Individuals with intellectual & developmental disabilities; SHHR to study supported decision-making. (HJ190)
Introduced By
Del. Steve Landes (R-Weyers Cave)
Progress
✓ |
Introduced |
✓ |
Passed Committee |
✓ |
Passed House |
✓ |
Passed Senate |
Description
Study; supported decision-making; eport. Requests the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to examine the use of supported decision-making for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Commonwealth, compare the Commonwealth's policies and practices related to supported decision-making and informed choice to the policies and practices used in other jurisdictions, and recommend strategies to improve the use of supported decision-making in the Commonwealth. Read the Bill »
Status
03/04/2014: Passed the Senate
History
Date | Action |
---|---|
01/21/2014 | Committee |
01/21/2014 | Unanimous consent to introduce |
01/21/2014 | Presented and ordered printed 14103750D |
01/21/2014 | Referred to Committee on Rules |
01/28/2014 | Assigned Rules sub: Studies |
01/30/2014 | Subcommittee recommends reporting (4-Y 0-N) |
01/31/2014 | Reported from Rules (15-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/05/2014 | Taken up |
02/05/2014 | Engrossed by House |
02/05/2014 | Agreed to by House BLOCK VOTE (92-Y 0-N) |
02/05/2014 | VOTE: BLOCK VOTE ADOPTION (92-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/06/2014 | Reading waived |
02/06/2014 | Referred to Committee on Rules |
02/28/2014 | Reported from Rules |
03/03/2014 | Reading waived (40-Y 0-N) |
03/04/2014 | Read third time |
03/04/2014 | Agreed to by Senate by voice vote |
03/04/2014 | Bill text as passed House and Senate (HJ190ER) |
Comments
Many thanks to Delegate Landes for sponsoring this common sense legislation.
What is the cost of ignoring the reasonable wishes of the disabled? We need only look at one case, well-known to Secretary Hazel, in which a young lady was forced into a series of failed group home placements by Jewish Family Service of Tidewater and the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board last year.
Cost of the Jewish Family Service of Tidewater guardianship? $2500, paid by the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board.
Cost of the group home placement and involuntary work program? About $80,000 to $100,000 over the course of a full year. (Before Jewish Family Service of Tidewater took charge, this young lady already HAD a suitable place to live and a private job that she loved. JFS and the HNNCSB yanked her out of her home, took her from her job, church, and community, and cut off all of her contact with the outside world for a full year.)
Cost of the lawyers, government agencies, and government-affiliated agencies to perpetrate this illegal fiasco?
The hand-picked guardian ad litem "for" this young lady, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, purported to charge $41,359.34, at an hourly rate of $200 per hour, for her "services." Those "services" included objecting to her OWN CLIENT testifying, and falsely claiming to the court, with the help of a dishonest witness from the HNNCSB, that this young lady could not get a Medicaid waiver "unless she lived in a licensed group home." (Totally, knowingly false testimony.)
The lawyer for the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, who instigated the guardianship petition "to overcome her free will" (his words), charged unknown thousands of dollars.
The lawyer for Jewish Family Service of Tidewater, Gregory M. Pomije, racked up $21,000 in fees while treating this young lady like an errant, “defiant” (his words) child.
The couple who (along with this young lady) ultimately won this case, and her mother and stepfather, who wanted her in a group home, incurred tens of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees apiece.
An attorney from a public interest group who courageously stepped forward to provide honest representation to this young lady, and finally forced the judge to listen and understand the truth, served pro bono, for no fee whatsoever.
All told, about $300,000 in public and private funds were wasted on this expensive, destructive misadventure, in addition to the incalculable human cost to all involved.
And now public guardianship programs like Jewish Family Service of Tidewater and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia want MORE public funds to mistreat MORE innocent incapacitated people. The Virginia Public Guardian and Conservator Advisory Board, which refuses to provide required oversight and accountability of these public guardianship programs, wants to EXPAND this program.
Just say no, until they fix the glaring internal problems evident to everyone except the myopic officials in charge.