Dad Fights So Others Can Work Within The System
by Erin Dower, Somerville Journal
4/20/2006
A Somerville dad who has a daughter with mental disabilities is fighting for other families like his.
Jim Green, who lives on Mount Vernon Street, is part of the Coalition of Families and Advocates for Full Access. The group is calling for a law to require public and private facilities that care for the disabled to provide information about program features, finances, staff pay levels and turnover rates, and incidents of abuse, neglect or death.
Green has a 28-year-old daughter, Amanda, who is mentally disabled and lives in a group home in North Cambridge. He said he has been fortunate in working with a caseworker at the state Department of Mental Retardation to find the appropriate care for his daughter.
"The system worked as it should for us," Green said. "I'm involved in this effort, not because of my own experience, but because of the difficulties we've heard from families surrounding us."
Green, a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, compared the search for a care facility for a disabled relative to the task of finding a trustworthy nursing home for an elderly adult with Alzheimer's disease.
"It's a very sensitive issue," Green said. "It's not just like going out and buying a car. There are a lot of questions of who is going to be taking care of your loved one."
Green said the state collects most of the information that the Coalition of Families is demanding, but the public cannot easily access the facts. The more accurate information that is readily accessible - perhaps through one Web site -- the easier the placement decision will be for families of the disabled, he said.
The Service Employees International Union, which includes many workers at homes and facilities for the disabled, supports the legislation the Coalition of Families is demanding.
State Rep. Carl Sciortino, D-Somerville, is one of about 15 legislators who are sponsoring the "Right to Know" bill.
"Accountability and transparency for the families of the developmentally disabled are an important piece of the puzzle that we're working on now," Sciortino said.
Legislators are busy tackling state budget issues, but will hopefully address the "Right to Know" bill soon, he said.
Because human service workers are often paid low wages for doing difficult work, Sciortino said, he and other legislators are also working on using the state's salary reserve to increase pay to those employees and consequently reduce staff turnover rates at facilities that care for disabled.
For more information on the Coalition of Families and Advocates for Full Access and the "Right to Know" bill, visit the Web site cfafa.org.