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Thursday, April 1, 2004
Year V, Edition 904
Today's front page features 9 news and information items,
each preceded by a number (#) symbol.
Click on the"Below the Fold"
link at the bottom of this page for 39 more news items.
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"I think it's always been in me, that I have to
help people."
--Kim Kozelichki, who has multiple sclerosis and recently
received an award for her volunteer work in Omaha, Nebraska (Sixth story)
"We urge the government to start shutting down large abusive
institutions and creating community alternatives."
--Dr. Jan Pfeiffer,
of the Mental Disability Advocacy Center, in a report to the government of the
Kyrgyz Republic on the horrid living conditions inside its institutions housing
people with mental illness (First story)
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# INSTITUTIONS / ABUSE
Advocacy Group Urges Kyrgyz Government
To Respect Rights Of Residents At Psychiatric Facilities
By Dave
Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 1, 2004
BISHKEK, KYRGYZ
REPUBLIC--Hundreds of people with mental illness and mental disabilities in the
Kyrgyz Republic are being housed in horrid conditions inside government-run
institutions, an international advocacy group revealed Thursday.
In a report, entitled "Mental Health Law of the Kyrgyz Republic and its Implementation", the Budapest-based Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) revealed that these people are housed in conditions that violate both Kyrgyz law and basic international standards for treatment.
"Contrary to its international human rights commitments, the Kyrgyz government is unable to provide even the most basic of human needs for persons detained in institutions: food, water, clothing, security, warmth and basic health care," said MDAC board member Dr. Jan Pfeiffer, in a press statement. "MDAC calls on the government to immediately remedy the gross abuse and neglect. We urge the government to start shutting down large abusive institutions and creating community alternatives."
MDAC teams visited four psychiatric facilities in Kyrgyz and found that they all violated the rights of those they claimed to care for.
Residents in one facility had to share a bedroom with 15 other people, leaving little room for movement, no privacy and no place to keep personal belongings. Clothing was in such short supply that one resident reported having to share a pair of shoes with another resident. Another explained that she and a fellow resident shared a bathrobe and a dress: when she was wearing the robe, the other woman wore the dress, and vice versa. Bed linens were in short supply, and residents occasionally had to sleep on bare, rusty bedsteads because there were not enough mattresses.
Most facilities had little or no indoor plumbing, and residents with physical disabilities were seen wearing clothes soiled with urine and feces. Staff reported that some residents were bathed once every ten days.
Food is seriously lacking and some residents go months without meat, vegetables or fruit.
There is also a serious lack of appropriate medications for treating mental illness or diseases. Women and men -- some known sex offenders -- were housed in the same barracks-style room, leaving the women vulnerable to physical and sexual assaults. Children as young as 14 were housed with adults. People with intellectual disabilities were housed with psychiatric patients.
The teams also learned that the facilities were being used as permanent placements, even though it was likely most could have been treated through out-patient methods.
The 54-page report is a result of an investigation carried out in June 2003. It was released to the Kyrgyz government in January 2004, and made public on April 1, 2004.
The MDAC recommendations include developing an independent service to protect human rights of psychiatric in-patients; training mental health professionals, lawyers, and judges regarding mental health law; providing adequate funding to enhance care and safety of institution residents, along with local community-based care; and training residents and family members on their rights and self-advocacy.
Related report:
"Mental Health Law of the Kyrgyz Republic and its
Implementation" (Mental Disability Advocacy Center)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/04/red/0401b.htm
Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader - free
---
# DEATH PENALTY / LAWS
Atkins' Death
Penalty Attorney Replaced
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily
Express
April 1, 2004
YORK, VIRGINIA--A hearing to determine whether
Daryl Renard Atkins has mental retardation, and therefore will be spared the
death penalty, was postponed Tuesday when the judge in the case replaced
Atkins' defense attorney.
York County Circuit Court Judge Prentis Smiley, responding to concerns by an anti-death penalty advocate, decided to replace George Rodgers with Joseph Migliozzi as Atkins' attorney. Migliozzi works for the Office of the Capital Defender, a new state agency set up specifically to defend death penalty cases.
Smiley explained that there was no indication of wrongdoing on Rodgers' part, but that there was "enough smoke" raised to compel him to relieve Rodgers.
In June of 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for convicts that have mental retardation, calling such practice "cruel and unusual punishment".
Atkins' case was the one the high court used to make that decision. The Supreme Court did not decide whether Atkins has mental retardation, nor did it tell Virginia -- or any state -- how to determine if somebody has mental retardation.
Atkins was convicted of capital murder in the 1996 shooting death of U.S. Airman Eric Nesbitt. That conviction still stands.
Virginia's Supreme Court last June ordered a hearing to decide whether Atkins has mental retardation and, therefore, should receive a life sentence. If they decide he does not have mental retardation, he will die by execution.
The Virginia court said the jury should use the 2003 General Assembly's definition of mental retardation "as a disability originating before the age of 18 characterized concurrently by . . . significantly subaverage intellectual functioning" and "significant limitations in . . . conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills."
Many disability service systems use an IQ score of 70 or below to indicate mental retardation, measured before the person is an adult. Atkins' defenders say he has an IQ of 59.
At the hearing, prosecutors may introduce elements of his crime to show he had the ability to plan and carry out Nesbitt's murder.
Related:
"Daryl Atkins v. Virginia" (Inclusion Daily Express
Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/laws/atkins.htm
Atkins
v. Virginia (Supreme Court of the United States)
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-8452.ZS.html
---
# ADVOCACY
Self-Advocacy Group Issues Report On
Discrimination
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 1,
2004
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND--A newly established disability rights
group this week launched a report on the discrimination that people with
disabilities experience in the North West region of the country.
Former Health Minister Bairbre de Brun this week unveiled the report, "Putting People Down", issued by the group that calls itself "Destined". The report was compiled by members of the group that have "learning disabilities", the term that closely matches "intellectual disabilities" in the United States.
Several members recorded their "shocking" experiences for the report, according to Thursday's Belfast Telegraph.
One woman, named Ann, said that she has endured severe discrimination at the hands of her coworkers.
"I am constantly mocked in the place where I live and work," she said. "I'm called spastic, handicapped, buck teeth, simple, fatso and worse and mocked because of the way I walk."
"I feel hurt and have lashed out at people who have called me names, only I have got into trouble. I feel very depressed because I think I am ugly and that no one likes me."
"I also feel no one believes me. I am on medication for depression and to control my anger."
A Destined spokesperson said that the group will now take the message to the greater community.
"The overall message emanating from all of the discussions is that people with learning disabilities see themselves as being no different from the rest of society and that they want that society to treat them as equals."
---
# LAWS / CRIME
Aunt Drops J.D.S.' Guardianship Plea
By
Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 1, 2004
ORLANDO,
FLORIDA--The biological aunt of J.D.S, a woman who last year unwittingly became
the center of Florida's abortion debate, has dropped her requests to be
appointed legal guardian.
Attorney Daniel Soloway said Wednesday that Dorothy Willis Quizon withdrew her petition, filed January, to represent the woman known by the initials J.D.S. and sue on her behalf.
"They had one interest: to protect the rights of the daughter," Soloway said of Quizon and the biological mother, known in court documents as "G.D.S."
"They accomplished what they wanted," he explained.
Soloway said he is confident that a lawyer now representing J.D.S. will sue an unnamed Department of Children & Families employee, the operator of the Orlando group home where J.D.S. spent most of her life, and the husband of the group home's operator, who has been charged with rape.
J.D.S., who has cerebral palsy, autism and mental retardation, gave birth to a baby girl in August. Authorities had learned of her pregnancy in April, several months after she was raped in Hester Strong's group home. Police later charged Strong's husband, 75-year-old Phillip, with rape when tests matched his DNA to that of the infant.
Phillip Strong has been deemed mentally incompetent and may never stand trial. Hester Strong has been charged with felony negligence and is awaiting trial.
A suit accuses the DCF employee of violating J.D.S.' civil rights, Phillip Strong of battery and rape, and both Phillip and Hester Strong of negligence. Any financial damages would be placed in a "restrictive guardianship account for the sole use and benefit of J.D.S."
A judge appointed Patti Riley Jarrell as J.D.S.' guardian in June. The Florida Department of Children & Families was criticized for failing to take her through the guardianship process when she turned 18.
J.D.S.' situation became national news in June when Governor Jeb Bush attempted to have a guardian appointed for the fetus to prevent it from being aborted. His efforts were rejected by the courts because state law does not recognize a fetus as a person, regardless of the mother's disability status.
Jarrell recommended to the court that J.D.S. give birth rather than have an abortion. J.D.S.' parental rights were terminated immediately after the healthy girl was born.
In late September, J.D.S.' biological mother came forward asking to be the guardian for her daughter and newborn grand-daughter. G.D.S. had reportedly abandoned her daughter nearly 20 years earlier. She was not named in the recent petition for guardianship.
---
# COMMUNITY LIVING
Strip Club Fracas: Safety Issue Or
Self-Determination?
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April
1, 2004
FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA--A Fayetteville group home has been
notified that it will lose its license for allowing its only resident to
frequent a strip club and work as a bouncer.
According to the Fayetteville Observer, the Department of Health and Human Services levied a $1,000 fine against Leonard Hedgepeth, the operator of RALM, Inc. (Residential Alternative Living Management), and ordered that the home no longer accept new residents.
The program was fined for endangering the health, safety and welfare of the man, who was described as weighing more than 300 pounds and having psychotic and mood disorders, along with mild mental retardation. Two staff were required to be with him at all times, the paper noted, to control any outbursts he might have.
Hedgepeth said that that man was allowed to choose an activity in which to participate two times a week. He chose to go to a "night club."
Employees told investigators that the resident visited the club every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night for up to five hours at a time. Staff members often gave him money to pay for lap dances. Eventually, the club, which was owned by one group home employee's wife, hired the man as a bouncer.
"Like if anybody in the club starting (sic) fighting I have to take them out," the unnamed resident is quoted as saying.
Hedgepeth explained that the resident's case manager approved the plan allowing him to go to a nightclub of his choice. He added that RALM employees transported the man to and from the club and supervised him the entire time he was there.
The man had no behavior outbursts while in the club, Hedgepeth said.
RALM has had trouble with authorities in the past. In January an employee was arrested for hiring prostitutes for another resident and taking him to strip clubs.
Related article:
"State to void group home license" (Fayetteville
Observer)
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=local&Story=6257572
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Should the group home lose its license?
Were the staff having a good time at the expense of taxpayers, and the
man's safety?
Or were they respecting his right to go to a place of his
choice in the community, just like everyone else?
Let us know what you think
on the Inclusion Daily Express Discussion Board:
http://members5.boardhost.com/InclusionDaily
---
# CONTRIBUTION / CONGREGATIONS
"I Have To Help
People"
April 1, 2004
RALSTON, NEBRASKA--The following four
paragraphs are excerpts from a story in Thursday's Ralston Recorder:
When Kim (Kratina) Kozelichki was Ralston High School's No. 1 tennis singles player, smashing overheads in 1988 against some of the top players in the metro area, she never dreamed she would one day receive an award for her volunteer work. Especially when that award was given to a person with disabilities. But then she never dreamed she would be disabled.
Earlier this month, Kozelichki received the first "Open Wide the Doors" award given by the Archdiocese of Omaha for her outstanding service to St. Gerald Parish as a person with a disability.
The Archdiocesan Committee for Persons with Disabilities was looking for someone special to receive their first award; someone who was a leader, someone who would be a role model for others with disabilities, someone who was involved in the church community.
"I think it's always been in me, that I have to help people," she said.
Entire article:
"Volunteer doesn't let M.S. get her down" (Ralston
Recorder)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/04/red/0401a.htm
---
# TODAY'S FEATURED DISABILITY HISTORY WEBSITE
Against Their
Will: North Carolina's Sterilization Program (Winston-Salem Journal)
They were wives and daughters. Sisters. Unwed mothers. Children. Even a 10-year-old boy. Some were blind or mentally retarded. Toward the end they were mostly black and poor.
North Carolina sterilized them all, more than 7,600 people.
For more than 40 years North Carolina ran one of the nation's largest and most aggressive sterilization programs. It expanded after World War II, even as most other states pulled back in light of the horrors of Hitler's Germany.
http://againsttheirwill.journalnow.com
---
# EXPRESS EXTRA!!! From the Inclusion Daily Express Archives (Two years ago):
INSTITUTIONS
Unhappy Chapter To End For Lennox Castle Hospital
Residents
April 1, 2002
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND--On Saturday, April 13,
the last 40 residents of Lennox Castle hospital will be moving out of the
institution and into homes in the community.
Lennox Castle was built in the 1840s, but started housing people with learning disabilities (the term in the United Kingdom for mental retardation) in 1929. The facility was once considered one of the largest of its kind in Europe and housed 1,500 people ranging from age 10 to 80.
Over the last couple of decades the facility has been criticized for the poor care its residents received. And in the mid-1980s the government started to move people out of the castle and back into the community.
Initially, there was resistance from family members and employees.
"Many people, including relatives and nursing and medical staff, were skeptical about moving the residents into the community," said Jean Cherry, head occupational therapist at the hospital for 19 years. "But today there is no doubt they have more opportunities and independence."
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---
# BELOW THE FOLD
Click here for the rest of today's
disability-related news:
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/04/btf/04010445.htm
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