At MRDDA Hearing Norton Calls for Advocates for All Clients - June 16, 2006
At MRDDA Hearing Norton Calls for Advocates for All Clients
Using One Million Federal Dollars She is Trying to Get from the Senate
June 16, 2006
Washington, DC—At a Government Reform Committee hearing today on the services provided by the D.C. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration (MRDDA), Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) focused on “preventing, not just remediating physical and sexual abuse of helpless people in the District’s care,” and on the threat of receivership.
In questioning witnesses, Norton placed particular emphasis on a D.C. law that requires all individuals receiving residential services to have an advocate, channeled through the D.C. Superior Court Family Division, but said that the $1 million for this program the Court requested in its section of the D.C. appropriation was not funded. “We may well be putting the lives of our most vulnerable residents in danger by not funding the efficient, low-cost volunteer advocates program,” Norton said. “An advocate is the single best hope for preventing deaths and abuse now, even before the agency is reformed. I will press a strong case to fund volunteer advocates in the Senate as it considers the D.C. appropriation.” A volunteer dedicated to coming often to visit clients is “a powerful deterrent to preventing abuse such as severe scaldings and starvation that have been reported in the press and to improving the care of our most vulnerable citizens,” she said. MRDDA officials confirmed in addition, that despite sufficient case workers to meet the required one visit per month, only 47 out of about 1,800 patients had had these professional visits.
Most of today’s witnesses were critical of MRDDA, but were willing to give the District a little more time to prevent a return to a receiver, considering recent changes. Norton said one of the great achievements of the city administration was returning all of the agencies in receivership to District control but that coming full circle back to receivership would signal that the government was not working after all. She said that she doubted that the Mayor would allow this to happen but cautioned that not much time was left.
The Congresswoman said that she regretted that the Committee was holding a hearing on services provided by local D.C. agencies, “a classic home rule matter that does not belong in Congress.” However, she said, a federal agency--the Justice Department--is involved in the criticism of preventable and questionable deaths as reported in the papers and, “Congress reads the newspapers too and may be implicated because of possible court action under its jurisdiction.” However, she said, the D.C. City Council appears to be doing its oversight job and a new administrator appointed by the Mayor both signal that D.C. is getting control of serious issues.