannot necessarily rely on labor market supports alone.”

Maroto ML, Pettinicchio D, Lukk M. Working Differently or Not at All: COVID-19’s Effects on Employment among People with Disabilities and Chronic Health Conditions. Sociological Perspectives. May 2021. doi:10.1177/07311214211012018

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07311214211012018

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Findings from an online survey on the mental health effects of COVID-19 on Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions

By Steve / 2022-01-05
Posted in

“Increased anxiety, stress, and despair were associated with negative financial effects of COVID-19, greater concerns about contracting COVID-19, increased loneliness, and decreased feelings of belonging…Findings address how the global health crisis is contributing to declining mental health status through heightened concerns over contracting the virus, increases in economic insecurity, and growing social isolation, speaking to how health pandemics exacerbate health inequalities.”

David Pettinicchio, Michelle Maroto, Lei Chai, Martin Lukk. Findings from an online survey on the mental health effects of COVID-19 on Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions, Disability and Health Journal, Volume 14, Issue 3, 2021.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1936657421000315

 

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Supporting Students with Mental Health Needs at School

By DNW Contributors / 2021-10-28
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Students with mental health, emotional, or behavioral needs, like all children, need to be understood, supported, and appreciated in their schools and communities. Specialized services and supports may be required to help these children succeed at school, and problems at school can create or increase mental health needs. As schools have resumed in-person learning for most students this year, it’s become clear that mental health is a significant area of need. United States Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona recently released a startling statistic in a report on school age children’s mental health needs. The report stated that before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 1 in 5 students was struggling with their mental health–an already concerning number–but researchers now estimate it has increased to close to 8 out of every 10 students!

Students are returning to school after more than a year of isolation from their peers and other social supports. Many families are dealing with financial crises including housing or job losses. Many children have experienced their own illness or that of a family member. They may have even lost family members including parents or other loved ones. These traumatic events are likely to affect a child so significantly that they will struggle with school and learning. Students with disabilities went without or were provided very reduced school-based resources and supports during remote learning, including mental health services or other help that they need to learn. All these factors create significant risk of an increased need for mental health screening and services at a time when schools are dealing with the continuing risk of COVID-19 and shortages of school staff, including nurses, counselors, and teachers.

Originally published by the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) on 29 October 2021. Used with Permission.

Problems with mental health can influence school attendance, academic performance, graduation and dropout rates, behavior and discipline problems and health and safety risks. Unmet mental health needs affect not just individual students but also families, schools and communities and need to be addressed as early as possible. And problems at school often increase a student’s needs for mental health support. It’s a two-way street.

For children with disabilities or suspected disabilities, it’s important to determine if and how mental health challenges might be creating difficulties at school. Sometimes the signs of a problem are obvious, but they can be hard to see. A student may withdraw, act out, struggle to learn, resist going to school, or show other signs of stress through their behavior. They may put all their energy into getting through the school day, only to fall apart at home because they are so stressed. A child who did not previously qualify for special education or a 504 plan may need to be evaluated to determine if they are now eligible for that help. Teams may need to adjust existing IEP or 504 plans so that mental health support can be added, increased or provided differently.

The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) requires that an IEP (Individualized Education Program) be created in all areas of need for an eligible student, regardless of disability category they are in. Often, the mental health needs of disabled children and youth are overlooked because school staff assume that whatever problems or needs occur are the result of their known disability or problems at home. They may tell a family that “all children with autism struggle with that behavior” for example, when parents try to explain a new issue. A child’s needs should never be determined based on stereotypes about their known disability or assumptions about their home situation and can only truly be assessed by reviewing available data and the evidence collected as part of an evaluation. Regardless of the source of the problem, if it is so significant that the child is struggling to attend, participate, learn, and behave at school, an evaluation is the only way to determine whether they qualify for services and support under existing education and disability laws. The process involves testing as well as input from parents, the student, educators, and outside professionals and direct observation and timelines apply for how quickly it must be done. Both formal and informal data helps the team determine what kind of services, supports, and help will best benefit a student in achieving their education goals. An evaluation should be whenever concerns arise, regardless of whether the student is in preschool, high school, or somewhere in between.

When requesting a mental health evaluation, make sure you document your concerns and give examples when you request the evaluation. Here is a sample letter to use as a guide: Requesting an ERMHS (Educationally Related Mental Health Services) Assessment. Different states and school districts may use different terminology for this type of evaluation but our sample letter gives you instructions about how to describe the problems you’re seeing. Another resource is our School Reintegration/Transition Plan Sample Letter for students who are struggling to return to school after a health, including mental health crisis: And our free online training this month focuses on mental health needs, behavior and discipline—find complete details  in the training information provided below.

It is essential that schools, healthcare providers and families work together to ensure that students get the mental health support they need to attend, participate, and succeed at school. Recognizing the increased need, extra state and federal funding is going to schools to address it. Parents and other stakeholders need to weigh in on how these funds are used. There are many ways to do this, including writing to the superintendent and school board, attending public meetings to speak, or participating in budget and funding decision making committees. Contact your school leadership to learn more about these opportunities.

Disability is part of human diversity, and mental health is an important consideration for all of us. We hope these resources assist you in making sure that all students get the help they need to learn and succeed at school.

Mental Health Resources:

Other Resources:

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