Disabilities Funding Cuts in Texas

Disability Issues, Special Needs Events

The Texas Senate is holding public hearings this week on $16 billion cuts over the next two years to the Health and Human Services agencies and the programs they run.

There is a lot to be radically upset about if you are the parents of or are a person with disability needing a helping hand from already underfunded programs. Of great concern to me is the $342,683,706 (million) CUT from  (CBA) Community Based Alternatives Waiver. Then just take your pick from any one of the following that will cause grevious harm to a population that mostly cannot speak up for itself:
 $451,866,354 (million) CUT from (HCA) Home & Community Services Waiver
 $107,869,131 (million) CUT from (CLASS) Community Living Assistance Supports & Services Waiver
 $28,078,989 (million) CUT from Medically Dependent Children’s Programs
$102,091,552 (million) CUT from Deaf, Blind, Multiple Disabilities Programs

Medicaid providers will be taking a 23.7 to 46.3% reduction in funding. It’s difficult to figure the exact amount. Reading the various version of bills takes more brains than I have. This figure is from experts.

I’m feeling the pain of hard working parents who plan ahead and were depending on some of these programs for help. This places them in a terrible position. Many of them are in Austin today for the hearings – brave souls in the bitter weather. Teresa is standing in line to be first on the list to speak. She is very well informed on the history and actions of all these agencies, and the services to her daughter’s community based facility will be drastically cut.

If you can’t go to Austin this week to make your voice heard, please write everyone on the finance committee as well as legislators. Make it personal. Tell your story!

Texas is second to New York in people in state run facilities for mental health and disabilities. It costs $300,000. per person per year to maintain a person there. It costs $20 to $40,000 to maintain a person in a community based setting, but this setting is being cut by millions which means fewer persons served (there is a huge waiting list) and less quality of service within those settings.

Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities Gets A Plus

Disability Issues

For a state who ranks last in the United States to consider further cuts for persons with disabilities is downright sinful. I didn’t get up grumpy. Had a nice breakfast, read the paper and then checked my email with listings of legislature. I’m glad the Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities exists, or I wouldn’t have known about some of the issues. There are people out there who are aware. Are you one of them?

Reading the legislative maneuvers in regard to disabilities has given me a sinking feeling. There are many proposed changes regarding mental health, facilities, reimbursement to facilities and kinship for care, special services for schools – often difficult to interpret. I am not a lobbyist, but if I knew when and where to show up, I’d be there to speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves.

For legislative information through Telicon giving a weekly legislative report email: GCPD@governor.state.tx.us

Special Needs Mentor CD Available

Disability Issues, Learning disabilities

I have produced a CD for buddy/mentors of children with disabilities, and am completing one for mentors and leaders of adults and teens with special needs. It defines the role of mentors, tells how the roles vary, talks of medical information and has an information sheet, suggests safety practices and gives simple and basic teaching tips including ways to use music with children with disabilities.

Buddies are a necessity whether you are mainstreaming or operating in a separate church or recreational group, and training for them is primo. To request a CD (for the price of mailing) contact me at naomim@hic.net. Be sure to send correct address.

Ability Happy New Year

Disability Issues, Uncategorized

When is a disability not a disability? When you discover an ability or try to develop a gift you have. The new year would be a good time to do this. Try along with me. For openers try some whimsy, humor, giggles, a new way of expressing yourself.

My whimsical way of starting the new year in a city where fireworks are outlawed by the fire marshal, was guess what? I saved bubble wrap of all sizes from Christmas packing, laid them on my patio and ran over them to make fake fireworks. The sound was impressive and lots of fun. Son Paul, a photographer, created a 30 second video of my fun!

Disability Without Tantrums

Disability Issues

When little kids don’t get their way, sometimes they throw a tantrum, kicking and screaming and pounding the floor with their fists. Usually it doesn’t help them get their ways, just a lot of being ignored or sent to their rooms when they calm down. Didn’t get what you wanted? It’s that way often when we don’t get our ways in life, or when we get mad at God for not doing what we asked. After all, isn’t he (she) a Santa Claus? Well,  maybe not, but we want to throw a tantrum anyway, you know, pout, not speak, or even get mad at someone instead.

There’s great good news! After the adult tantrum because we are sick in bed or a loved one dies or we are afraid or are disabled to the point we can’t stand up to cook a turkey or go caroling with the tenors in the choir, we can use the advertising V-8 commercial trick. We can smack the heel of our hands against our foreheads, and say, “Oops! I forgot God was with me.” That’s the point of Emmanuel: God with us, a message of Christmas. Christ – mas is the best time in the world to appreciate Jesus who is called God WITH us.

God understands if you have a tantrum, especially if you are a care giver, but now is probably the time to remember that God is with us 24-7-12 in very special ways that can be noticed. A good reason to smile during Christmas season, and if you must have a tantrum, please go to your room.

Mayor’s Disability Advocate of the Year Award to Naomi Mitchum

Disability Issues, Special Needs Events

It’s Official! Mayor Anise Parker presented me with The Mayor’s Disability Advocate of the Year Award at City Hall on Tuesday with family, friends and co-workers present as support. In a wheelchair for the last 15 years, I was the recipient of an award for a disabled advocate. Other awards were to Dr. Cynthia Peacock as a non-disabled person and Matthew Stephenson as a youth advocate.

Advocacy made me use or develop skills I didn’t know I had, so I am still working on them. By nature I am a hands-on person who likes to teach and write, but the field of work with persons with disabilities has promotional needs and a desperate call for vision and someone who will speak up loudly for them. Some people say I have a loud mouth. Some say I have a loud presence. Some say, “Stay away from Naomi, or she will recruit you,” To sign up to help try naomim@hic.net or through this website Contact Us page.

The landmark American With Disabilities Act achieved much, but the act did not tell us how to enact and interact with persons on personal scale in the fields of spirituality, education and physical accessibility in churches. I came to the right places at the right times with ambition to find ways to do this. Right or wrong, I plunged in, and along the way people taught me and helped not only me but the programs I proposed. No one person can be successful in disabilities work without the persons of like heart who join the vision. Along the way, God took little achievements and turned them into goldmines.

One of my goldmines is still underground: I want to start a full-scale respite center in my area where students can have a good time while their parents enjoy a little vacation together. That’s for when I win the lottery.

A little tea party after the award ceremony was fun with my family, Circle of Friends family and supporters and other friends . The Revs. Greg and Betty Edwards, who worked with me on the Texas Conference committee on disability concerns, surprised me all the way  from Beaumont.

Thanks are due to many persons for the award, especially Dr. Jim Jackson who nominated me.

View Box Christmas Story

Learning disabilities, Special Needs Events

Children with Disabilities love a seek-and-find story. I’ve been busy making boxes of story for our children’s group. Find boxes to fit your pictures, glue the pictures inside the boxes, and attach with tacks to the wall at eye level. Then put the lids on the boxes. Children love opening the boxes to help tell the story of Christmas. In January we continue with boxes about the life of Jesus. It’s the same for everyone: we learn the characters, and then, little by little, over the years, we find out what the story really means. If we are lucky we remember the real Christmas gift all year and we make new discoveries about Jesus as we go along. I just love discovery. For more information, go to  How to Use Stories With Students With Disabilities.

On another front, our teen and adult groups hold their year end Christmas party on December 8. We can’t decide who has the most fun – Santa who brings gifts, the leaders who watch it all, Jim who drops in to share fun with his favorite persons, or the students who share their gifts with us.  The Harbor Light Choir will entertain with a carol program.

Transformation and Excitement

Learning disabilities, Special Needs Events

This week’s talent show was so awesome it renewed my feeling that what the leader-volunteers do is beyond measure. It also showed us that our students grow. With no rehearsal, just an announcement the week before, about twenty adults shared their talents. One young man who for ten years has frozen in front of a group faced the audience and sang clearly into the karioke mike. A shy, stuttering  young woman became tongue-tied facing the audience until a leader put her arm on the woman’s shoulder, turned her around  making her back to the audience to sing her song. Some told jokes, and others had jokes lined out to them by the master of ceremonies. A big, well-prepared guy  passed out copies of his song, gave an accompaniment disc to the master of ceremonies, sang four verses and asked the audience to join him on the last.    The most touching for me was a very shy person, who had obviously been at war with herself over participating, stood up at the very end after the group was asked if anyone else wanted to do something. She reluctantly got to the front, faced the audience, and, unaccompanied, in a beautiful soprano voice sang “Silent Night.”

To read how our students grow in many ways see stories of spiritual growth.

Drums Were A Pounding Success

Special Needs Events

Last week’s drum concert showed the audience that drums are fun as a group and that individuals love to make their own patterns, and they want to continue with another course of drumming. Tom Jaber brought some choir members to join the drum groups in a song, and the audience joined in for the last chorus. It was a triumph of learning in class as the leaders watched some students with speech impairments learn to count out loud and beam with accomplishment, and it was a triumph of self esteem at the concert when each performer excelled.  The same evening featured a talent show, and we watched as students showed how they had matured in the last few years. Most rewarding was  how the audience showed respect and silence when someone goofed or chickened out. This group shows love and affection without reservation.

If you’re thinking of starting a drum group, remember that drums need safe storage. The bigger the djembe, the more space required.

Bullying and Unkind Words

Disability Issues, Special Needs Events

Bullying and unkind words are on the menu everyday for students with disabilities. The words wound as much as the fists, and they also injure parents who are helpless to stop the source. Many parents report bullying to school officials who cannot be present for every incident, but who try to stop it. The bullying then becomes more subtle, often retreating to playgrounds and sidewalks where school officials are powerless.

Students who attend ARC, Circle of Friends, Joy programs and Friendship activities find a haven where love is spoken and people respect each other. These organizations become like caring families for students and parents.

If you have a heart for persons with any kind of special need, try volunteering some time with these organizations. Orientation will be provided, and you will soon be “hooked on helping.” Johns Hopkins University recently released findings on research that proved what they call “helpers high” that releases endorphins in the body that are not only good for your body but make you feel a good high after community service. Surprisingly, the high persists when you talk about it or remember it. Take note that volunteering with students with disabilities can be good for you. It’s a gift exchange. You help them; they help you.