NCD :: DOJ Issues New Installment of ADA Technical Assistance Materials..

Quickly forwarding along as this type of change has a snowball effect on whom it ultimately touches.. When you hear mention of key phrases such as "accessible design" and "universal design", this is one of the places to turn for insight..

PS.. This early arriving email is a sign your NCD has hit the ground off and running this morning.. Don't forget they are a public entity to whom you may email your concerns and suggestions for their considerations: NCD@NCD.gov..

Tool Kit For State and Local Governments (new chapters 05/07/07): "On December 5, 2006, February 27, 2007, and May 7, 2007, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued installments of a new technical assistance document designed to assist state and local officials to improve compliance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in their programs, services, activities, and facilities. The new technical assistance document, which will be released in several installments over the next ten months, is entitled 'The ADA Best Practices Tool Kit for State and Local Governments'. The Tool Kit is designed to teach state and local government officials how to identify and fix problems that prevent people with disabilities from gaining equal access to state and local government programs, services, and activities. It will also teach state and local officials how to conduct accessibility surveys of their buildings and facilities to identify and remove architectural barriers to access."

In dreams, she dances :: Georgia's hospitals to get Federal investigation..

In reality, she's too pooped to barely walk down the hall, BUT that won't stop her from sharing the following..........

A breaking news announcement shared that Governor Sonny Perdue has been notified that the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights division is headed for Georgia to investigate our state's seven state-run mental health hospitals..

The rest of the story may be found at:

Justice Dept. to investigate Georgia's mental hospitals..
By Alan Judd, Andy Miller..
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution..
Published on: 2007-04-19

You're going to have to grab it quick because the AJC's articles go into archive very regularly.. Be forewarned that it takes a subscription to view many of their articles.. Perhaps this one they'll just let slide..

To Andy Miller and Alan Judd..

Haven't been able to say it enough since you all started the A Hidden Shame series of articles: You all ROCK..

Anyone else smell a Bouncing Baby Pulitzer in the air for these two..?

Told them back when those articles first started appearing, what is occurring in our state's hospitals is, no, goes beyond inexcusable.. It's unconscionable that, with all the cr#p that came out about our Highland Rivers' system here across the top of the state, Andy and Alan's series of articles is eerily like stepping back five years ago.. The stories are the same, the results are the same, the circumstances more similar than different..

Last time I, for one, sat in person and watch as the man in charge jested, joked as he announced at a press conference that they had been cleared of.. wrong-doing, of all accountability, I guess.. The system that directly cost people their Lives and others nearly theirs got away with it a few short years ago, managed to cover their tracks somehow.. Not this time, folks.. There will be justice for those who have no alternative but to turn to a system they in their Hearts believe is providing responsible Emergency Rooms for their Minds..

PS.. Hee-UGE THANK YOU slash CYBER HUG for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution editors for seeing the value of this story being "breaking news" worthy.. (Grin, that happened to be a gripe that I had stalling half-finished in the wings on my 'puter.. Welp, set that one to the side and keep moving steady forward from there..)

PPS.. Ok, so who's got the chutzpah, the ca(l)jones to go open information act on the Governor's Office and pull the handwritten note I left him Disability Day..

Talking about the note where I told him from the Heart that they have got to stop what is going on across the state in our community mental health care system as a whole, that they're churning out more desperate people every day they piddle along.. If you live in a community, you ARE touched by our state's community mental health care system because there is a ripple effect when those desperate people's Lives inevitably touch yours down the road.. Virginia Tech (VA Tech) very sadly has already realized the same..

NO MORE DESPERATE, DESTROYED LIVES.. PERMANENTLY ACCOUNTABLE COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH CARE NOW.................... (please)..

Cross-posted at: Georgia Disability Advocates' Calendar..