A Challenge To Secretary Walker

by Ken Ervin

Dear Secretary Walker,

Like most people in the disabled community, I was elated when I was notified that you were appointed secretary of DHHR. Finally, I thought, we have someone who is committed to the rights of individuals with disabilities who benefit from DHHR programs. I truly thought that your appointment signaled an end to the increasing nursing home bias in our state. Recent actions taken by you and the department would indicate that my hopes and optimism were drastically misplaced.

I remember in 1994 during the Colon Anderson closure, when you were one of the loudest voices for closing our last institution and letting people return to the community or in some cases, live in the community for the first time. As someone who has been institutionalized and someone who testified during those hearings about the need for my brothers and sisters to be free, I was proud to have you in my corner. I have to wonder what led to your change of heart. West Virginia has not closed all of its institutions; they have only gotten smaller and changed their names. There are children living in nursing homes right here in our institution free state. Is this what we intended when we closed all our institutions?

The Transitioning to Inclusive Communities project (TIC) is currently working with over 170 people, assisting them to assert their right to live in the community of their choice. We are encountered daily with insurmountable hurdles such as waiting lists on both community programs, one of which is clearly illegal under the Benjamin H decision, and a fair hearing system which according to a recent freedom of information act request has no tracking system to determine how many people are waiting for a fair hearing or how long they have waited. The current system provides no equitable avenue for fair and efficient due process. It seems that the strategy of the new administration is to hope that people will just give up or die waiting.

1. I challenge you Secretary Walker, to allow for real dialogue between people with disabilities and those who develop and administer the programs which allow us to live among our friends and family.
2. Appoint someone within your office to travel with myself and other TIC staff to see how people are impacted by the gaps in our current system as well as the failure of both DHHR and its vendors to follow policies and procedures which already exist.
3. Bring together a cross section of waiver users to review the MR/DD waiver application so that we can have real substantive input rather than comments after the fact which are cast aside and ignored.
4. Ask the Olmstead and ADA coordinators to immediately bring together a group of people with disabilities and stakeholders including nursing home residents to review existing policies and procedures to determine what must be modified to implement the Olmstead decision within our state.