KPFA - Pushing Limits

Electronic visit verification is a component of the 21st century CURES Act of 2016. It was a sneaky little poison pill added to the act and no one likes it…Except those who believe workers and recipients are ALL fraudulent pirates who MUST BE STOPPED! It will affect all in-home care programs including California’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS). And, if states do not implement it, they’ll lose critical funding for Medicaid (that’s Medi-Cal in California).

Many states have already begun implementation of this federal requirement with many Orwellian results, so workers and recipients in California are VERY concerned about what the future will look like for people with disabilities. There is yet hope! Our privacy protectors have already won an important delay in the start date and they are working on long term fixes.

Hannah Karpilow, a home care worker, and Marissa Shaw, a recipient of in-home supportive services and Supportive Living Services join Sheela Gunn-Cushman and Alysa Chadow to discuss this prickly complex issue.

Bay Area – Berkeley

Sacramento

Los Angeles

The only entities benefiting

Richard Daggett, President, Polio Survivors Association

The post IHSS Electronic Visit Verification: All We Know – and the things we don’t appeared first on KPFA.

On April 5, 2018 a Federal judge in San Francisco heard arguments against evicting the 125+ people of a Sebastopol Road homeless camp in Santa Rosa. The camp residents asked the judge to issue a temporary restraining order against the eviction, claiming the County of Sonoma, whose land they reside upon, is violating their 4th, 8th & 14th amendment rights, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.  At the time of this program, the judge’s final decision was unknown.

Attorneys for the residents found a high rate of disability within the camp and said that many camp residents were not being accommodated in local homeless shelters. This is an unusual way to think about homelessness.

To delve into this situation, we talk to Santa Rosa Council Woman Julie Combs.

Since she was first elected in 2012, Julie Combs has been part of our struggle for something better for poor and homeless people. Her work at the city council gives hope to the cynical that politicians can be true representatives of the people. She’s a trained mechanical engineer with experience as an Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator.

We also talk to Kalia Mussetter, a Mental Health Peer Advocate & System Navigator, and the founder of Living Bridges, a local non-profit consultancy that provides direct services to our chronically homeless neighbors. She also gives In-Service provider trainings in Trauma-Informed Care, as she puts it, “from the vulnerable side of the helping desk.”

Official statistics say that 64% of homeless people in Sonoma County live with one or more health conditions, and 41% meet the standard of a HUD disabling condition.  Our guests agree that, actually, a much higher percentage of homeless people are disabled.  Of the homeless people with a disability, 20% have physical limitations and almost 20% more suffer from PTSD.

Producer/Host:  Adrienne Lauby

The post Homelessness and Disability appeared first on KPFA.

Do you remember where you were when the Bowling Green Massacre happened? You don’t? It was all over the news last year! But of course you don’t remember, because it never happened. It was fake news.

As we approach April Fool’s Day, we learn that even the news must be treated with suspicion in these troubling times. Join Adrienne Lauby and Mark Romoser as we discuss fake news and how it affects your ability to stay informed.

Call in and join the discussion. What Fake News has hindered disability organizing? What Fake News has kept people from understanding your disability?

Call in at (510) 848-4425 and tell us where you get your news!

The post Fake Disability News appeared first on KPFA.

Is disability as portrayed in American popular cinema slowly transforming itself?

Are filmmakers getting away from the good old days when a person with a disability was often viewed as a friendly, intellectually-challenged creature to be cuddled and protected because us disabled folk could not fend for ourselves or offer gifts to society? Are popular films breaking away from the usual Hollywood mushy, exploitative treatment of disability in films like the 1957, “An Affair to Remember?”

And furthermore, is the film industry questioning the knee jerk idea that disability equals evil?

Freelance film critic Kristen Lopez takes up these topics and more with Eddie Ytuarte and Alysha Chadow.

Kristen Lopez is a Sacramento disabled freelance film critic and essayist whose work has appeared on The Hollywood Reporter, The Daily Beast, RogerEbert.com, and TCM.

She’s the creator of two podcasts, Citizen Dame and Ticklish Business which allow her to indulge her love of feminism and film. She says she spends far too much time on her Twitter page @Journeys_Film and adds, “The Little Mermaid – yes, I’m arguing that’s a narrative about a woman with disabilities.”

The post Disability Goes To the Movies appeared first on KPFA.