Dear friends and colleagues,

I hope you’re finding this Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month to be a time of pride and excitement when you see people with developmental disabilities asserting who they are in OPWDD’s “I AM” campaign and hear from self-advocates in our Empowerment videos as they explain how they want to be seen and what advocacy means to them. It is a month of speaking out, and I hope that motivates you as it does me.

I am excited to announce that today, OPWDD and our service provider agency partners have launched a statewide Direct Support Professional recruitment campaign called #MoreThanWork. It is our sincere hope that this joint effort will provide a central, user-friendly hub for job seekers to find rewarding opportunities in our field and will help strengthen and grow the ranks of the direct support workforce that is so vital to our shared mission.

The campaign goals are to educate the public and, in particular, the job-seeking public, about the importance and fulfilling nature of direct support work and to connect potential job candidates to opportunities supporting New Yorkers with developmental disabilities across the state. The campaign will be highly visible throughout our communities with compelling, authentic tv and radio advertisements and on social and digital media. It will point interested job seekers to a central, non-governmental website www.directsupportcareers.com where they can connect directly to service providers to learn more about the career opportunities that are available near them. It will also create and make available to service providers effective recruitment resources that can enhance their ongoing recruitment activities. 

The campaign was developed with input from self-advocates, non-profit service providers, family members and members of diverse communities. Their guidance helped shape the overall look and feel of the campaign, and the ready participation of many of our developmental disability service providers has been a tremendous support. By working together, we can continue to do everything in our collective power to address the workforce challenges that are impacting the lives of people we seek to support and empower.  

I hope you will visit our campaign website and begin to see our #MoreThanWork ads in your own travels, online and in your community. I also hope you will follow the campaign on social media and share its posts and its important message. I invite any service providers who have not yet joined the campaign to do so by contacting OPWDD at Communications.Office@opwdd.ny.gov.  There is no cost to do so, and it’s not too late to make sure your agency is recruiting through this very visible and moving campaign.

I look forward to seeing the developmental disabilities field and the important work of our dedicated direct support professionals take on greater visibility as our #MoreThanWork campaign promotes awareness, appreciation and support for more caring professionals to join our workforce.

Sincerely,

Kerri E. Neifeld
Commissioner

The Justice Center congratulates Executive Director Denise Miranda on her nomination to serve as Commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights.  Her decades of experience and strong commitment to justice and equality will help New York continue its legacy of combatting discrimination and hate statewide.  Ms. Miranda begins her new role effective today.

The Justice Center’s Maria Lisi-Murray has been designated Acting Executive Director.  She previously served as the Justice Center’s Deputy Director of Audit, Control, and Quality Management.  Ms. Lisi-Murray is an admitted attorney with more than 20 years of private and public litigation experience in both state and federal courts, most recently as Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the New York Attorney General.  She also served as Chief Risk Officer at the Department of Motor Vehicles and began her career in the Binghamton Police Department.

As always, Ms. Lisi-Murray and the entire team at the Justice Center look forward to working with stakeholders at all levels to help individuals with special needs live their lives with dignity and respect. We welcome your continued partnership in this mission.

Commentary by Elizabeth Martin, Albany Times Union 3/7/2024

For decades, our society relegated people with disabilities to institutions, then looked away as abuse and neglect ran rampant. Those dark days were exemplified in the horrors at Willowbrook State School on Staten Island: overcrowding, filthy living conditions, physical and sexual abuse, and unethical medical experimentation. It took a Geraldo Rivera television exposé in 1972 — “Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace” — to force us to acknowledge the inhumanity that results when we devalue people with disabilities.

Multiple factors led to the conditions at Willowbrook and other institutions. Two of those factors were chronic underfunding and understaffing. While much progress has been made since those days, New York faces an impending human rights crisis for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities — and once again, underfunding and understaffing are to blame.

Direct-support professionals play an essential role for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, enabling them to lead fulfilling lives. While direct-support professionals never got rich off their earnings, there was once a time when they earned closer to a living wage, and average staff vacancy rates were much lower than they are today. But wages endured years of stagnation, and without cost-of-living adjustments, the profession is on the brink.

Starting pay is now just barely above the minimum wage. Average turnover rates for nonprofit direct-support professionals in the Capital Region is just over 36%, and the average staff vacancy rate is alarmingly close to 20%.

The consequences of this workforce shortage are incredibly dire. Not only is it leading to program closures, it leaves individuals confined to isolation and impedes their access to medical care — hindering both their quality of care and their quality of life.

This chronic underfunding and understaffing not only devalues direct-support professionals’ labor, it devalues — by extension — the lives of those they serve.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s initial efforts in 2022 to reverse years of cuts and disinvestment showed promise, with Medicaid rate adjustments and COVID relief bonuses for direct-support professionals. We were beginning to see some small improvements in staff turnover and retention rates. However, subsequent budget proposals have failed to keep pace with inflation or provide additional support for these valuable workers. Any small improvements we may have started to see appear to be regressing.

The continued funding inadequacy undermines the governor’s commitment to vulnerable New Yorkers. To safeguard the rights and dignity of individuals with disabilities, meaningful action is imperative.

A provider rate adjustment commensurate with last year’s inflation rate of 3.2%, coupled with funding for direct-support wage enhancement, will help us attract and retain qualified direct-support professionals. Gov. Hochul’s administration must honor our society’s collective duty and invest in the well-being of New York’s disabled community.

Elizabeth Martin is chief executive officer of Living Resources, an Albany nonprofit serving people with disabilities.

ear Friends and Colleagues,

March is National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month (DDAM), and I urge all New Yorkers to focus this month on empowering people with developmental disabilities to pursue their goals.

This year’s National DDAM theme is “A World of Opportunities,” and it aligns with our ultimate vision: to create a world where people with developmental disabilities have the same opportunities as people without disabilities. We envision a world where every person is empowered to advocate for themself and be who they truly are.

This month, we are excited to release three sets of videos focusing on empowerment. In “The Art of Advocacy” video, you’ll hear from self-advocates who are proud to speak up and tell us what advocacy means to them and what they hope the future of advocacy will hold. In our new “Look Beyond” series of videos, you’ll learn how some people with developmental disabilities choose to define themselves and how they want others to see them. Lastly, in our “Sexuality and People With Developmental Disabilities” series of videos, you will hear directly from people with developmental disabilities about the importance of open dialogue, access to information and resources, and connecting people to the community as the foundation to developing more intimate and meaningful relationships and supporting them in their sexual self-advocacy. This last series of videos was developed in collaboration with the training company Elevatus, the Self Advocacy Association of New York State (SANYS) and the filmmaker, the University of Minnesota. The videos will soon be followed up with an online toolkit that will further assist self-advocates, professionals, and family members in supporting people with developmental disabilities in their relationships and sexuality.

When we unveiled our “Look Beyond My Developmental Disability” anti-stigma campaign last year, we were struck by the number of people who wanted to tell us who they were by sharing their unique “I Am” messages. This month, we’re giving people another opportunity to share their own “I Am” messages. You can participate by sending a photo of yourself to communications.office@opwdd.ny.gov and then fill in the blank after the words “I Am.”  You may see yourself featured on our website or social media channels.  You can also share your “I Am” message on your own social media pages. You can tag us @Nysopwdd and use the hashtags #LookBeyond and #DDAM2024 if you’d like us to “like” or “share” your message.

As we celebrate DDAM and explore this year’s theme, we are reminded that self-advocacy – telling people who you are and what you need – opens the door to more opportunities. I hope you’ll join me this month and reaffirm that people with developmental disabilities are friends, spouses, coworkers, parents, neighbors and voters. Above all, they are people. Join us this month in a World of Opportunities that includes all people.

Sincerely,

Kerri E. Neifeld
Commissioner

You can read more about the national DDAM campaign headed by the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities here.

An Important Message from Commissioner Neifeld

Dear Friends and Colleagues –

It is with heartfelt sadness that I write today to announce my plan to resign from the position of Commissioner at the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities effective at the end of June. Serving as your Commissioner over the last two and a half years has been a true privilege and a personal and professional high point. It has been my honor to serve amongst the dedicated and committed professionals within this organization and along side you – inspiring self-advocates, family members and loved ones, and provider organizations. Since my first day in this office, I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and the gracious way that this community has embraced me and taught me. It will be hard, perhaps impossible, for me to find another professional role that will be as fulfilling and important as this one has been.

At this time, I am choosing to scale back my professional life in exchange for taking a bigger role in supporting my family. Many of you know the difficulties faced by working parents and since returning from my recent maternity leave, I have found those difficulties to be more pronounced and harder to balance.

Although I am sad to leave my post as Commissioner, I am confident that the incredible work of this agency will continue forward. Under Governor Hochul’s leadership we have invested significantly in our system, adding hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding, releasing a bold Strategic Plan that charts a progressive course for our system, continued to invest in agency and system infrastructure and have begun reviewing and making improvements to foundational programs like care coordination, self-direction and others. These commitments and improvements will continue – all designed to support the lives of people with developmental disabilities by increasing access to high quality services that foster independence and integration.

The leadership and staff at this agency are amazing and they have my full confidence and support as they continue their incredible work, and so do all of you as you remain committed and vocal advocates for what is best for yourselves, your loved ones and those you serve. Following my departure, Executive Deputy Commissioner Willow Baer will serve as the Acting Commissioner. I am confident in Willow’s ability to lead the agency.

I remain eternally grateful to Governor Hochul for her leadership and for giving me the opportunity to serve New Yorkers in this capacity. I would like to thank every self-advocate, family member and loved one, provider, DSP and all the OPWDD and provider staff who have welcomed me into your homes, your programs and who have shared your stories with me. I wish you all the very best and hope to see many of you in the months between now and when I leave the office. In the meantime, you are welcome to reach out to me directly via email if you would like to connect: kerri.e.neifeld@opwdd.ny.gov

Sincerely yours,

Kerri Neifeld

The Office for People With Developmental Disabilities is excited to announce the start of the National Core Indicators (NCI) In-Person Survey for 2023-2024. This survey asks adults aged 18+ who are receiving services about their quality of life and how they feel about the services they receive. This year we are surveying over 1,700 people across New York State. The NCI In-Person Survey is optional and will not impact the current services or supports a person receives from OPWDD.

Letters to eligible participants were sent out in early February 2024, letting them know  that they may be asked to participate in the NCI In-Person Survey. Our interview team is starting to contact people to schedule a HIPAA-compliant Zoom interview.  

For commonly asked questions about this project, please see the NCI IPS Frequently Asked Questions below or visit the project website: https://vitalresearch.com/newyork/nci/index.html   

New York National Core Indicators (NCI) In-Person Survey

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the NCI In-Person Survey?

• A voluntary effort by the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) to measure and track their own performance  
• “Face-to-face” interviews via HIPAA-compliant Zoom video conference with adults with developmental disabilities
• The survey gathers the opinion and experiences of people who receive services from OPWDD.

What is the purpose of the NCI In-Person Survey?

• The survey is not an assessment or review of your program.
• The survey only asks for people’s opinions about their quality of life and the services they receive (e.g., choices of activities, employment, health and safety and direct support professionals).
• Feedback gathered will be used to continue making the services and supports more responsive to the support needs of people who receive services.

What is support staff’s role in the NCI In-Person Survey?

• Staff may help participants schedule interviews, set up Zoom, connect to the Internet, or interact with the Interview team.

Where can I get more information about the NCI In-Person Survey?

• More information about this survey project can be found in the following links:
  • New York NCI In-Person Survey project website: www.vitalresearch.com/newyork/nci  
  • The National Core Indicators (NCI) website: https://www.nationalcoreindicators.org/  

Who at OPWDD can I contact with questions about the NCI In-Person Survey?

• Olivia Popiel, NCI State Coordinator:  NCIAdultInPerson@opwdd.ny.gov 

By Diane Baehre

Shared from the 11/16/2023 Albany Times Union eEdition

COMMENTARY

Lawmakers in Albany failed the disability community this past session. They failed providers, caregivers, family members and, most importantly, individuals living with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Organizations throughout the state made clear to legislators and Gov. Kathy Hochul that without a significant increase in pay for direct-support professionals, the ongoing staffing crisis would reach dire levels. With inflation still elevated, these dedicated individuals face increasingly strained financial situations. Their dedication is admirable and unwavering, but many can no longer afford to live on the wages the state provides, and the wages certainly do not align with the incredibly demanding work they perform day in and day out.

Regularly we hear officials pledge their support for the I/DD community and vow to ensure ample resources are provided, only to come up short on delivering those resources. This year alone, we were left short on cost of living increases, receiving 4% — less than half of the 8.5% the industry projected it would need to sustain workforce levels and attempt to recruit additional workers. Additionally, a bill to provide an average $4,000 annual pay increase to direct-support professionals was never even given full consideration on the floor.

Legislators’ lack of commitment has caused the warning lights to flash in our industry, and the blunt truth is this: Our industry will not be able to sustain or grow our workforce without immediate action to raise wages.

The intellectual and developmental disability community is a massive network that needs dedicated support. As of 2016, an estimated 7 million to 8 million Americans were living with an intellectual or developmental disability, and 30 million Americans were directly affected by their care. These are real people with very real needs — needs that must be addressed consistently, and in many cases continually.

Routinely we hear from the governor and our legislators in Albany that we are a compassionate state and that New York leads the nation. These words ring hollow until the needs of the most vulnerable in our state are met.

Individuals and their families cannot wait for care. With the new legislative session set to begin in the new year, it should be the priority of every senator and Assembly member to meet these funding needs to ensure that a strong workforce is present to care for New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities. There is no town, city or county, or Senate or Assembly district, that is not directly affected by this lack of funding. It is far past time for lawmakers to get serious about addressing it.

Diane Baehre is the executive director of Empower, a disability services provider in Niagara County.

Best Practices for Choking Prevention Studies have shown that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are nearly 11 times more likely to die from respiratory-related conditions, often linked with difficulties swallowing (dysphagia), choking, and aspiration.From January 1, 2020, through June 2022, the Justice Center received nearly 1,000 reports of food-related choking incidents. This toolkit was developed to provide agencies with resources to help develop and implement policies and practices to prevent these incidents.

Read Here Visit Our Abuse-Prevention Blog!We’ve launched a blog! Now, readers can access all the content featured in our toolkits, plus much more, in a brief, user-friendly format. Follow the link to check it out! Visit the Blog

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am excited to share that OPWDD is beginning our work with Vibrant Brands, Inc. to develop and launch a statewide marketing recruitment campaign to elevate and grow the direct support workforce.

No challenge before us is more urgent than the need to make sure OPWDD and our non-profit provider partners have the staffing required to support New Yorkers with developmental disabilities.

Through a Request for Proposals issued earlier this year, we have selected Vibrant Brands, Inc. to help us research and design an effective campaign to inform the public about the value Direct Support Professionals bring to our communities and connect qualified, compassionate job seekers to this rewarding field. Vibrant brings 20 years of experience in marketing for non-profit organizations, with an extensive focus on helping them recruit for Direct Support Professionals, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Working with a diverse group of advisors made up of self-advocates, non-profit provider agency representatives, family members and OPWDD staff, Vibrant will develop a statewide media campaign that promotes the field of direct support for people with developmental disabilities. Its purposes are two-fold ─ to grow a common understanding and appreciation for this meaningful work and to develop an interactive website that will connect new workforce candidates to job opportunities with service providers throughout the state.  

Workforce shortages continue to impact the lives of people with developmental disabilities. I know these shortages are impacting all of you. Over the last year, OPWDD has launched several initiatives aimed at supporting the direct support workforce, including direct bonus payments to workers for their service during the COVID pandemic and working with The National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals and the State University of New York to launch, and engage students in, new educational opportunities across the state.

In addition, OPWDD is working with the New York Alliance for Inclusion and Innovation to provide technical assistance to service providers throughout the state. This effort has engaged service providers in organizational self-assessments to help them become more effective in their recruitment and retention and a community-of-practice that will support enhanced workforce practices.

The marketing recruitment campaign will complement these efforts in an important way by directly reaching job candidates in all parts of the state with a compelling invitation and opportunity to join our mission and embark on an impactful career. The campaign will engage new pools of job candidates, including New Americans, high school students, college students seeking part-time work or careers in human services, second-career job candidates and others.

Our work to strengthen and support the direct support workforce will continue every day. There is much more to do. As OPWDD recognized National Direct Support Professional week last month, it was my privilege to meet and speak with many DSPs. As always, I was heartened and humbled by their tremendous personal commitment to their work. Hearing the stories of their challenges and their accomplishments encourages me to continue advancing the work we need to do as an agency – in partnership with all of you – to support people with developmental disabilities and the dedicated professionals who work passionately to help them succeed.

Sincerely,

Kerri E. Neifeld
Commissioner

Code of Conduct and Champion Award Winners AnnouncedThe Justice Center recently announced its 2023 Code of Conduct and Champion Award winners. These awards honor individuals and groups who work tirelessly to improve the lives of individuals with special needs in New York State.This year’s program comes on the heels of the Justice Center’s 10-year anniversary – a major milestone in the agency’s mission to protect vulnerable populations from abuse and neglect. Those honored during the 2023 Code of Conduct and Champion Awards truly embody the Justice Center’s founding principles and ethical standards outlined in the Code of Conduct for Custodians of People with Special Needs.The Justice Center received more than 100 nominations for this year’s program, selecting four Champion Award winners and six Code of Conduct Award winners. Each submission was accompanied by stories straight from the service industry that uniquely characterized the dedication of our NYS workforce.Thank you to all who made this year’s awards so special! To view a list of the 2023 award recipients, click here. A full recording of this year’s ceremony along with information on the program can be found in the link below.

View Webpage

Free Training AvailableThe Justice Center is offering free train-the-trainer courses for the Code of Conduct.  This interactive, three-hour webinar provides participants with tools they can share with new and experienced staff to prepare them to understand, utilize, and practice the Code of Conduct.Available  October 26 and November 15.Register Now Link Up With UsWant to keep up more regularly with Justice Center news?  Join us on LinkedIn!  The agency page features professional events, staff spotlights, announcements, and more.  We also regularly feature opportunities to start or continue your career by joining the Justice Center’s staff!  Make sure to follow the Justice Center on LinkedIn and connect with us regularly!Access Here Individual & Family Support SessionsLearn how the Justice Center supports individuals receiving services and their families, including during the investigation process.  Our advocates will also discuss self-care and how to create a self-care plan.Available sessions will take place October 16, 17 & 18Register Now

New Prevention Toolkit on Choking Prevention ReleasedThe Justice Center tracks trends in reports made to the agency, identifying areas where preventative measures may help stop incidents from happening. Between 2020 and 2022, the Justice Center received nearly 1,000 reports of choking incidents. Studies show that individuals with developmental disabilities are nearly 11 times more likely to die from respiratory-related conditions, often linked with difficulties with swallowing and choking. To address this trend, the Justice Center produced the Spotlight on Prevention toolkit: Best Practices for Choking Prevention. It provides resources to help develop and implement policies and practices to prevent these incidents from occurring. The toolkit includes trainings, sample policies, and case studies. It is available on the Justice Center’s website.See the ToolkitSign up for more content from the Justice CenterOnly receiving eNews right now? You can check out all the great newsletters we offer by visiting your personalized preferences page. There, you can subscribe to any and all content that the Justice Center offers. Manage your preferences here.