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

DateAction
01/21/2014Committee
01/21/2014Unanimous consent to introduce
01/21/2014Presented and ordered printed 14103750D
01/21/2014Referred to Committee on Rules
01/28/2014Assigned Rules sub: Studies
01/30/2014Subcommittee recommends reporting (4-Y 0-N)
01/31/2014Reported from Rules (15-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
02/05/2014Taken up
02/05/2014Engrossed by House
02/05/2014Agreed to by House BLOCK VOTE (92-Y 0-N)
02/05/2014VOTE: BLOCK VOTE ADOPTION (92-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
02/06/2014Reading waived
02/06/2014Referred to Committee on Rules
02/28/2014Reported from Rules
03/03/2014Reading waived (40-Y 0-N)
03/04/2014Read third time
03/04/2014Agreed to by Senate by voice vote
03/04/2014Bill text as passed House and Senate (HJ190ER)

Video

This bill was discussed on the floor of the General Assembly. Below is all of the video that we have of that discussion, 1 clip in all, totaling 30 seconds.

Comments

spotter writes:

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.