This program of Parent to Parent advocates for system change and provides health care information to families.

click: Olmstead Advisory Commission Established

Family Voices, a national grassroots network of families and friends, advocates for health care services that are family-centered, community-based, comprehensive, coordinated and culturally competent for all children and youth with special health care needs; promotes the inclusion of all families as decision makers at all levels of health care; and supports essential partnerships between families and professionals.
Family Voices, as a family support program of Parent to Parent of Vermont, advocates for system change and provides health care information to families.

March 14 Early Childhood Day:
Early Childhood Day at the Legislature March 14, 2003. 9:00am - 3:00pm, Capitol Plaza Hotel and State House.
Parents and the general public are invited to connect with early childhood professional and Legislators to support early care and education programs in Vermont.  Key Note Speaker: Jack Shonkoff, Brandeis University, author of From Neurons to Neighborhoods  ©

Disability Awareness Day
It's the 29th Annual Disability Awareness Day sponsored by the Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights.
Thursday, Feb 27, 2003, 8am-12pm at the State House.
The theme of the day is "Nothing About Us, Without Us."
The day begins with a breakfast with legislators in the State House Cafeteria. Contact VCDR at 233-6140 or vcdr@sover.net for information.   ©

Vermont Family Voices Heard: Olmstead Advisory Commission Established
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26, 1990 to provide civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities. The ADA guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in employment, public accommodations, transportation, state and local government services and telecommunications.
Following the passage of the ADA, the Department of Justice issued regulations requiring state and local governments to administer their programs in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of people with disabilities.  Yet despite ADA requirements, many Americans with disabilities have continued to experience great difficulty accessing services in their own homes and communities, even when it is medically appropriate and less expensive than institutional care.
The Olmstead Decision
In 1995, a lawsuit was filed by two Georgia women with mental retardation and mental illness residing in a psychiatric ward of a state-operated hospital. Although Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson both wanted to leave the facility, and state treatment professionals had deemed them appropriate for community-based placements, they remained institutionalized until a lower court ruled in their favor. The women alleged that continued institutionalization was a violation of their right under the ADA to live in the most integrated setting appropriate.
In July 1999, the United States Supreme Court affirmed in the landmark Olmstead Decision that the unwarranted institutionalization of these women, and of all people of any age with any disability protected by Title II of the ADA, is a form of discrimination. The Court's ruling includes individuals who have not been institutionalized, but are at risk of institutionalization due to a lack of community service.
The Court explained that segregation perpetuates unjustified assumptions that people with disabilities are incapable or unworthy of participating in community life, and also found that institutional confinement severely diminishes individuals' everyday life activities, including family relations, social contacts, work, educational advancement and cultural enrichment.
Requirements for States under Olmstead
The Court's decision required states to provide community-based services for persons with disabilities who would otherwise be entitled to institutional services when: (a) the state's treatment professionals reasonably determine that such placement is appropriate; (b) the affected persons do not oppose such treatment; and (c) the placement can be reasonably accommodated, taking into account the resources available to the state and the needs of others who are receiving state-supported disability services. The decision encouraged states to reevaluate how they deliver publicly funded long-term care services to people with disabilities.
Under Olmstead, a state is considered to be meeting it's obligations if it has a comprehensive, effectively working plan for evaluating and placing people with disabilities in less restrictive settings, and a waiting list that moves at a reasonable pace and that is not slowed by a state trying to keeps it's institutions full.
Vermont and Olmstead Requirements
Prior to Olmstead, Vermont had already accomplished many important steps in the direction of community based care, including closing Brandon Training School, downsizing Vermont State Hospital, lowering nursing home occupancy, and increased home and community-based services through mechanisms such as the Home and Community-Based Medicaid Waiver.  However, much work still remains to be done.
Vermont families often report that their children are receiving far fewer hours of nursing and/or personal care than allotted, or that children remain on waiting lists for services.  Other families must leave children in the hospital because care cannot be arranged at home.  The Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services sometimes advises families to place their children in state custody in order to receive needed services. These situations do not meet the requirements of law under the Olmstead Decision.
Vermont Family Voices Make a Difference
Disability advocates, including Parent to Parent/Family Voices of Vermont, were dismayed in December 2001 when Vermont was listed as one of only ten states in the nation not working on an Olmstead Plan to ensure that individuals with disabilities are receiving services in the most integrated setting appropriate. Parent to Parent, the Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights (VCDR), the Vermont Center for Independent Living (VCIL), and many others worked to pass legislation to require the State of Vermont to create an Olmstead Advisory Commission.
Parent to Parent family member Steve Maynard testified before the Vermont State House Health and Welfare Committee about the four months his daughter Sarah remained at Fletcher Allen Hospital waiting for home care services to become available, and the continuing difficulties his family has experienced ever since in receiving hours allotted.
The testimony of Vermonters with disabilities and their families was instrumental in the bill's passage and signing into law June 2002.  The Vermont Olmstead Advisory Commission has been created and is charged with gathering testimony on barriers that prevent people with disabilities in living in the most integrated settings, examining existing and needed resources, and developing a comprehensive effective plan for allowing qualified people with disabilities to live in integrated settings with minimal waiting lists for community based services.  A status report must be issued annually to the Governor and Legislature.
We will keep Parent to Parent families appraised of opportunities for your input into the work of the Vermont Olmstead Advisory Commission.  Your voice does make a difference.  ©

Family Voices Email Alert Network!
Parent to Parent and Family Voices of Vermont have been highly successful working with families to seek change in local, state, and national policies that provide barriers to family centered, adequate health care for children with special health needs.
Your family stories are the key.
Policy makers respond first and foremost to real people and real situations to understand what is or is not working for Vermont families.
Family Voices at Parent to Parent of Vermont is starting an email alert network to better inform and connect families on what is happening which may affect our children.  If you would like to stay informed, please email us at p2pvt@partoparvt.org and put "email alert network" in the subject line and you will be added to the list. You may be as active or quietly supportive as you like.  ©

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