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^^^^^^ WARM GREETINGS FROM ^^^^^^^^^^^^ :-) Ivan Suzman 51/39/36 [log in to unmask] :-) Portland, Maine land of lighthouses 17 deg. F :-) ******************************************************************** Dear friends. I just don't understand this world of ours sometimes. I am being put " on trial" in a tiny, uncomfortable, Department of Human Services hearing room. This started two weeks ago, and is now continued until Jan. 2nd. An OPENLY homophobic R.N. , who is also the federal rules regulator for Maine's Medicaid programs for nursing and home care, is my principal evaluator. As recently as May. 1999 , she attacked my "lifestyle," and now, she has cut my care attendant services DRASTICALLY. Every October since 1992, my PCA (personal attendant services) have been assessed , based, I seem to believe, on the"Med 94" form. As PD progressed, my need slowly rose up to the max. of 13 hours of PCA help per day, for which I have been very, very grateful. Overnight care was added in 1996. The same 13 hr. daytime assesssment of my need was repeated in 1999. That help has made it possible for me to survive, sometimes thrive, and even help many others with PD. The new, 2000 assessment, based on two simultaneous but different sets of criteria, instead of just one, is to CUT my hours back to 5hrs. each day, cut from 13 per day. 5 hours was thelevel I needed in 1995. That's a 63% cut, with absolutely no warning ! ! I feel like the only way I can deal with this whole MESS is to laugh- and pray - it is so nutsy-cukoo. One of the assessors has , when I have complained that the night crew is underpaid, blamed the limited night crews for me on my supposed "lifestyle" . She is blatantly unevolved, when it comes to matters of human variations. I have only one lifestyle, and that is Parkinsonian!!!!! Now I have appealed the cut in my services to the Maine Department of Human Services,-to Hearing Officer Ronald Stoodley. On January 2nd at 9 AM, I will be " on trial" --isn't this CRAZY?-- examined by a Mr. Tuttle, assigned to my case, and CROSS EXAMINED by the Maine State's Assi;stant Attorney - General, Kathleen Ross, who is on the side of the those who wish to cut my services. On my side is a disability rights lawyer, Paul Tuttle, from the federally funded Disability Rights Project. I qualify for help under the "least restrictive environment" principle. All this quasi-courtroom drama is enough to make me scream, cry and puke!! And it is exhausting me! I just don't get it...even though I am visible, as an activist for PWP's. isn't there a more mature way to get this MESS without putting me through an arduous ordearl, this Hearing-on tape, just like in courts of law?? Ivan Suzman :-)