From: "Stephanie Thomas" <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject: FW: [PCA] NH off Olmstead
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 17:43:08 -0500
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-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Vachon [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 1999 3:35 AM
To: PCA Personal Care Assistance; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCA] NH off Olmstead
At 09:29 PM 2/1/99 EST, you wrote:
> Please send replies to sender or to the list:
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>Dan...do you have it in writing that he's off the brief. Any media
coverage
>on it and could you write to me off this list to give me the details.
Thanx,
>Jen Burnett
Following is the article appearing in the local paper.
McLaughlin decides against
joining disabled lawsuit
©1999 By The Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Attorney General Philip
McLaughlin has changed his mind and decided to keep the
state from joining a Georgia disability lawsuit that
could be
heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
McLaughlin said Monday he reversed his decision after
reviewing the case and meeting with disability rights
activists
who opposed New Hampshire joining the suit.
Georgia is appealing a federal appeals court decision that
required the state to move a mentally disabled man from an
institution into a community setting at considerable cost.
McLaughlin had upset activists when he signed a request
that the Supreme Court hear the case. They’re worried the
lawsuit could return New Hampshire to institutionalization
or give disabled people few options about where they are
treated.
"It is very clear that there are differing perspectives
among
the state agencies concerning what the outcome of this
case
should be," McLaughlin said after meeting with
representatives of the Department of Health and Human
Services, New Hampshire Developmental Disabilities
Council and disability rights activists.
He said that while it is important that questions raised
by the
Georgia case should be resolved by the Supreme Court, "I
have weighed New Hampshire’s progressive role in dealing
with disabilities’ rights issues against the narrow legal
issue
on which we joined on the request ... and have concluded
that the interests of the state are best served by not
joining
in the amicus brief."
Advocates for the disabled were angry, in part, because
they were not consulted. Given the state’s past support
for
community-based services, "to even know that New
Hampshire has signed (on) to this thing, seemingly without
any discussion with the disability community, is
unbelievable," said Alan Robichaud, director of the
disabilities council.
Georgia is appealing a federal ruling requiring it to move
a
developmentally disabled person from an institution to the
least restrictive community setting possible. More than 20
states have asked the Supreme Court to hear the appeal.
For several weeks, activists have peppered McLaughlin and
Gov. Jeanne Shaheen with faxes, letters and calls asking
who authorized New Hampshire’s participation, questioning
the state’s motives and demanding to know whether
Shaheen was in on the decision.
Pressure from disability rights activists has prompted two
states to pull out of the lawsuit.
McLaughlin made his original decision after talking with
the
state Department of Health and Human Services, but he did
not talk to Shaheen, the disabilities council,
representatives
of the Governor’s Commission on Disability or any similar
groups.
The state closed Laconia State School, its institution
for the
mentally retarded and people with other developmental
disabilities, in the mid-1980s. It replaced it with a
system of
home- and community-based care.
Few expect the state to put disabled people back into a
big
institution, but are afraid the state would reduce
services
necessary to keep people in communities.
McLaughlin said such fears are misplaced.
"The only reason there would be concern is there is a
misunderstanding about what the state is doing," he said.
He said the state’s goal is maintaining flexibility in
interpreting federal law and deciding what is reasonable.
The issue is genuine in New Hampshire because the state is
being sued by a brain-injured man who lives in a nursing
home. He wants to be placed in a community setting, which
would cost more than $100,000 annually.
The man is on a waiting list. To grant his request, the
state
either would have to bypass others on the waiting list or
provide services to 94 additional people.
McLaughlin said the state does not want a large
institution,
but it may need to use group homes, he said.
Disability rights groups argue that costs of home and
community care often are exaggerated. In a letter to
Shaheen and McLaughlin last week, a dozen disability
rights
organizations urged the state not to sign on to the case.
"The state’s agreeing to place its name on the brief would
have profound symbolic as well as real negative
consequences for thousands of New Hampshire citizens
with disabilities," the letter said.
NATIONAL ADAPT MAILING LIST - Adapt MiCASA List of Adapt Organizers.