Coalition of Institutionalized Aged & Disabled

DONATE TO CIAD

Contribute on-line via PayPal or credit card. Checks can be made out to Coalition for Institutionalized Aged and Disabled, Inc. and mailed to:

CIAD

425 East 25th Street

New York, NY 10010

O'Toole v. Cuomo Housing Settlement

As of September 2018, 735 adult home residents have moved to their own apartments as a result of the settlement of the historic Olmstead lawsuit, O'Toole v. Cuomo.

CIAD TV

Watch our videos about housing (including Coco's Story) & residents' rights: Go to our YouTube page or our page on The Hub

Interested in making

a donation?

Checks can be made out to Coalition for Institutionalized Aged and Disabled, Inc. and mailed to:

CIAD

425 East 25th Street

New York, NY 10010

Interested in getting more information?

The Coalition of Institutionalized Aged and Disabled (CIAD) is a non-profit, grassroots organization run by and for adult home and nursing home residents and resident councils. Established in 1973 to bring pride, purpose and self-determination to residents of long term care institutions, CIAD is dedicated to protecting the rights of residents and improving the quality of their life and care.

CIAD is governed by a Board of Directors, the majority of whom are residents of adult homes and nursing homes throughout the New York City area.

What's New

CIAD Launches Independence Training Program
The nine-session program seeks to increase adult residents' self-determination and choice, and combat the loss of control over their lives as a result of institutionalization. As part of the program, we:

Conducted a Train the Trainer Program for eight current and former residents to become Peer Advocates;
Hired these Peers to conduct the Independence Training sessions;
Hired a full-time Training Director to supervise the Peers and direct the program;
Published Taking Control: A Guide to Greater Choice and Independence, which will be distributed widely to residents. Download Taking Control here.

Residents Travel to Albany to Advocate for a Personal Needs Allowance (PNA) Increase
Residents pushed for the increase during CIAD's 14th Annual Speak Out on March 15th, at meetings with the Governor's Office and Legislative leaders. Residents desperately need the increase. They spend a substantial amount of their PNA on food, as many find the meals offered by the facilities inedible or not meeting their nutritional needs. Other necessities, such as clothing and personal hygiene items, are also major expenses for residents, leaving very little for entertainment, transportation and other activities that bring meaning to one's life. Click here to view the rest of CIAD's State budget and legislative agenda.

SSI Rate Increase Proposed for Adult Homes
The New York State Legislature passed a bill to provide more funding for adult homes at the end of the 2017 Legislative Session.
CIAD has mobilized residents and their advocates to represent the residents' interests. We have called for a commensurate increase in residents' Personal Needs Allowance (PNA); stronger enforcement of adult home regulations, and a way to ensure that any additional money the adult homes receive is spent directly on improving resident services. This could mean, for example, increasing the $5 per day most homes spend on food for each resident. The New York State Assembly's Health, Social Services and Aging Committees held a hearing on the issue on September 19, 2017. See CIAD's testimony here. Also see City & State's coverage of the issue here.

O'Toole v. Cuomo Update

Recent actions by New York raise serious concerns about its commitment and promise to 5,000 adult home residents’ and their opportunity to move out of institutional settings and into apartments in the community with supports. In three and one half years only 475 residents have moved, and the state now claims that residents do not want to move, even though there are 1,750 additional residents who have said they want to move. A severe backlog in assessments is delaying the moves of more than 800 residents and over 300 more residents are being delayed by other parts of the process.

New York State has made legal decisions that seem designed to rescind the Federal Court Housing Settlement it agreed to in 2014. These actions will further undermine an already flawed process and create mistrust and uncertainty among residents who are still making up their minds on whether to move or not. It is imperative that New York State renews its commitment to the settlement and agree to improve the process.

Adult home residents have a choice in housing!

CIAD's 13th Annual Adult Home Resident Speak Out

Adult home residents will travel up to Albany on March 22, 2017 to voice their alarm at New York State's failure to keep its promise to them under the terms of the O'Toole settlement. To improve the settlement process, we are calling on New York State to hire additional assessors to handle the backlog of residents and to create a Peer Ambassador Program which will utilize former residents to provide peer support. We will also meet with elected representatives to discuss our other priorities, which include strengthening the enforcement of New York State adult home regulations and protecting the $6.5 million appropriation for the EQUAL Program in the New York State budget. Click here to see our 2017 legislative agenda.

New Round of EQUAL Funding

Resident Councils should begin preparing for a new round of EQUAL funds. The purpose of the EQUAL Program is to enhance adult home residents' life and care. Resident Councils have important powers over adult homes' EQUAL applications because they identify residents' top priorities and preferences for the use of the funds. CIAD outlines the steps that councils should take to develop residents' priorities in our brochure, EQUAL: New York State Funding Program for Adult Care Facilities.

If you are an adult home resident and wish to find out about the status of EQUAL funds at your home, ask your Resident Council President, administrator, or call CIAD at (917) 648-4067.

New SSI Rates for 2017
Adult home residents' monthly Supplemental Security Income benefit amount (your rent plus your personal needs allowance or PNA) will go up to $1,429 as of January 1, 2017. The PNA will increase $1 to $194. This increase reflects a federal cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of .03%. The tiny amount of the increase underlines the continued importance of the EQUAL Grant to help support residents' needs, such as a clothing allowance for residents.

Adult Home Resident Toolkit - CIAD's New Resource for Resident Councils
As part of a project to train Long Term Care Ombudsmen volunteers to develop and strengthen resident councils, CIAD developed the Adult Home Resident Toolkit, a guide and collection of "how-to's" on a broad range of resident council topics and issues. To download the Toolkit, click here:

Adult Home Resident Toolkit

The Toolkit includes a video, Resident Councils: Voice of the Residents, which covers several key resident council powers. Follow the link to watch the video.

Resident Food Committees are now required in adult homes as a result of adult home resident advocacy. Contact us if your resident council wants help in forming a Food Committee. To download our brochure, "How To Organize a Food Committee In Your Home, click here.