This is my actual testimony to the Appropriations Committee on the 15th of February, 2008. This is the 2nd time I have testified, and I was more nervous than the first time! After I post my testimony here, I will do other posts on the descriptions of what took place during and after the hearings. Ok, here is the 2nd testimony:
Testimony before the Appropriations Committee
February 15, 2008
DSS Budget
Good evening, Senator Harp, Representative Merrill, and members of the Appropriations Committee. Thank you for the honor and privilege of sharing my testimony with you.
My name is Muriel Tomer. I am Mother to a 23 year old son with chronic mental illness, I am 49, and I have spent my entire life watching the devastation that mental illness wreaks on families and communities without appropriate health care. I have also been a victim of clinical depression since the age of 15.
When my son received SAGA benefits, he received the most horrid healthcare I have ever seen. After some experiences that were traumatic to him, now my son won’t go to any of the doctors in that system. Offices were filthy, the staff were extremely rude, and even at Yale, he was put on a waiting list for months even though he had an abscessed molar. After waiting several months, I took a day off of work to take my son to his dental appointment. for the abscessed molar, only to go all the way down there and find out the appointment was cancelled because of someone else’s emergency! After two times of repeat cancellations at Yale, my son refused to ever go again, and that molar is still rotting in his head. Now his wisdom teeth are coming in, and he has been in pain for a very long time. His Case Manager made an appointment with a dentist in Middletown to extract the tooth, but at that time my son was homeless and could not get to the appointment. Did you know that dental infections can lead to heart disease and other serious illnesses?
Now that my son is on seemingly perpetual hold for moving into a supportive housing arrangement, I have been told that even though he has Title 19, there are no doctors he can go to until he gets into that supportive housing situation. I doubt, however, that he will go to any doctors anymore. He always tells me that the services in Connecticut are actually anti-services and that everyone in the state lies about everything they say regarding services to be received under Title 19. I am beginning to see that it is a maze of misinformation..
Because my son has a pervasive mental illness, he can barely manage his own day to day life, let alone manage his Case Worker, so she can manage his health care needs. This is a difficult system to navigate.
My son desperately wants to work, and could with appropriate supports, however, if he earns even a small amount of money, he will lose his benefits. So where does that leave him? In a situation where the government in his state is functionally holding him back, forcing him living in abject poverty with lousy health care, and virtually no opportunities to improve and enrich his own life. If you think that anyone in Connecticut can live on $485.00 per month in SSI benefits, $80.00 per month in Food Stamps, and no cash assistance, I would have to voraciously challenge your perception of reality. However, if you are an adult with a serious mental health disability, then you cannot qualify for Medicaid coverage unless you are extremely impoverished.
I was recently informed by NAMI-CT that when he is able, he can apply for the Medicaid for the Employed Disabled Program, but this was never offered to us an option or explained by anyone at DSS. Unfortunately, there are many people who can’t currently work or may never be able to work, and what are they supposed to do for decent health coverage. We create barriers for those who need care the most.
How can any one of us in our community of the State of Connecticut consciously allow this to continue for one more day for anyone with mental illness. If you do not believe what I am sharing with you, then I urge you, all of you, to go and spend one day in the life of any of these individuals, so that you can gain a reality-based understanding of how to meet their needs at a reasonable standard of living. All of us should be embarrassed and horrified at how our most vulnerable community members are existing. Please fund the resources necessary to uplift people with mental illness – not persistently demean them, degrade them, and hold them back.
Thank you for your time and attention.
