OCRA services bring positive change

The Office of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA) began its second year of providing services to regional center consumers in July 2000. Through a contract with the Department of Developmental Services (DDS), OCRA provides clients rights advocates to all 21 regional centers.

CRAs carry a heavy load

OCRA ended its first full year of advocacy with a total of 7,476 cases handled. Services more than doubled from the first quarter (1,430 consumers, family members, or others) to the fourth quarter (3,067). On average, each clients’ rights advocate (CRA) handled 46 cases a month.

OCRA works a “miracle”

But numbers mean little without talking about the lives OCRA has affected. As one person put it, OCRA’s efforts in one case resulted in a “miracle.”

Ricky R goes home

After a long struggle, 3-year-old Ricky R went home to live with his parents. Since birth, he had lived at a licensed care home specializing in children with special health care needs. Ricky R has cerebral palsy and chronic lung disease. He needs a g-tube for feeding and oxygen to breathe. He cannot walk, but he can roll around his house.

Code calls for fire sprinklers

The care home was licensed for ambulatory residents. When the owners remodeled, the fire inspector said Ricky R was bedridden because could not walk. To meet code requirements for a bedridden resident, the owners would have to install fire sprinklers. They already had 12 smoke alarms and other safety devices, but no fire sprinklers.

The regional center searched statewide for other placements but found only one — in an intermediate care facility near San Jose. There, Ricky R would not only have to stay in bed, he would also be away from both his foster family and his natural family.

Senator Ortiz gets involved

The owners contacted OCRA and State Senator Deborah Ortiz to help keep Ricky R out of an institution. CRAs called the fire district, the state fire marshal, DDS and the Community Care Licensing Division of the Department of Social Services (DSS). They explained that making owners install fire sprinklers just because the fire district said a person was bedridden would violate the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. Those laws say that if a government agency wants to impose safety requirements on a care home, it must: (1) show that the specific needs and abilities of the residents warrant the changes; and (2) make reasonable policy accommodations so that people with disabilities may live where they choose.

All agreed that the building codes and licensing requirements were unclear. The owners and PAI urged Senator Ortiz to introduce a bill to clarify the code. Fire authorities agreed to let Ricky R stay at the care home until he could rejoin his family.

Disaster strikes

Then Ricky R’s family home burned down. The care home owners, OCRA and others organized aid for Ricky R’s family. As a result, the family got a new mobile home, legal help, household goods and money.

In September, Governor Davis signed SB 1896. The bill:

• Clarifies the definition of “bedridden” in fire safety laws and regulations;

• Assigns responsibility for determining if a licensed care home resident is bedridden to the director of DSS;

• Says the state must provide other ways to meet building code fire and life safety requirements;

• Says that local fire officials cannot impose higher requirements on homes that care for six or fewer clients than those imposed on other single family homes; and

• Says that safety regulations must be interpreted flexibly to allow bedridden residents to stay out of institutions.

Family reunited

In November, Ricky R was reunited with his family. They were overjoyed. Said one family member, “I just pray that (OCRA staff) will be blessed with the love and kindness that you share with others!”