Grayce’s Post

Addressing Veterans’ Care in Project 2025 As we discuss the future of our nation, it’s crucial to address the specifics of Project 2025, especially regarding Veterans’ care and the VA. The plan proposes significant changes that would impact our veterans, including: Speeding Up the Review Process: Accelerating the VA’s review process for disability ratings. Stricter Eligibility Criteria: Implementing tighter restrictions on what claims make future recipients eligible for disability benefits. Narrowing Eligibility: It proposes narrowing the eligibility criteria for health benefits, focusing more on service-connected conditions. Potential Reduction in Benefits: Current recipients might see a reduction in benefits, but not a complete cut. Increased Privatization: The plan suggests outsourcing many core healthcare services to private companies. This includes exams for evaluating claims, adjudicating claims automatically with private tech companies, and facilitating care through private healthcare providers Political Appointments: Replacing ALL civil service-style employees with political appointees. Rescinding Certain Policies: Removing policies related to abortion services and gender reassignment surgery. These changes claim to streamline the VA’s operations and reduce costs, but they also raise concerns about the potential impact on veterans’ access to benefits and care. Clear plans and commitments in these areas are essential to ensure our veterans receive the support they deserve. This transparency will significantly influence the dialogue on preventing a return to policies that may not prioritize their needs. Let’s advocate for detailed and actionable plans to honor our veterans’ service and sacrifice. #VeteransCare #Project2025 #Transparency #Advocacy

Repost from NCIL NCIL Regional Listening Session Series Starting April 2024. Registration links below. The National Council on Independent Living will be hosting a series of Regional Listening Sessions to gather feedback and input on systemic issues affecting the Independent Living and disability communities. NCIL will use this information to help inform our advocacy priorities for the upcoming year, identify opportunities for regional and peer collaborations, and to inform our March and Rally to the Capitol in July. Examples of issues to share feedback on: Barriers to expanding CIL capacity in your state Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), self-direction, and consumer control Access to Durable Medical Equipment Transportation issues Housing issues Disability and disaster response We want to hear it all! The Regional Listening Sessions will also be an opportunity to meet your NCIL Region Representatives and members of our Advocacy and Public Policy Committee. Please note that this is a listening session to gather information to identify systemic advocacy issues. We will not be to respond to individual cases / issues at this event. We kindly ask you to only register for the session in your region. Schedule and Registration for Region 9 and 10: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington April 18; 12:30- 2:00 p.m. Pacific Register for Region 9 and 10 Listening Session at the link below https://lnkd.in/gWEYuAVB

A lack of accessible health information is a major contributing factor to poor health outcomes. We need to dismantle expectations that disable people from understanding what is happening with their body/mind. One expectation is for people to above average literacy when 44% Australians do not have the literacy to do day-to-day reading tasks. Combine that with medical jargon and those who cannot read, comprehend and utilise health information is much higher.

After a week of seeing exciting posts from new and old friends at #lawbizcon2024 I’ve finally got a minute to share something important to me coming out of the conference. (Note: follow Caralee Fontenele to keep your eyes peeled for 2025 ticket sales, I already have mine). Without a doubt Dinesh Palipana OAM was my favourite speaker. What a story teller, and what a story. Wow, please follow Dinesh if you aren’t already and as I have done buy his book, Stronger (also available in audio book version) to learn more. Dinesh is an emergency department doctor, a lawyer, and a disability advocate as he is a wheelchair user himself having acquired a spinal cord injury as a young adult. I had a few precious minutes to connect with Dinesh after his keynote. We talked about our shared love for our remarkable mothers 🥰, and my privilege to work with families who have a child (or significant person like a sibling, grandchild, niece or nephew) (young or adult) living with a disability and the importance of learning more about how I can help these families to ensure their wills and estate plans find the balance between protecting these beneficiaries (as I do in all of my planning) and not infantilising these individuals living with a disability. I am already working with a young disability advocate, but there is much to learn and many experiences to consider and benefit from. So for me the action that I have been inspired to take after the conference is market research. If you are a parent (or person who might include a person with a disability in your own will because of another significant relationship such as partner or spouse, grandparent, aunt / uncle, or sibling) please use this link to share your thoughts- https://lnkd.in/g2z6ahjs If you are a person living with a disability and would like to share your considerations, please use this link- https://lnkd.in/gaJPhM_U Links shared again in comments :)

78% of disabled people report negative healthcare experiences, vs. 61% of non-disabled people (according to Sanofi). To close the gap, we must: - Partner with and listen to the disability community - Increase representation in leadership - Collaborate across sectors Progress is possible with empathy, accountability & commitment to equity. Disability touches all of us. Accessible systems benefit everyone. Read more in my Forbes article. https://lnkd.in/gCkdExSz

Our advocates are meeting with over 60 Congressional offices today to discuss issues impacting the disability community. Read more on how to take action & help us amplify our impact!

NCIL Statement in Support of Texas Advocates   The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) supports the protest occurring at the Governor's Mansion in Texas. This protest aims to address the concerns of Texans with disabilities who rely on attendant care services daily to live and work independently in the community instead of in nursing homes.    NCIL believes that people with disabilities have the right to self-direct and control all aspects of their own lives, especially the direct and personal care needed to live in the community. The protesters are fighting for their lives and demand a meeting with Governor Abbott. NCIL urges Governor Abbott to engage with the protesters and listen to their concerns.    The shortage of attendant care services is a national issue, jeopardizing the lives of people with disabilities across the country, not just in Texas. This crisis requires immediate attention.   Attendant care workers need higher wages and benefits. Investing in home- and community-based services like attendant care has consistently proven to be cost-effective. It reduces the expenses associated with long-term institutional care and hospitalizations, and enables people with disabilities to work and contribute to the economy through taxes.    The situation in Texas will continue to replicate nationwide until decision-makers like Governor Abbott prioritize this issue.   View article and photo gallery from the Austin American Statesman: https://bit.ly/3wyXudz

"Carrie Leljedal is a force of nature who represents what's possible when concerned people get together to create real change. Listen to this week's episode of "Elevate Eldercare" to learn how Carrie and her fellow advocates — at organizations like Caregivers for Compromise - because isolation kills too!, Gray Panthers NYC, and more — are breaking down barriers between the eldercare and disability advocacy worlds, and fighting every day for the rights of long-term care residents." https://lnkd.in/eYrhFb86

Our communities were not originally designed to include people with #disabilities. Providers of home and community-based services (HCBS) change that reality every day—but we have failed to invest in HCBS for far too long. Longstanding underinvestment in #HCBS has meant that our direct support workforce has been in crisis for years, and people with disabilities and their families pay the price in reduced access to services. The Disability Community Act, introduced last week, is critically needed as it protects access to critical long-term supports and services for people with I/DD by increasing federal Medicaid funding for I/DD services over a three-year period. Take action and urge your members of Congress to support the #DisabilityCommunityAct: https://lnkd.in/gmsiBJEx

The state of this country when it comes to disability is shocking. On my way home from town this morning, we came across a women who was heavily disabled and almost non-verbal. Her chair had broken down and she was unable to move. Along side the help of another women, we stayed with her for 3 hours trying, unsuccessfully, to get her chair working again. In the end I managed to push her into some shade (electric wheelchairs are no joke when it comes to weight). In the time that followed we rang the police, the ambulance services, and the chair company, They all said they couldn't, or wouldn't help. The chair company said they weren't insured to fix the chair on the roadside and to ring the police, the police said they couldn't do anything and to ring for a taxi or an ambulance, the ambulance said they wouldn't do anything because it wasn't an emergency. If a heavily disabled person, stuck on the street in the midday sun, with only strangers to help isn't an emergency then what is? When you hear people who are disabled speak about the lack of service and support available, this is what they mean. In the end we managed to track down her brother, and through sheer perseverance we got the chair to semi-work and get her back home, but it took 4 people, 3 hours being stuck on the roadside to achieve it. What I saw today was shameful, and exactly why we need better run and better funded services. #disabilityawareness #healthcare #disability