2020 Budget Questions for the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities
Posted on October 29, 2019 by cmhbc • Posted in Access to care, Budget • Leave a comment
October 29, 2019
Dear Chicago City Council Members,
The Community Mental Health Board would appreciate it if you would please consider asking Commissioner Tamley a few of the attached questions during the City Council Departmental Budget Hearing on the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities 2020 Budget.
Six questions:
ADA Accessibility
After the Community Mental Health Board of Chicago filed a complaint with the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) in 2017, the MOPD surveyed Greater Lawn Mental Health Center (4150 W. 55th) and Lawndale Mental Health Center (1201 S. Campbell) for accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Both facilities were found to have access issues. Board membership includes persons with wheelchair experience.
The two mental health centers determined not accessible under the ADA were surveyed in 2012, as well. No action was taken then. But as a result of the 2017 survey, the renewed lease for the Greater Lawn Mental Health Center was revised in 2018, to include requirements to fix ADA access code violations. Please see O2018-4236, Exhibit A.
In response to the Board’s follow up request, on September 26, 2019, MOPD resurveyed the Greater Lawn Mental Health Center building. See attached. Several ADA code violations remain unfixed.
(1) What is the MOPD policy or procedure for following up on problematic facilities that house city services to be sure that identified problems get fixed? Do any of the remaining three mental health centers have ADA accessibility or other facility issues that still need to be fixed?
As a result of the MOPD survey of the Lawndale Mental Health Center facility, 12/4/2017, the City plans to relocate the mental health center to another leased facility at 1111 S. Western Avenue. Please see O2019-5592. At our request, MOPD surveyed 1111 S. Western on October 1, 2019. ADA access code violations were identified. Please see attached.
(2) How is MOPD working with Chicago Department of Public Health to ensure ADA code violations are fixed at 1111 S. Western Ave?
(3) What does Commissioner Tamley think about an ordinance requiring MOPD to survey facilities, under consideration to house city services, before the City signs off on a lease with the property owner?
The CDPH Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation (CARF) Survey Reports for three of the four past surveys have noted mental health service access barriers and recommended, each time, the CDPH come up with an accessibility plan and a plan for annually monitoring mental health service accessibility: “The plan should be reviewed at least annually for relevance, including progress made in the removal of identified barriers and areas needing improvement, and be updated as needed.” See CDPH-CARF Survey Reports 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016
(4) How are you working with the Chicago Department of Public Health to “implement an accessibility plan that includes actions to be taken and timelines for the removal of all identified barriers?” See CARF Survey 2016. [MOPD did not actually answer this question last year.]
Telepsychiatry
(5) This month CDPH initiated telepsychiatry at Englewood Mental Health Center. Has MOPD reviewed the accessibility of CDPH’s telepsychiatry service?
According to the most recent 2018 Illinois Department of Mental Health data, the employment of persons receiving mental health services from state supported services (including Medicaid) – such as CDPH is quite low. See 2018 SAMHSA Uniform Reporting System (URS) Output Tables. CDPH mental health center participants have asked for employment support.
(6) How is the MOPD (Task Force on Employment and Economic Opportunities For People with Disabilities and the Work Incentive Planning and Assistance programs) working with CDPH mental health centers to support and help people secure employment?
Thank you for your attention and consideration.
The Community Mental Health Board of Chicago
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0 THOUGHTS ON “2020 BUDGET QUESTIONS FOR THE MAYOR’S OFFICE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES”
Kathy Powers says:
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November 3, 2019 at 7:33 pm
Is accessibility a second-thought, unimportant aspect of this City’s agenda? I want to see MOPD inspect all facilities, and not sign off on them until they are up to code. If you can’t get in, you can’t get services. If you can’t hear, understand the language, can’t see a computer screen or are not afforded reasonable accommodation, you can’t get services. The ADA is the law of the land, for some time, and must be followed.