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Advocacy Unlimited Newsletter - June/July 2006 |
Events, Updates and Announcements
Graduations - The 28th Commencement Ceremony was held on Monday, May 8, 2006 for the Norwich class. A total of twenty-one students successfully completed the advocacy course. Congratulations!
Education Department - Classes are currently being held in New Britain, CT and at CVH Hospital
AU Advocate's Bimonthly Meeting - The June bimonthly meeting took place at the Greater Waterbury Mental Health Authority. Our guest speaker was AU's founder and former Executive Director, Yvette Sangster.
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Regional Coordinators Needed
So that more advocates can participate, we are moving the Bi-monthly meeting around the state! We need one person from the various regions (1 through 5) to volunteer to be a coordinator. Please contact us if you are interested. |
NYAPRS Conference - "From Promise to Practice: Sharing the tools for Transformation". September 27th-29th at Nevele Grande Resort and Conference Center in Ellenville, N.Y., for information go to www.nyaprs.org (opens in a new browser window).
Advocates' Retreat - AU Advocates, mark your calendars! October 5 - 8th at Camp Harkness, 301 Great Neck Road, Waterford, CT
Fundraising - A film festival is being planned for October 2006. Stay tuned for date and final plans!
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Letters to the Editor
We are opening a Letters to the Editor section. Please submit letters with your views on articles in the newsletter or about issues that are important to the community of people with psychiatric disabilities. All articles must be signed for us to print them. We will print as many as space allows. Thanks! |
Legislative Update
Thanks to NAMI of Connecticut from whose legislative summary much of this information came.
This session was a mixed bag. On the positive side Medicare Part D non-formulary drugs for people who are dually eligible or on ConnPace were funded. On the negative side they were grossly under funded at 5 million. AU has heard estimates that as much as 24 million is needed. We are not sure what will happen when the 5 million allocated runs out. This is something we will have to keep an eye on.
Housing was another good news / bad news situation. The good news: there was no cut to proposed supportive housing funds. The bad news is that 500 proposed Rental assistance program certificates were not funded. We have been ensured that supportive housing will be a top priority in next year's budget.
One complete victory was in the area of advance directives. The statute is clearer and mandates that a conservator must comply with previous advance directives and that the health care representative (the new term) takes precedence over that of a conservator.