ALBANY — Although the overall budget for the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities is expected to increase nearly 3 percent, those who provide direct services to people with disabilities say the cuts are falling on them. The latest cuts add insult to injury to a sector that has not seen a cost-of-living increase…Read More…

Dec 10, 2020 More than 1,000 people participated in a virtual statewide rally Wednesday calling on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reconsider budget cuts for services for people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) faces nearly half a billion dollars in funding cuts…Read More…

Dec. 10, 2020 Following a decade of budget cuts, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office is proposing yet another round of slashes to service providers that care for New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the 2021 budget — a move that caregivers say will devastate them and the people they care for.  In an effort…Read More…

Dec. 09, 2020 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Thousands of New Yorkers joined a virtually rally Wednesday to urge the state, specifically Gov. Andrew Cuomo, from cutting funding for programs and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). The Save Our Services virtual rally had speakers from across the state — some parents of…Read More…

Nov. 26, 2020 ALBANY — As state agencies are being directed to cut their spending, service providers and activists are pleading with officials to preserve funding for critical programs for the homeless, developmentally disabled and other vulnerable New Yorkers. Support service providers — which have already had to manage the prospect of the withholding of…Read More…

Nov. 11, 2020 The New York Disability Advocates—a statewide coalition of seven nonprofit provider associations whose members serve more than 140,000 New Yorkers with disabilities—last week released the results of a survey finding that 80% of responding health care providers for the intellectual and developmental disability community say incoming budget cuts will result in their closure or a reduction in services. The coalition surveyed a sample of agencies representing over 38% of the residential support system in the state. Read the full article here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-pulse/80-disability-care-providers-say-cuts-will-result-their-closure-reduced-servicesRead More…

New York Disability Advocates (NYDA) has developed a proposal for a comprehensive COVID-19 Infection Prevention Program for I/DD Service Providers, as well as proposed Covid-19 emergency room discharge protocols and hospitalization discharge protocols for people who live in residential programs certified by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD).Read More…

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April 3, 2020 Updated: April 3, 2020 6:46 p.m. The COVID-19 crisis has brought home the vital importance of frontline direct care workers who staff hospitals, nursing homes, adult homes, services for children and people with disabilities, vocational and day programs of various types, and many, many others. These are the staff who cannot stay home…Read More…