RI DD Public Forum Highlights Personal Choice, Inclusive Initiatives For Redesigning Services

Deanne Gagne                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           all photos by anne peters

By Gina Macris

During a public forum on Rhode Island’s developmental disability services Aug. 8, Deanne Gagne talked about the importance of personal choice in improving quality of life, for herself and others. 

“It’s really about the person in the center who’s driving the vehicle,” not the service system defining the options, said Gagne, a spokeswoman for Advocates in Action, a non-profit educational organization which encourages adults with developmental disabilities to speak up for themselves.

For Gagne on that day, personal choice turned out to be about the spontaneity of doing somethingmost adults take for granted: making a lunch date.

After the meeting, Gagne connected with an old friend who also attended the forum at the Coventry Community Center.

Because Gagne controls the way she uses her service dollars, she did not need to discuss with anyone how she and her wheelchair would get to and from the chosen restaurant.  Gagne’s assistant simply pulled Gagne’s cell phone out of the bag that hangs across the back of her chair and handed it to Gagne, who marked the date, time and place in her calendar and handed back the phone. That was that.

As a speaker during the forum, Gagne summarized the message of recent public sessions hosted by  Advocates in Action, in collaboration with the state and the Sherlock Center on Disabilities at Rhode Island College, on thinking “outside the system” or “outside the box” in planning for the future.

“It’s back to basics,” she said. “What do you want to do with your life, and what do you need to make that happen?”

Both a 2014 consent decree and a new Medicaid rule on Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) put personal choice at the heart of mandated changes in the approach to services. All developmental disability services in Rhode Island are funded by the federal-state Medicaid program.

One parent who has attended a recent Advocates In Action session on personal choice, or “person-centered thinking”, said there’s a long way to go before such a change becomes everyday reality.

“It seems like a giant step to get from where we are now to where we’re going,” said Greg Mroczek, who has two adult children with developmental disabilities.

None of the developmental disability officials who hosted the forum disagreed with him.

Zanchi           

But Kerri Zanchi, the director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities, and her administrative team made it clear that they want the public to participate in creating a new system of services in a much more active way than is the norm when bureaucracies adopt change.

Kevin Savage, director of licensing, who leads a continuing effort to rewrite developmental disability regulations, said, “We want to have regulations that are meaningful to participants and their families.” The committee rewriting the regulations, which began working in the spring, includes representation from consumers and family members. Savage said a draft of the proposed regulations should be completed in September and released for public comment later in the fall.

Also on Aug. 8, the Division put out a new call for individuals interested in serving on an external quality improvement advisory council.

The advisory council would complement an internal quality improvement committee as part of a broad effort intended to make sure services are faithful to the requirements of the consent decree and Medicaid’s Home and Community Based Rule. 

Anne LeClerc, Associate Director of Program Performance, said she would field inquiries about the quality improvement advisory council. She may be reached at 401-462-0192 or Anne.LeClerc@bhddh.ri.gov.

Zanchi, meanwhile, yielded the floor to representatives of a fledgling effort to revitalize family advocacy called Rhode Island FORCE (Families Organized for Reform, Change and Empowerment), an initiative of the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council.

Semonelli

Chris Semonelli of Middletown, a leader of the group, said it aims to become a springboard for legislative advocacy, starting with an exchange of ideas in the fall among those affected by the developmental disability service system. A date for the event, entitled “Coffee and Cafe Conversation,” has yet to be announced.

The Developmental Disabilities Council plans to support the family advocacy group for up to five years, until it can spin off on its own, according to Kevin Nerney, a council spokesman. Anyone seeking more information may contact him at kevinnerney@riddcouncil.org or 401-737-1238.

Francoise Porch, who has a daughter with developmental disabilities, touched on a long-standing problem affecting both the quality and quantity of available services: depressed wages.

“Direct care staff can’t make a living working with our children,” she said.

The General Assembly allocated $6.1 million for wage increases in the budget for the current fiscal year, which Governor Gina Raimondo signed into law Aug. 3 after the House and the Senate resolved an impasse over Speaker Nicholas Mattiello’s car tax relief plan, which emerged intact.

Although the language of the budget says the raises are effective July 1, the fiscal analyst for developmental disabilities, Adam Brusseau, could not say during the forum exactly when workers might see retroactive checks.

The extra funding is expected to add an average of about 56 cents an hour to paychecks – before taxes – but the precise amount will vary, depending on the employee benefits offered by private agencies under contract with the state to provide direct services.

The latest raise marks the second consecutive budget increase for direct care workers and the first in a five-year drive to hike salaries to $15 an hour.

For high school special education students anticipating a shift to adult services, “there seems to be a logjam” when it comes to families trying to figure out how many service dollars they will have and how far the money will go, according to Claire Rosenbaum, Adult Services Coordinator at the Sherlock Center on Disabilities at Rhode Island College.

Rosenbaum

Zanchi said the Division of Developmental Disabilities aims to administer assessments that are used in determining individual budgets a year before an applicant leaves high school and needs adult services.  But Rosenbaum said that based on her contact with families of young adults, a year does not appear to be long enough. 

She elaborated: after the assessment, called the Supports Intensity Scale, families must wait a month or more for the results. Only then can parents explore the offerings of various agencies.  They may settle on one agency, only to be told that the agency is not accepting new clients with their son or daughter’s particular need. Then, when families decide to design an individualized program themselves, they must begin planning all over again.

“A year is not enough,” Rosenbaum said.

Zanchi said she will look into the problem.

Kerri Zanchi, Former Massachusetts Rehabilitation Official, Named DD Director for Rhode Island

By Gina Macris

Kerri Zanchi, a former high-level developmental disability service official in Massachusetts, has been named Rhode Island’s Director of Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH).

Zanchi, who has past ties to Rhode Island, begins her job here Jan. 23, according to Rebecca Boss, acting director of BHDDH.

 “We are certain that she’ll be a strong leader and we look forward to introducing her to you at our upcoming community forums” in February, Boss said.

“She has focused on quality services that encourage independence as well as community integration.” 

Boss said Zanchi embodies four characteristics at the top of the list of qualities identified in community forums held before the search: 

• ·  hands-on experience with individuals living with developmental disabilities
• ·   experience with government
• ·  a deep understanding of how Medicaid works
• ·  good communication skills

Zanchi, meanwhile, issued a statement saying she accepted the job because of the “tremendous opportunity” and “strong commitment” on the part of state leaders “to transform the development disability system to deliver high quality services that individuals and families deserve.”

She praised the “strong vision and clear goals” guiding the work of the developmental disability leadership team and said she found the community “engaged, with much expertise to offer as this work unfolds.”

“I look forward to partnering with individuals, families, the community and my colleagues in government to build on this momentum and move the service system in a direction that results in better services, better outcomes and more opportunities for all Rhode Islanders living with developmental disabilities,” Zanchi concluded.

Her salary will be $102,860, according to a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS).

Zanchi, 43, is a native of Massachusetts who grew up in East Lyme, CT. She began her career working directly with adults with developmental disabilities in Rhode Island and received her master’s degree in social work from Rhode Island College in 1999.

After completing her studies, she worked at the administrative level in both the public and private sectors in Massachusetts, rising in 2014 to Assistant Commissioner of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, one of several agencies falling under the jurisdiction of that state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

The Commission provides an array of services that promote empowerment and independence for individuals with disabilities, according to its mission statement. As Assistant Commissioner, Zanchi provided leadership and advocacy for six departments of state government focused on community living, covering the gamut of concerns from consumer issues to independent living, assistive technology, protection from abuse and specialized services for individuals with brain injuries, according to a resume released by Rhode Island officials.

The resume says she implemented performance management practices and contributed to cross-agency collaboration. These issues are relevant in Rhode Island because of the demands of a 2014 consent decree that requires various state agencies to work together to  desegregate daytime services for adults with developmental disabilities following specific goals set by the U.S. District Court. 

Zanchi left Massachusetts government in the fall of 2015, according to the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission’s annual report that year. She became Associate Executive Director of the Center for Living and Working, Inc., based in Worcester, leading the organization through a restructuring that emphasized staff development, quality improvement and performance-based outcomes.

In addition, she served as Coordinator of the Massachusetts Aging and Disabilities Resource Consortium for five partner agencies in central Massachusetts, strengthening community and provider collaborations, according to the resume.

Zanchi will succeed Charles Williams, who retired as Director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities last July 22.

The current budget for the Division of Developmental Disabilities is $246.2 million, providing services for a total of about 4,000 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, most of whom receive direct care from 36 private agencies under contract with the state.

The division director oversees a staff of about 350 that determines eligibility, the level of individual need, conducts case management, oversees the state-run group home system, and provides administrative support, according to the EOHHS spokeswoman.

It is expected Zanchi will play a key role in shaping the state’s implementation of the 2014 consent decree, which has come under close scrutiny by District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr., after the federal Department of Justice challenged the state’s progress.

The EOHHS spokeswoman, Sophie O’Connell, said Zanchi “will work very closely with the leadership teams at BHDDH and EOHHS to move forward the Division’s work to achieve the terms of the consent decree and strengthen services for individuals with developmental disabilities.”

O’Connell noted that both the state’s Consent Decree Coordinator, Mary Madden, and the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, Jennifer Wood, served on the search committee for the new director.

In the last year, since McConnell made it clear he would personally weigh in on the progress of the consent decree, Wood has taken the lead in assembling a team of officials to respond to the court’s requirements. She has a legal background in developmental disability law.

Besides Wood and Madden, the search committee for the developmental disability director included Brian Gosselin, Senior Strategy Officer at EOHHS; Jane Gallivan, former interim director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities and a consultant to the state; and Deanne Gagne, CEO/Founder of Bridge Building Services; Coordinator of Advocates in Action; and Assistant Coordinator of the Cross Disability Coalition.

A total of 74 applications were screened. Nine candidates were interviewed initially and four were called back for second interviews. The names of finalists – O’Connell did not say how many – were forwarded to Boss and to Health and Human Services Secretary Elizabeth Roberts, who made the final decision.