Mhanys update on behalf of Glenn Liebman
Yesterday we witnessed a rare occurrence in Albany, the harnessing of the power of State Government on a bipartisan basis to support the unsung heroes who provide direct care to vulnerable New Yorkers on a daily basis. Governor Cuomo and the Legislative Leaders from all sides of the aisle came together and spoke at the rally of Direct Care Service Providers from across New York State. More than just speaking, they made a strong commitment to funding for this workforce.
It was a memorable moment and one that has been long in coming. Our colleagues in the Development Disabilities field have done an incredible job of raising awareness of the needs of direct care staff through their BFair2DirectCare campaign. All of their great work cumulated in yesterday’s rally.
Mental Health and Addiction Disorder advocates have been mounting our own campaign recently to ensure that our workforce is included in this funding. Many agencies in the MHA network and in other community agencies have developmental disability programs, mental health and substance abuse programs. All work hard, all work 24/7, all respond to crisis—it only makes sense that this workforce would be looked on through the prism of a large tent. Our voices were heard – the announced deal included all, not just some, of the direct care workers across all disability groups in this incredibly important investment which will raise the quality of care provided, as well as rewarding staff for their service. Thanks to the Governor and the Legislature for listening and responding.
Funding Breakdown
As we know, words are cheap. Actual commitments are not cheap. Yesterday’s workforce announcement is the largest funding commitment to the mental hygiene workforce in many years. The way the funding breaks down in mental health is that on January 1, 2018, all the direct care staff will receive a 3.25% funding increase. On April 1, 2018, the direct care workforce will receive an additional 3.25% funding increase. In addition, on April 1, 2018, much of the clinical staff will receive a 3.25% funding increase. In summary, over a two year period, the direct care staffs will receive a 6.5% funding increase while some clinical staff will receive a 3.25% funding increase.
Advocacy Efforts to Continue
We are very appreciative of this commitment but we also know that this is just the first step in a campaign to continue to raise awareness of the workforce. The effectiveness of our campaign will not end—this is just the beginning of our combined voices working for a full workforce commitment in the years to come.
Along with our members at MHANYS, I would like to commend the other members who have worked tirelessly recently in pursuit of a common workforce agenda—NYAPRS, ACL, NAMI, Coalition for Behavioral Health, Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors, NYASAP, Families Together, NYS Council of Community Behavioral Healthcare, NYS Coalition for Children’s Behavioral Health, NYSRA as well as our lobbyist Kevin Cleary. Also, most importantly, the grassroots was a strong voice for support. Thousands of phone calls were generated in support of funding increases for the workforce. As we have always said, when our entire community speaks with one voice, we can accomplish great things.
Thanks are in order
We also recognize that this is a real commitment of dollars from the State and the Legislature. We are very appreciative of Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, IDC Chair Jeff Klein, Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb. We also really want to acknowledge the great work of our respective mental hygiene chairs, Senator Robert Ortt and Assemblymember Aileen Gunther. They have spoken out in support of the entire workforce and that is greatly appreciated. Also, what helps drive the ship in the leadership is the hard working staffs who have shown their own very passionate commitments to this funding.
Caveats, Caveats, Caveats,
Though it will be hard to back track from these commitment, please note that the State Budget has not passed yet so this does not become official till after Budget passage.
We also know that this is an important commitment, but we realize there has been an erosion in our workforce over the years. The lesson of working together and speaking with the same strong voice will help bolster our advocacy on workforce in the future. This is not the end of a workforce campaign, this is just the beginning. After we thank the leadership for their strong commitment, we will continue to raise our voices in the future in support of the workforce.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to