Governor’s MBTA panel provided virtually no support for its recommendation to...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blog) The Governor’s Special Panel to Review the MBTA earlier this year made some reasonable proposals to better manage the MBTA. But the Panel report’s recommendation to...
View ArticleVirtually no one waiting for DDS care getting into state-run DDS homes
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blog) Despite the fact that an unknown number of intellectually disabled people are waiting for residential services in Massachusetts, new data provided by the state appear...
View ArticleI’ll be defending the Pacheco Law at a Boston Bar Assn. forum next month
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blog) Based on our blog posts earlier this year defending the scrutiny of the privatization of state services that is provided under the Pacheco Law, I’ve been asked to...
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Baker administration interpreting Pacheco Law to potentially benefit private...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blog) In what may be one of the first tests of the Pacheco Law in the privatization of human services, the Baker administration is seeking to contract out existing...
View ArticleMost of the mainstream media skipped class last week on privatization and the...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blog) It’s amazing how little real understanding the mainstream media has of the issue of privatization and of legislative responses to it such as the Pacheco Law. You only...
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Gov. Baker’s FY ’17 budget continues race to the bottom in care of the...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) In his proposed Fiscal 2017 budget, which he filed last week, Governor Baker is continuing to boost funding for privatized care for the developmentally disabled...
View ArticleLimited federal IG probe faults state’s reporting on group home abuse in MA
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) In one of the few investigations of the community-based system of care for the developmentally disabled, the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health...
View ArticleBaker administration concedes some congregate care for the developmentally...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) In responses to comments made to a federally required plan for community-based care of the developmentally disabled, the Baker administration is conceding that...
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DDS providers pushing Gov. Baker to phase out state-run care
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) The major lobbying organizations for corporate providers to the Department of Developmental Services appear to be pushing the Baker administration and the...
View ArticleTrump is using the ‘shock doctrine’ to become a corporate dictator, but it’s...
[Note: I tried to insert an image here of the cover of Naomi Klein’s book, “The Shock Doctrine,” but nothing seems to show up.] From the continuous barrage of propaganda emanating from President Trump...
View ArticleMassHealth audit casts doubt on claimed savings in privatizing state services
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) Last year, State Auditor Suzanne Bump approved a proposal to privatize mental health services in southeastern Massachusetts after the for-profit Massachusetts...
View ArticleState law that boosted human services funding has helped provider CEOs more...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) A 2008 state law, which substantially raised funding to corporate agencies running group homes for people with disabilities, has resulted in only minimal...
View ArticleLiving wage in Massachusetts suffers a setback
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) In an apparently little-noticed setback to the effort to raise the minimum wage in Massachusetts, the legislative conference committee on the state budget...
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Developmentally disabled man nearly dies after group home fails to respond to...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) Yianni Baglaneas, who has Down syndrome, had a great time at a Special Olympics bowling tournament in Peabody on April 9, the day after his 29th birthday. But...
View ArticleState auditor has proposed regs that could weaken the Pacheco Law
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) The Pacheco Law has over the years been one of the more effective available checks on the runaway privatization of state services. But the law, which has been the...
View ArticleDDS report faults provider and charges cover-up in near-fatal, group home...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) (Update: The Essex County District Attorney’s Office confirmed this morning (October 26) that they have opened a criminal investigation into this matter.) As The...
View ArticleIt’s time for the Legislature to investigate the privatized DDS system
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blog) Although seven employees of a corporate provider have been found to be at fault in a case in which a developmentally disabled client nearly died in a group home after...
View ArticleCommittee to schedule one or more oversight hearings on DDS system
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) In the wake of findings by the state of negligence by the staff of a human services provider that almost resulted in the death of a developmentally disabled man,...
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Parents continually frustrated by DDS and group-home provider in advocating...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) Ryan Tilly, who has Down Syndrome, had been living in his provider-operated group home in Haverhill for only four months in March of 2016 when he was allegedly...
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Children and Families Committee needs to show it’s serious about...
(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite) At the start of a legislative hearing last week on the Department of Developmental Services, state Representative Kay Khan made what seemed to be a major...
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