{"id":1964,"date":"2022-09-15T09:01:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T13:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=1964"},"modified":"2022-09-20T14:20:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T18:20:39","slug":"pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-7\/pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services\/","title":{"rendered":"PEF tells state to include its professional employees in planning future services"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DiAntonio
PEF VP Randi DiAntonio testifies on Sept. 13 before the Assembly Committee on People with Disabilities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September 15, 2022 — <\/em>PEF testified September 13 in Albany when the Assembly Committee on People with Disabilities held a public hearing on a draft strategic 5-year plan developed by the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.<\/p>\n

PEF Vice President Randi DiAntonio, who was limited to just 3 minutes of verbal testimony along with other witnesses after the committee spent hours questioning OPWDD Commissioner Kerri Neifeld, said the agency missed an important opportunity by not inviting its own professional staff — who are represented by PEF — to participate in developing the plan.<\/p>\n

As PEF said in the written testimony that it submitted, \u201cUnfortunately, neither PEF nor its members were consulted or asked for comments on this plan during its development. This lack of collaboration resulted in a plan that completely failed to recognize or address the agency\u2019s short- and long-term challenges around attracting and retaining staff, or how the agency plans to continue to deliver quality services through the state-operated residences and other state-operated programs.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 PEF also highlighted the need for a thoughtful approach to attracting and retaining talent in order to re-open the hundreds of state-operated residences that have closed or \u201csuspended services\u201d over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

The Assembly committee, chaired by Thomas Abinanti of Westchester, divided the testimony into nine sections \u2013 overview; workforce; barriers to services; availability of services; employment; quality of services; housing; self-direction opportunities for people with developmental disabilities; and miscellaneous other issues.\u00a0 PEF was assigned to a panel of witnesses addressing the availability of services.<\/p>\n

DiAntonio, a licensed social worker at OPWDD for 25 years, said, \u201cIt saddens us to see what\u2019s happened to our system.\u201d\u00a0 Over a period of years, the state has greatly reduced its direct services to the public, its facilities and its workforce to provide those services.\u00a0 Contracting with private providers and shifting services to community-based programs as much as possible has not been able to meet the need and has put a great burden on individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.\u00a0 The state employed more than 29,000 people to serve these individuals in 1990, but that workforce had dropped to just 16,139 when the 2021-22 state fiscal year ended in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn just the last year and a half, OPWDD has lost 2,300 staff,\u201d DiAntonio said.<\/p>\n

She noted that many PEF members at OPWDD were deemed essential workers throughout the COVID pandemic and they risked their lives and those of their families to maintain continuity of care and quality services for individuals with disabilities, many of whom have medical and physical issues that make them especially vulnerable to the COVID virus.\u00a0 The very low staffing and ever-mounting workload has had a crushing effect on the dedicated staff who remain.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lack of respect and communication is why people are leaving,\u201d DiAntonio said.\u00a0 \u201cThe state needs to respect and include its professional staff in discussing and developing plans and strategies.\u00a0 We need to be included.\u201d<\/p>\n

The submitted plan focuses mostly on the role that private, not-for-profit providers played in the system.\u00a0 It barely mentions state-operated facilities and New York\u2019s plan regarding the lack of available services after all the suspensions, closings and consolidations. As a result, it leaves the families who rely on the social safety net provided by OPWDD wondering about the future of the system.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, PEF respects and appreciates the dire challenges that both the commissioner and Gov. Kathy Hochul inherited.\u00a0 \u201cWe thank them for what they have tried to accomplish in their first year and look forward to working with them to continue improving the critical services provided by OPWDD,\u201d DiAntonio said.<\/p>\n

The Assembly has posted all testimony on its website. You can watch DiAntonio’s testimony here<\/a>. PEF’s full written testimony can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 15, 2022 — PEF testified September 13 in Albany when the Assembly Committee on People with Disabilities held a public hearing on a draft strategic 5-year plan developed by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"division":[],"allowed_regions":[],"allowed_divisions":[],"class_list":["post-1964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-volume-40-no-7"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPEF tells state to include its professional employees in planning future services - PEF Communicator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-7\/pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PEF tells state to include its professional employees in planning future services\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 15, 2022 — PEF testified September 13 in Albany when the Assembly Committee on People with Disabilities held a public hearing on a draft strategic 5-year plan developed by...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-7\/pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PEF Communicator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-15T13:01:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-20T18:20:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/09\/Testimony-Feature.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"435\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ccanham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ccanham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-7\\\/pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-7\\\/pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ccanham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0677b03b1fcdadfe00f4e905b97b90e4\"},\"headline\":\"PEF tells state to include its professional employees in planning future services\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-15T13:01:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-20T18:20:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-7\\\/pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":652,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-7\\\/pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2022\\\/09\\\/Testimony-Feature.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-7\\\/pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-7\\\/pef-tells-state-to-include-its-professional-employees-in-planning-future-services\\\/\",\"name\":\"PEF tells state to include its professional employees in planning future services - 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