DHFAC Meeting Minutes
April 25, 2001

Present:

• Patricia Blevins
• Joseph DiPinto
• Thomas Grabowski
• Bethany Hall-Long
• Joseph Lieberman
• David McBride
• Vincent Meconi (Chair)
• Charles F.Reinhardt
• Dennis Rochford

Absent:

• Deborah Hudson
• Calvin Wilson

Welcome & Introductions

Secretary Meconi welcomed the committee and the public.

Approval of minutes

Minutes from the March 28 meeting were approved without amendment.

Allocation of funds for SFY2002

Debra Lightsey reviewed available funds for SFY02. Master Settlement Agreement payments totaled $23,5220,700, with the possibility of a small supplemental payment in the next few days. Projected SFY02 unexpended funds were $2,673,300, for a total available of $26,196,000.

The group reviewed consensus decisions from last month, revisited items for which there was not consensus in March, and reviewed committee members' priorities for new initiatives. After extended discussion, the committee reached consensus about all items. The chart on the next page summarizes the recommendations.

Recommendations will be prepared by Secretary Meconi's office, and will include a stipulation that the committee does not support future use of the Health Fund for capital projects. The committee also expressed interest in evaluation results for all initiatives, especially tobacco prevention and control.

Public Comment

Pamela Maier, Delaware House of Representatives

• Expressed disappointment at the amount of money recommended for the long term care institutions. Suggested that half of the recommended $4 million should be used to serve people in the community, rather than in institutions.

Rita Moraco, AMID

• Expressed opinion that the committee is not recognizing the root cause of tobacco use. Because mental health issues are at the root of smoking, HFAC should support mental health/mental illness programs. This should include moving Delaware Psychiatric Center residents into the community.

Leonard Young, Stand for Children in Delaware

• Suggested that the tobacco funds should be spent now on problems that will become more expensive if neglected.
• Suggested securitizing the state's settlement to get the money up front.

Daneise MacMullin Powell, ADAPT

• Noted that quality of life for people with disabilities will always be better in the community than in institutions. Therefore, suggested that the funds recommended for community services were too small compared to the funds for institutions.

Chauncey Bailey, Citizen

• Discussed living in the Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill, and suggested that funds are best spent on keeping people with disabilities in the community. Full text of testimony is attached.

Preston Rue, Citizen

• Discussed living in the Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill, and suggested that funds are best spent on keeping people with disabilities in the community. Full text of testimony is attached.

John McNeil, Industrial Resources & State Council for Persons with Disabilities

• Noted that it is difficult for people living in institutions to advocate for community services, in part because they don't get the information needed.
• Expressed appreciation for the funds for attendant services, but disappointment about the investment in long term care facilities. Suggested that compliance with the Olmstead Supreme Court decision required greater commitment to community services.

Dr. Robert Frelilck, Diabetes Coalition

• Asked the committee if there is a long-term commitment to diabetes.

Dr. Steve Martin, UD Center for Drug & Alcohol Studies

• Informed the committee of new studies that support CDC's recommended funding levels for state tobacco control programs. Dr. Martin will share this with the committee.

Jamie Wolfe, State Council for Persons with Disabilities

• Thanked the committee for supporting the attendant services program (House Bill 30), an initiative she started four years ago when she was on the verge of moving to an institutuion.

Next Meeting: May 15, 2001, Delaware State University - Room 309, MBNA America Building, Dover

Chauncey Bailey
Tobacco Hearing Speech- 4/25/01

My name is Chauncey Bailey and I would like to thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today.

I have been a resident of nursing homes and institutions for 30 years. The reason for my institutionalization was because my injury happened in a time when having a disability primarily meant having to live in an institution. It was also a time when equal rights were not considered so much a priority as we believe they are today. But even with that been said, I have to wonder if we really have come so far. How can we say that we live in a world of equality, when today with all the technological advances, and the so-called philosophical changes are supposed to have taken place yet still thousands of people like myself cannot see themselves ever finding a way out of an institution and into the community. Sometimes I feel like a character in the movie The Shawshank Redemption, a story about criminals who spent so much time in a prison that the only comfort and security that we begin to trust are the very walls that bound us as we become "institutionalized". That is a story of a man who is put in prison for a crime he didn't commit. I feel very much the same, I have been put in a prison for 30 years (a life sentence) not for committing crime but for simply having had an accident that caused an injury which did nothing to injure my hopes and dreams. I have spent 30 years of my life in an institution because at the time when my injury happened there wasn't such a thing as community services like there is supposed to be today. I would like to believe if I had the opportunity to have an attendant that I could've chosen to assist me in living my life the way I wanted 30 years ago I could've done so in the community, where I could've not only made a difference for myself but perhaps made a greater difference in the community. I hope that my 30 years will be a lesson for all of you so that it doesn't have to be relived again by the young people that things may happened to today, people like yourselves and the ones you love. I have been a part of something good, and that is helping to work on House Bill 30 the attendant care legislation which will give people choice to live independently in the community. You have the resources available to give people their rights to the freedom that they deserve. I ask you to look inside yourselves and justify how he can give $8 million to the prison and not give the $1 million to a program that will give people freedom and equality. Give us the opportunity to choose where we want to put our furniture, preferably in our own home's. Give us the opportunity to pay our attendance a reasonable wage, preferably in our own homes in the community.

I would like to believe that there would be some way for me to find my way back into my own home surrounded by people that I can trust to be thereby need them, but a lot of that may depend on you here today. I ask you to to give a portion of this tobacco money to the community and maybe my dreams for myself and my friends can become a reality.

Preston Rue
Tobacco hearing speech- 4/25/01

Hello, my name is Preston Rue. I am here today to represent myself and others like me who are trying to find their way out of an institution and into the community. After my stroke I became a resident of Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill and have been for two years. It was my thought that I was going to be there for rehabilitation but like many others I have found that rehabilitation very easily becomes residence. One of the biggest hurdles for many of us who are trying to leave the institution and get back to our lives in the community is getting proper and adequate attendant care services to meet our individual needs. The best way for us to receive the type of attendant care services that we need is for us to have the ability to direct our own care. This means the ability to choose who we want to come into our homes and at what time to meet our flexible needs. At this time there is no program in the state that is available to me to provide such service. However, there is a piece of legislation that has been introduced that could change that. That legislation is House Bill 30. It is my understanding that this committee is preparing to give another 4 million dollars for institutions. In addition, there is another 4 million in the Department budget for institutions. From the first allocation of tobacco money, I can say thank you for the new dresser that was recently put into my room at DHCI, one that I did not get to choose or pick out myself. If this committee truly wants to allow me and others like me to live a happier better life then what you can do is to assist me in obtaining my right to move back into the community, in my own home where I can have my own dresser. By giving the 1.3 million dollars for House Bill 30, the attendant care legislation, you would be supporting both my rights for choice as well as securing your own.