CRA advocates for client preference

Matthew Pope is a clients rights advocate (CRA) for consumers in the Eastern Los Angeles Regional Center (ELARC) area. Two of Pope’s successes dealt with consumers who had moved and did not want to change to a new regional center.

Friends wanted to stay with ELARC

In one case, PF and DB, who are in their 50s, are both blind. They had known each other since junior high school and had lived together for eight years. ELARC was their service agency. When they moved from South Pasadena to Hacienda Heights, however, they found themselves in the San Gabriel/Pomona Regional Center area.

Happy with services

The women were happy with their services from ELARC, where they had formed a trusting relationship. They did not want to change. After a hearing, the administrative law judge ruled that the case “turned on the consumers’ expressed preferences, and the failure by the service agency to provide a substantial reason why those choices should not be honored. Whether they receive the state’s assistance from one regional center or another appears irrelevant, … so it is determined they should receive that assistance from the center of their choice.”

Short move causes problems

In an earlier case, SB, a 25-year-old woman with Down syndrome, moved from her father’s home in Whittier to her mother’s home near Norwalk. It was just a few miles, but it put her into the Harbor Regional Center area.

Interests, relationships in Whittier

SB had been an ELARC client since she was four months old. She had developed close relationships with her case managers, schools and social service agencies. All of her friends, interests and activities were in Whittier, and she knew how to use the Whittier public transportation system.

Judge decides for SB’s best interests

There was no dispute between the regional centers about services or programs. In his decision allowing SB to stay in the ELARC area, the administrative law judge wrote that “the arbitrary line between these two service areas does not coincide with the ‘community’ in which SB lives, studies, works and plays. In fact, the transfer dislocates SB from her home community and denies her access to the services and support best suited for her.” He ruled that the best interests of SB dictate that ELARC retain case management.