[Home-on-the-range] FW: [Wcb-l] Threats to Categorical Services in Kansas Make News

[Susan Tabor]

Hi, Susie:

Thanks for posting this. I heard about it yesterday; one of our readers who
was reading the Topeka Capitol Journal where the editorial appeared had some
things to say concerning the poor judgment of our state's rehabilitation
services director. And I told him that we were way too familiar with his
dysfunction as an administrator and with his agenda against blind people,
particularly the NFB. Looks like the word is catching on in other places
too, which is a good thing! Thanks again for sharing this.
Susan

-----Original Message-----
From: home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Stanzel, Susan -
Kansas City, MO
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 10:58 AM
To: NFB of Kansas Internet Mailing List
Subject: [Home-on-the-range] FW: [Wcb-l] Threats to Categorical Services in
Kansas Make News

Hi Everyone,

I received this from Gary Wunder by way of Dan Frye. 

Susie

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Wunder [mailto:GWunder at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 10:26 AM
To: 'Frye, Daniel'; gwunder at nfb.org; bbpierce at pobox.com
Cc: Stanzel, Susan - Kansas City, MO; julie Deden; Carol Elzi
Subject: RE: [Wcb-l] Threats to Categorical Services in Kansas Make News

Hello Dan. Thank you for this article. I'm going to forward it to some of
our folks in Kansas and I think there are definitely parts of it we can use
in the monitor. This is, of course, outrageous, but I suspect it is not at
all uncommon given budget problems. Nowhere in the article do you see state
officials acknowledging the value of residential rehabilitation centers or
the possibility that they might use places like the Colorado Center for the
Blind.

Thank you so much for sending this along.

Gary 

-----Original Message-----
From: Frye, Daniel [mailto:Daniel.Frye at ed.gov] 
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 9:56 AM
To: gwunder at nfb.org; gwunder at earthlink.net; bbpierce at pobox.com
Subject: FW: [Wcb-l] Threats to Categorical Services in Kansas Make News

Gary and Barbara:

The following article on Kansas may be of potential interest to Monitor
readers. I do observe, however, that only the Kansas affiliate of the
Council is referenced herein, but it does speak to services offered, or not
offered, to blind folks in the state. The article is pretty detailed. I
forward it to you for your consideration, if you haven't seen it before.

Dan Frye 

-----Original Message-----
From: wcb-l-bounces at wcbinfo.org [mailto:wcb-l-bounces at wcbinfo.org] On Behalf
Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 9:43 AM
To: wcb
Subject: [Wcb-l] Threats to Categorical Services in Kansas Make News

Signs of the Times.  
We must work together to see that this is not the fate of our training
center.  
Carl Jarvis
 
 
Closing of Topeka facility leaves blind patrons searching, waiting for
promised help elsewhere By Phil Anderson Created September 25, 2010 at
9:21pm Updated September 25, 2010 at 10:32pm In the months before a
state-run center for the blind closed earlier this year in Topeka, the Rev.
Derrick Hall was receiving training there on how to cope with a sudden loss
of sight that was brought on about two years ago by detached retinas.
Life skills, computer usage, learning to use a white cane while walking and
reading in Braille were among areas in which he was receiving training.
But before he could complete his training, the Kansas Vocational
Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, near S.W. 
1st and MacVicar on the former grounds
of Topeka State Hospital, was closed.
State officials said community-based services for the blind soon would be in
place at locations across the state, allowing recipients to receive training
closer to their homes - and not have to move to Topeka for several months or
longer.
Nearly six months after the Topeka facility closed, the 52-year-old Hall is
still in Topeka, waiting for community-based services.
"They said it would be better with the
community-based services," the soft-spoken Hall said. "But so far, nothing
has happened."
Officials with the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services
said the agency is in the process of awarding bids to providers of services
to the blind and visually impaired. SRS expects to announce the first
providers in the next couple of weeks.
However, to date, no community-based services are in place.
Hall said after the Topeka facility closed, he could have returned home to
Leavenworth, where he was an associate minister at Bethel African Methodist
Episcopal Church before he lost his sight.
Instead, he said, he opted to remain in the capital city after he began
volunteering as a chaplain and front-desk worker at the Topeka Rescue
Mission, 600 N. Kansas Ave.
He also assists at St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church, 701 S.W.
Topeka Blvd.
Each person with blindness or visual impairment receiving services from the
state has a different story to tell. For Hall, his blindness developed over
a short period
- a matter of a couple of weeks.
"It did occur pretty rapidly," Hall said. "I knew I was having problems. I
was getting ready to go to the doctor one morning and I couldn't see. I was
unable to read. That was the first thing that went. Then the TV - I couldn't
see it."
Hall had three surgeries for his detached retinas, "but none of them were
successful,"
he said. All he can see now are "shadows."
He met with a vocational rehabilitation counselor in the Kansas City area
regarding his options.
"He told me about the blind center in Topeka and asked me if I'd be
interested,"
Hall said. "So, the following December of the same year - 2008 - I decided
I'd go there."
Hall said he actually was at the center from March 2009 to March 2010 -
"just shy of a year." The time was well spent, he said.
"It taught me a lot of things," Hall said. "It taught me to be independent.
I was trying to do things on my own before I came, but I just didn't know
how to do them.
They were giving me those tools I needed."
In addition to learning mobility skills, Hall said he was being taught how
to identify and select his clothes, how to cook and how to read Braille. He
also was being trained in computer skills.
Then, around September 2009, rumblings started that the Topeka blind center
was going to close. At first, he said, he and the others at the center were
told the closure likely would take two years, and they would be long gone by
then, with their training complete.
In short order, he said, he heard the facility would be closed in six
months. Then three months. And finally, this past February, in 30 days.
It became obvious to Hall he would be out on his own before he mastered the
skills he was learning.
"It closed before I reached the level I wanted to reach," he said. "My plan
was to move out of the residential program because I felt capable of doing
the domestic tasks, but I still needed a lot of help with the computer and
Braille."
He said five people were at the Topeka
residential facility, which was open 24/7, at the time it shut down. About
15 employees at the center lost their jobs when the center closed, officials
said.
Today, Hall said, he has $7,000 in computers that are gathering dust,
waiting for him to be properly trained.
"They said, 'Don't worry, we're going to have more services set up in the
community and you'll probably be better off,' " Hall said. 
"But since I've left, there's been
nothing. No services whatsoever."
When the Kansas Vocational Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and Visually
Impaired opened in 1939, Helen Keller was the featured speaker.
For years, the center was located near S.W. 6th and MacVicar, on the extreme
southeast portion of the former Topeka State Hospital grounds. It wasn't
uncommon for passers-by to encounter blind and visually impaired people who
were learning to walk with a white cane.
Then, in the late 1990s, Topeka State Hospital closed, signalling changes
were in store for the rehab center for the blind, as well.
The Legislature required SRS to develop a new center that didn't include a
workshop as a training center, as the previous facility had done.
A new training center was developed near S.W. 1st and MacVicar. The center
included a dormitory where people receiving services could stay.
Changes continued, some having to do with funding restrictions. Only blind
or visually impaired people who were interested in vocational and
rehabilitation training would be eligible for services. That meant only
those who planned to use their skills in the work force could receive
services at the rehab center.
As a result, the number of people receiving services at the rehab center
dropped from about 80 people per year to around 20.
"The cost of the facility and serving that many people was pretty high,"
said Michael Donnelly, director of rehabilitation services for SRS. "It just
got out of control."
The cost to the state: about $20,000 per person per month.
The budget for the Topeka-based Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and
Visually Impaired in fiscal year 2010, the last year of its operation, was
$1,244,329.
Ultimately, the recommendation was made to shutter the rehab center for the
blind in Topeka and have its services provided by private contractors in
communities across the state.
The Facilities Closure and Realignment Commission Report, released in
November 2009, projected that SRS would save $73,275 in state general funds
and $344,015 in all funds by closing the Topeka blind center. The report
further stated that "resources can be shifted to provide more services to a
greater number of people without them having to travel great distances."
The budget for new community-based services is $1.3 million over two years.
Donnelly said recently that SRS "wasn't at a place yet where we can announce
who the successful bidders are" to provide services to the blind and
visually impaired.
"But we feel pretty good about the proposals we've got. It's going to
increase our capacity and ability to serve people in their home community."
The proposals being considered stipulate that bidders give SRS a plan that
would serve people so they wouldn't have to travel more than one day to
receive services, including going back home the same day. In essence,
services would be offered within two hours of a person's hometown.
Such an arrangement, he said, would be
"particularly helpful to those who are in the four corners of the state,"
Donnelly said.
Orientation and mobility training offered by the state could increase by 50
percent to 60 percent under the new arrangement, Donnelly said.
Vocational and rehabilitation training will target working-age people who
want a job.
Donnelly said he believed those who were able to work should seek jobs. He
said work is "important" and helps those who are employed feel as though
they are "a full member of the community."
Rather than locking funds into the fixed costs of operating a training and
residential facility that had "limited consumer demand," SRS officials said
funds are being invested in developing and offering an enhanced scope of
services at the community level.
The community-based model, SRS officials said, results in local access to
services leading to competitive, integrated employment; assistive technology
services; and independent living resources.
Officials stressed that vocational rehabilitation services for people who
are blind or visually impaired continue to be provided statewide through
local SRS service centers. These services haven't been affected by the
closure of the blind center in Topeka. In fiscal 2010, 615 people who are
blind or visually impaired received vocational and rehabilitation services
at a cost of just over $1 million.
In addition, SRS officials said, "for the few consumers who may need access
to intensive facility-based services, provider agreements have been
negotiated with in-state and out-of-state organizations." SRS officials said
such services may be funded through vocational rehabilitation dollars for
eligible people.
Not everyone is excited about the proposed changes to a community based-only
model for services for the blind and visually impaired.
Michael Byington, chief executive officer for the Kansas Association for the
Blind and Visually Impaired, 603 S.W. Topeka Blvd., said he believed there
was a place for a residential facility, like the one that closed earlier
this year in Topeka, as well as community-based services.
"I don't want to choose," Byington said. "I say we need both."
He said some blind or visually impaired people learning skills do so "more
efficiently"
when they are in a residential facility, where overly protective friends and
family aren't around to do things for them.
For those who remain in their homes, he said, services may be offered only a
few hours a week. Under such an arrangement, it likely will take far longer
for them to learn skills, Byington said.
He said he and his organization have been "trying to do what we can to
replace what's been lost."
Byington questioned the state and federal government focusing on those who
want to go back to work, saying it leaves out others who also could be in
dire need of services.
He gave an example of a mother in her 30s who lost her vision, with three
young children at home.
"Her immediate need was rehabilitation so she could take care of her
children," Byington said.
The woman was able to get some training, but only by virtue of saying she
would be willing to seek work, he said.
Older adults who lose vision as a result of diabetes or people with eye
diseases, such as macular degeneration, may not be eligible for services.
Byington said he expects to see more people with serious vision problems
because of a rise in medical conditions, such as diabetes, as well as an
increase in the number of people who survive head injuries.
Byington said state officials formerly kept tabs on the number of people who
were blind in Kansas. The highest number ever recorded was 6,000, he said.
Yet, Byington said, the number should have been closer to 40,000 and 50,000.
The state stopped counting the blind in the late 1980s.
With current budget cuts, Byington said, information is difficult to come by
for people who are blind or have visual impairment and are seeking services.
The state's referral and information line for the blind and visually
impaired has been shut down, Byington said. His agency is left as the only
toll-free phone number for people to call for information regarding
blindness and visual impairment in Kansas, he said. The number is (800)
799-1499.
Ann Byington, wife of Michael and president of the Kansas Association for
the Blind and Visually Impaired, said the organization continues to seek
services that will meet the needs of the state's blind and visually impaired
population.
"We're going to move on, because we have to," she said. "We know in our own
organization, we have to get the parents of young people involved, so
they'll know who did the work to get things in place for them."
Phil Anderson can be reached at (785) 295-1195 or phil.anderson at cjonline.com
.




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