ADAPT is in DC! How to Follow the Action(s)

activism, ADAPT, advocacy, budget reduction, disability rights, long term care, Medicaid, Our News & Commentary Blog

I really should have posted this over the weekend, but got waylaid by the usual parade of mundane but demanding household tasks that tend to occupy that timeblock.

On Saturday, September 19, ADAPT activists from around the country converged on Washington, DC for several days of political advocacy and direct action.

Here’s how ADAPT’s September 16 press release described the days to come:

ADAPT Activists to Storm Washington DC; 
Vow to Fight State Cuts to Medicaid Home Services

Fighting dangerous state Medicaid budget cuts across the country, the 
national grassroots disability rights action group ADAPT is planning 
direct actions at several venues in Washington, DC between September 19 to 
22 to demand that states save Medicaid-funded home and community based 
services. These services support low income people with disabilities and 
who are aging to stay in their own homes instead of being forced into 
nursing facilities to obtain services. During this critical election 
season, ADAPT plans to make it clear that saving Medicaid services is key 
to winning the disability vote.

"During this time of fiscal panic, governors are looking for ways to save 
dollars," notes Mike Ervin of Chicago ADAPT. "Hundreds of us are coming to 
Washington because Congress and the White House need to step up efforts to 
protect Medicaid community services in the states. I use home services and 
without someone to assist me, I'd be waiting on some nursing home aide to 
change me or feed me whenever she was done with the other fifty people 
living in the same facility. With home services, I am in charge of my 
life."

Current Medicaid law mandates that states use their Medicaid programs to 
pay for nursing homes, but the law does not equally mandate that states 
pay for the same services in a person's own home. Today, most states 
recognize that providing home and community based services (HCBS) is a 
less expensive solution than institutions. However, in these tight fiscal 
times, Medicaid dollars funding "optional" services like HCBS are first on 
the budget chopping block, while the mandatory institutional budgets are 
rarely touched. ADAPT's current "Defending Our Freedom" campaign is a 
direct response to states' attacks against HCBS, services that allow 
people with disabilities to take care of themselves, raise their families 
and be part of society.

"Without the home services funded by Medicaid, hundreds, if not thousands, 
of people with disabilities in my state would be forced to live in nursing 
homes or institutions," said Joe Stramondo of Michigan ADAPT. "Some states 
are virtually on the edge of bankruptcy. It makes no sense to spend extra 
dollars on institutions when those same dollars could fund more people 
with disabilities to live in the communities of our choice."

To a lot of readers coming to this blog from outside of the disability community, this might seem like a departure from our usual focus. It’s not. Not Dead Yet is a disability rights organization that engages in activism, including direct action. A majority of the disability activists who have marched, protested, chanted and even been arrested under the NDY banner were ADAPT activists (and still are) long before NDY was formed.

And make no mistake, the issues that ADAPT takes on are life and death issues for the millions of American with disabilities of all ages.  Check out this link and you’ll find the blog entries on this blog that feature ADAPT – many of them in situations acting in support and solidarity over NDY issues.

I’m not sure if or when I’ll be posting anything from the ADAPT action on the NDY blog this week.  There’s a lot to catch up on in terms of NDY-specific issues.

Here are sites/links you can check for news, reports, information, etc. about ADAPT and this week’s actions:

In addition check out this coverage of yesterday’s ADAPT action at CNN iReport.

Down But Not Out: Bill Peace (Bad Cripple Blog)

blog recommendations, hospitalization, medical issues, Our News & Commentary Blog, william peace

Hopefully, a lot of regular readers have become familiar with Bill Peace’s Bad Cripple Blog.  I think I’ve excerpted, reacted to or just plain pointed to his blog more than anyone else’s – check out this link for the NDY posts in which he’s been featured in some way.

Bill’s blog went silent for almost two weeks, which is unusual. On Wednesday, he announced that he’s in the hospital with a major health problem – a pressure sore he describes as a “hole in his hip.”  The next few months will be tough ones for Bill – physically and financially for sure.  My own experience of long hospital stays (my longest was about 6 weeks when I was ten years old) is that they kind of shrink your psyche (or at least that’s how I think of it).  Staying in the same room for days and weeks with only the medical staff – for me, anyway  – shrinks my energy, my ability to assert myself, and other essential survival traits that aren’t valued or nurtured in a hospital setting.

Bill says he plans on writing daily (I hope he manages to come close to that), chronicling his road to recovery, health and home.

Check out, in order:

And then check back on a regular basis at Bad Cripple.

I offer two excellent reasons for reading his blog – now more than ever.

First, anything Bill Peace writes is worth reading.
Second, I’m sure he’ll enjoy seeing people coming and reading the blog – especially if you leave comments.  –Stephen Drake

George Exoo Resurfaces – Plans for Swiss-like “suicide tourism” at death house in North Carolina?

assisted suicide, documentary, final exit network, george exoo, hospice, media coverage, North Carolina, Our News & Commentary Blog, right to die

Remember George Exoo?

Check out the link above for a reminder.  He’s the founder of the “Compassionate Chaplaincy” and claims to have aided in over 100 suicides.  According to the documentary by Jon Ronson, “Reverend Death,” Exoo’s phone number was given out by other so-called “right to die” groups – if the caller was someone who wanted help killing themselves but wasn’t terminally ill – or physically ill at all.  Obviously, this was before the establishment of the Final Exit Network (FEN) – an organization that defines “eligibility” for suicide assistance as broadly and “generously” as Exoo did.

There’s no evidence that he requested any payments for his “services,” but – at least in the case of his Irish client, he received ample reimbursement and assistance for European travel that he and his partner were already planning.  Hence the poster below:

We’ll have to redo the poster.  Ditch the mustache and ditch the travel pitch.  Seems Exoo is no longer a travellin’ man.

The story now – breaking first in the Irish press and later in North Carolina – is that Exoo wants to open up a “right to die” facility in Gastonia, a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina.

The most detailed article from North Carolina so far was written by Diane Turbyfill in the Gaston Gazette:

A West Virginia man hopes to turn a run-down house in the Smyre Mill Village into a center to assist people with suicide.

The Rev. George Exoo, a Unitarian minister, has attended and sometimes assisted with more than 100 suicides.

He bought a Gastonia property three years ago with the intent of renovating and selling it. The quarter-of-an-acre lot has been trouble, according to Exoo. The improvements he planned have not been completed. Exoo still owns the two structures and now thinks they might be the landscape for an idea he’s considered for years — a facility to help people end their lives.

“It just seems to me that there’s a real need, particularly for people in states where this is outlawed, where people can die with dignity,” said Exoo.

The property in Gastonia would be ideal for Exoo’s vision because of its close proximity to the airport in Charlotte, he said. His primary customers would be the sick and hopeless from areas like Florida, New York and Maryland, Exoo said.

If you read the whole article, one gets the feeling this is probably just one of Exoo’s flights of fancy.  He’s got a picture in his head of what this little death house would look like that bears no resemblance to the small piece of property with a small house and adjoining shack.  A dream that would turn this little suburb into the “Suicide Tourist” mecca that Dignitas has made out of Switzerland.  I doubt that even supporters of assisted suicide would want any death house run by Exoo in their neighborhood.  In Switzerland – Dignitas gets booted from one building/location to another.

Who knows? Maybe Exoo just finished rewatching “Field of Dreams” and thought “If I build it, they will come” (which might not be a bad caption for the new poster caption).

Stay tuned, though.  Where Exoo goes, death or serious weirdness follow.  Sometimes both.  And it’s not a good kind of weirdness.  –Stephen Drake

Satire Alert: “The Spoof” Says Alan Simpson Wants to Eliminate Suicide Prevention for Seniors and Veterans

alan simpson, budget reduction, humor, Medicare, Our News & Commentary Blog, satire, Social Security, suicide, suicide prevention, veterans

Time for a little humor.  I’m ready for it, even if no one else is.

It happens that today is World Suicide Prevention Day.  Big Deal.  If anyone reading this wonders why there’s no excitement or enthusiasm about the day here, check out the blog entry for last year’s suicide prevention day.  Wesley Smith has written something along the same lines for this year’s non-event.

There’s not much I could write about the suicide prevention folks that’s not already been said in last year’s post.

So I was glad to see this show up in my news feed. 

And – before anyone blows a gasket – please remember it’s a satire piece, not real news.

Deficit Reduction Co-Chair Alan Simpson Wants to Eliminate Suicide Prevention for Elderly and Veterans

WASHINGTON,DC – Ex-Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) raised eyebrows again today in comments he made at an event to publicize “World Suicide Prevention Day.” On September 10th, events are put on to explain that suicide is a preventable tragedy and to put the focus on the need for more suicide prevention resources.

Simpson’s comments were made in response to a reporter’s request for a reaction after Simpson abruptly left a presentation in a large meeting room of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Experts from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Department of Veteran Affairs were sharing the latest research and strategies in regard to the problem of suicide in the elderly and returning veterans, respectively.

Simpson, known for his no-nonsense approach to public policy issues, appeared eager to give his opinion on the matter.

“As the co-chair of the President’s deficit reduction committee, I have to look at these issues without sentimentality,” the ex-Senator explained. “Frankly, from a budgetary perspective, it’s counterproductive to try to prevent the suicides of elderly people and veterans.

“The suicide of a senior who could live 10-20 years represents a huge cost-savings to the government and the taxpayers. That suicide means that tens of thousands in Social Security payments that don’t have to get paid out – and there’s an unknown savings in Medicare payments for medical care – but that could easily add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Really.  We can all use a chuckle.

Tales of the Weird – A Vet Weighs in On Katrina Hospital Killings

euthanasia, Katrina, medical killings, murder, Our News & Commentary Blog, pets, reality check, veterinarian

You can’t make up stuff like this.

Having been on the “assisted suicide/euthanasia/better dead than disabled” beat for more years than I want to recall, I get to the point where I figure I’ve seen just about every ridiculous thing that could possibly be thrown into the pro-euthanasia mix.

Boy, was I wrong.

Meet Dr. Patrick Mahaney, veterinarian and “certified veterinarian acupuncturist.” (BTW, I’d urge anyone considering an acupuncturist for their pet read this article at “Science-Based Medicine” first.

Acupuncture isn’t what drew my attention to Mahaney, though.  It was a post he published on August 28 titled “Veterinarian Perspective on Human Euthanasia During Hurricane Katrina“.

(Not Dead Yet weighed in on the Katrina killings at Memorial – see this post about the botched presentation to the Grand Jury with links to other information.)

I can’t excerpt any of the piece since the good doctor has a very strict copyright policy in terms of reproducing any part of his essays without written permission.  So I’ll summarize and y’all can go check out the essay to see how accurate I was.

Like many commentators, Mahaney says shouldn’t attempt to judge the doctors.  He gets to that point by affirming his support for both animal and human euthanasia, followed by an almost accurate description of the situations faced by the medical staff at Memorial Medical Center. 

When I say Mahaney was “almost accurate” I am referring to a major misrepresentation – he characterizes them all as being near the “brink of death.”

Mahaney says he based his essay on the content in the 2009 NY Times article “The Deadly Choices at Memorial” by Sheri Fink.

How, then, did he forget about Emmet Everett?  From the NY Times story:

Robichaux remembered Pou saying that the LifeCare patients were “not aware or not alert or something along those lines.” Robichaux recounted to investigators that she told Pou that that wasn’t true and said that one of LifeCare’s patients — Emmett Everett, a 380-pound man — was “very aware” of his surroundings. He had fed himself breakfast that morning and asked Robichaux, “So are we ready to rock and roll?”

The 61-year-old Honduran-born manual laborer was at LifeCare awaiting colostomy surgery to ease chronic bowel obstruction, according to his medical records. Despite a freakish spinal-cord stroke that left him a paraplegic at age 50, his wife and nurses who worked with him say he maintained a good sense of humor and a rich family life, and he rarely complained. He, along with three of the other LifeCare patients on the floor, had no D.N.R. order.

Everett’s roommates had already been taken downstairs on their way to the helicopters, whose loud propellers sent a breeze through the windows on his side of the LifeCare floor. Several times he appealed to his nurse, “Don’t let them leave me behind.” His only complaint that morning was dizziness, a LifeCare worker told Pou. 

 And this…

Several medical staff members who helped lead boat and helicopter transport that day say they would certainly have found a way to evacuate Everett. They say they were never made aware of his presence.

Dr. Anna Pou was the last person to see Everett.  He never left the room and he was reported dead.  It’s reasonable to conclude that Pou killed him.

Weirdly enough, the nonsense, inaccuracy and general pro-euthanasia prattle in Mahaney’s August 28 essay isn’t what spurred me to call attention to it and to him.  His piece is hardly unique in that regard.

You see, the good doctor did a follow-up essay on Katrina and euthanasia.  For an essay that turns out to be a punch line, it’s got a real pompous title: Ethics of  Human Doctors Performing Feline Intracardiac Euthanasia During Hurricane Katrina.

A small part of Fink’s article in the NY Times mentioned two cats that were killed after their owners brought them and requested euthanasia for them since they couldn’t take the animals with them.

Dr. Mahaney – who doesn’t think anyone should judge or question the killings of humans at Memorial does feel free to criticize the means used to kill the cats and questions whether it was necessary.  Apparently his nonjudgmentalist attitude applies to the killing of humans only.

Good grief – On the one hand it’s incredible that someone would be more OK with the “putting to sleep” of humans than animals in this scenario.  What’s really incredible is that Mahaney doesn’t seem to think there is anything contradictory or hypocritical here. The idea that the two pieces could open him to ridicule probably didn’t occur to him.

Wrong.  Part of me wonders if Mahaney is a real person or if it’s a new character that Tracey Ullman is field testing:

The video embedded above is a classic bit by the Tracey Ullman character Penny Landers – Dr. Mahaney wouldn’t be a stretch at all. I guess I’m grateful Mahaney isn’t treating humans since his standards for killing them seem to be lower than they are for cats. –Stephen Drake

Addendum: As an aside, I personally don’t take the killing of animals lightly.  At this point in time, our household is shared with two cats – one in his senior years and the other a kitten.  Both are disabled.  As a lifelong indoor cat, I doubt my three-legged senior cat’s ability to survive long on the outside, let alone a disaster area like Katrina.  The kitten might be more adaptable, but he’s got those neuromotor issues.  I would not want to be in a position of having to decide what to do with them if I had to evacuate due to disaster and couldn’t take them with me. But, honestly, my human partner is a much higher priority than either one of the felines.