This letter is an example of how audistic hearing people are. It is very paternalizing and still ignorant of our rights in mental health services.
The Commission is not being honest about having a strong and unwavering interest in better serving all Missourians. The history of DMH has a proven POOR track record with the Deaf community at large.
They did have meeting last September as a tokenism. It is only a strategic way for them to appease us.
Even though, the Commission is taking a formal stand in support of a proposal frm DMH and the Deaf Community to pursue additional funding as pat of the FY2010 budget. It is a merely lip service knowing they will pass the buck to legislators.
They want to continue funding interpreting services at a half million dollars (recently $539,000.00 2008 funding). The interpreting services have failed to remedy the mental health problems of deaf community. There is no improvement and there is no documentation of how the deaf community are progressing from the emergency room to the outpatient services.
It is again the hearing people wanting to control the dollars.
They promised to have someone who is deaf be in the position of director. Yet, they completed the selection of a hearing interpreter from an agency that may have done business with DMH before the deadline was made. There is no proof that the job announcements had reached the deaf community from sea to shining sea. I have googled all over internet to no avail. Show me a job posting that has been advertised in well known deaf publications. Have you seen one? NAD? Deaf Life? other news media?
They want to monitor my progress through regular updates and reports provided by their staff. I find it interesting as it is known as "intelligence". Go ahead and monitor! DMH is still not doing its job right.
Why are they still wasting time and money on something that is not working?
