Forums on Michigan plan for Dual Eligibles planned for March 2012

Statewide Forums on the  Michigan plan for people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid (Dual Eligibles) are sponsored by the Michigan Association for Community Mental Health Boards (MACMHB). The MACMHB is the state trade organization for Community Mental Health Boards. The organization is hosting eight regional forums for review and discussion of the state’s proposed plan for persons with Medicaid and Medicare eligibility. 

Representatives from the state Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Administration will participate to answer questions and provide clarification on the impact of the plan for persons with psychiatric illnesses, substance use disorders and developmental disabilities. 

The proposed plan will be announced on March 5th, 2012.

Forum times and locations:

Metro
March 26, 2012 ~ 10am - 12:00pm
San Marino Club, 1685 E. Big Beaver, Troy

March 26, 2012 ~ 2pm - 4pm
Great Grace Temple, 23500 7 Mile Rd, Detroit 

Northern
March 13, 2012 ~ 2:30pm - 4:30pm
Munson Medical Center, 1105 6th Street, Traverse City

Central
March 19, 2012 ~ 2:00pm - 4:00pm 
Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay Road, Kochville Township

Southeast
March 22, 2012 ~ 9:00am – 11:00am
CMH Authority of Clinton-Eaton-Ingham Counties, 812 E. Jolly Rd., Lansing

Western
March 22, 2012 ~ 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Hope Network Career & Education Center, 775 36th St., Wyoming

March 23, 2012 ~ 10:00am - 12:00pm
Ottawa County Complex, 1220 Fillmore St., West Olive

Upper Peninsula
March 23, 2012 ~ 9:00am - 11:00pm 
Marquette General Hospital, 580 W College Ave, Marquette

The other Romney

Is anyone listening to those robocalls us Michiganders are being subjected to in anticipation of the primary on Tuesday, February 28th?

Here is something else to contemplate from the the Washington Post, February 10, 2012, by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson:

"Responding to Goldwater’s dictum that 'extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,' [George, not Mitt] Romney countered that 'dogmatic ideological parties tend to splinter the political and social fabric of a nation, lead to governmental crises and deadlocks, and stymie the compromises so often necessary to preserve freedom and achieve progress.'"

George Romney was the Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969.

Testimony on parents' right to excuse children from state-wide tests

In Colorado, a bill giving parents the right to decide whether their children will participate in state-wide standardized tests was defeated in a legislative committee. From the testimony presented, you get a good idea of how testing can adversely affect students, especially those with disabilities, and how it eats into the time that could be spent on teaching and learning.

Punishment for people with mental disabilities

Michigan's march toward the deinstitutionalization of people with mental illness and its lack of adequate funding and services in the community has culminated in a crisis in the prison system. The Detroit Free Press in its Sunday edition (2/5/12) features an article by Jeff Gerritt, "Punishment Instead of Treatment: Hundreds of mentally ill inmates languish in prisons ill equipped to treat them". The article follows the life of a young Michigan man, Kevin DeMott, and his struggles with mental illness and incarceration.

According to the article, Kevin has exhibited sudden fits of rage since the age of 4, started taking psychotropic medications at 9, and was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder at 11. At the age of 13, he held up a Little Caesars pizza store with a toy gun, but fled before collecting any cash. After placement in juvenile facilities in Iowa and Michigan and problems with marijuana use, he was sentenced to prison at the age of 15 with credit for time served. This was the beginning of a downward spiral, however, as he racked up additional misconduct tickets for what appears to be behavior related to his mental illness rather than an inclination toward a life of crime. 

"He has spent nearly a year of his current prison term in segregation [isolation], where his mental health problems appear to be punished instead of treated" according to Gerritt. One example cited in the article is when kevin "ripped a suicide blanket in order to hang himself. He was found guilty of destroying property, ordered to reimburse the department $145 for the blanket and given 12 day's loss of privileges." A horrible picture of Kevin taken in January of 2011 illustrates his predicament: he is chained to a bed with a helmet strapped to his head after refusing an order to stop banging his head against the wall.

Kevin is not alone. Trapped in a system that was never designed for the treatment of mental illness, more than 20% of Michigan's prisoners have severe mental disabilities, according to a 2010 University of Michigan study. Michigan closed three-quarters of its 16 psychiatric facilities between 1987 and 2003, and "now provides fewer beds per capita than all but five other states."  In addition, according to the article, 65% of those with severe mental disabilities in prison received no treatment in the previous 12 months. Of the 1,000 prisoners in administrative segregation (where prisoners "are handcuffed when they leave their cells, eat off serving trays pushed through the slots of steel doors and generally lack the few privileges extended to those in the general population…") the percentage of those who are mentally ill is likely more than in the overall prison population.

What does this have to do with people with developmental disabilities? Many of them end up in the prison system, although not nearly as many as those who are mentally ill. While the deinstitutionalization of people with developmental disabilities in Michigan is celebrated by influential advocacy organizations, none of these advocates that I know of have voiced concern for the "at least" ten people who died when the last state-run institution, Mount Pleasant Center, closed in 2009. Nor do they mention the number of people with developmental disabilities who end up in psychiatric facilities  or nursing homes when those specialized institutions close. There is also a reluctance to  acknowledge problems with inadequate care and isolation in community settings. Instead we hear support for eliminating specialized services in group settings for people with developmental disabilities in the name of freedom and inclusion. This is supported by organizations like the ARC Michigan and the Michigan Council on Developmental  Disabilities.

Rather than despair, Lois DeMott, Kevin's mother, cofounded Citizens for Prison Reform last year. This is from the MCPR blog:

 "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."