Thank you for your work on the Disability Commission. I had hoped to give live virtual public comment today, but was informed that was not an option, so I appreciate this opportunity.
Earlier today I had a meeting with a range of disability advocates, including partners at Virginia Autism Project, Communication First, Our Stomping Ground, and a family advocate. The topic was crisis based funding and legislation needs for the upcoming session.
I know Sen. Favola and Del. Hope in particular have heard a lot about this, especially in Arlington, but it is widespread to say the least. Sen. Favola has been helping to lead a HB888/SB176 crisis related workgroup. When we talked today we realized the one big area of need the workgroup doesn't seem to be discussing is the need for crisis related data. We know the General Assembly is much more likely to take future actions if we have more than the anecdotal crisis stories we've all heard so much.
The group consensus was there needed to be data collected on the needs, age, type of disability(ies), reason for crisis, challenges to discharge, and related measures by anyone who is involved in a 988 call, an arrest, when police or other first responders go out, when REACH is called (as they only collect data on certain actions, not all calls for help), etc. The idea here is that by showing the big numbers of people with disabilities we see struggling, when, where, and why, we'd better be able to design better response systems.
It seemed like an idea worthy of sharing with the Disability Commission as the Commission has led on so many studies that turned into bills to really fix systems. I'm happy to talk more directly or with the partners above anytime. Thanks for any thoughts and help.
Thank you for your work on the Disability Commission. I had hoped to give live virtual public comment today, but was informed that was not an option, so I appreciate this opportunity. Earlier today I had a meeting with a range of disability advocates, including partners at Virginia Autism Project, Communication First, Our Stomping Ground, and a family advocate. The topic was crisis based funding and legislation needs for the upcoming session. I know Sen. Favola and Del. Hope in particular have heard a lot about this, especially in Arlington, but it is widespread to say the least. Sen. Favola has been helping to lead a HB888/SB176 crisis related workgroup. When we talked today we realized the one big area of need the workgroup doesn't seem to be discussing is the need for crisis related data. We know the General Assembly is much more likely to take future actions if we have more than the anecdotal crisis stories we've all heard so much. The group consensus was there needed to be data collected on the needs, age, type of disability(ies), reason for crisis, challenges to discharge, and related measures by anyone who is involved in a 988 call, an arrest, when police or other first responders go out, when REACH is called (as they only collect data on certain actions, not all calls for help), etc. The idea here is that by showing the big numbers of people with disabilities we see struggling, when, where, and why, we'd better be able to design better response systems. It seemed like an idea worthy of sharing with the Disability Commission as the Commission has led on so many studies that turned into bills to really fix systems. I'm happy to talk more directly or with the partners above anytime. Thanks for any thoughts and help.