Raising Stephanie: SDC Parent Publishes Memoir of Parenting Her Disabled Daughter

Mark your calendars now for a special event coming up in December. Erin Thompson will be reading from her new book, Only a Stone's Throw, beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 13th, at Book Passage in Corte Madera. It is her memoir of raising her daughter Stephanie, who now lives on Johnson "B" at Sonoma Developmental Center.

Only a Stone's Throw chronicles the lows and highs of parenting the author's eldest daughter to adulthood after she was mentally disabled as a newborn. It's an honest tale of love and strength when life deals out surprises with unexpected results.

Erin O'Donoghue Thompson,
author of Only a Stone's Throw

Thompson started writing at the age of seventeen. She was the editor of her high school newspaper but put her literary aspirations aside to raise a family. Once her eight children were on their own she did a ten year stint as a travel consultant, taking groups to China, photographic safaris to Africa, and groups of women on shopping tours to Hong Kong. In 2007 she was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. This was a wake-up call to “do it now” whatever your dream may be. Her's was to write a book about the struggles of raising Stephanie, her disabled daughter.

The Book Passage is located just off 101 at 51 Tamal Vista Blvd in Corte Madera (94925). There is no charge to attend the reading. For up-to-date information on the event, visit Left Coast Writers®: Erin O’Donoghue Thompson - Only a Stone's Throw on the Book Passage website.

North Bay Regional Center Moving Ahead with Community Placement of SDC Residents

North Bay Regional Center's latest Community Placement Plan (CPP) includes homes specifically for current residents of Sonoma Developmental Center. Plans for these homes were made without input from the Sonoma Coalition, or reference to the recent PHA Friends and Family Questionnaire.

In its report to its board on October 1st, the North Bay Regional Center presented the following summary of the CPP, and progress to date: NORTH BAY REGIONAL CENTER, Community Placement Plan, Development-Overview October 2014.

For more insight on the level of care priorities and needs of SDC residents as reported by their family members and advocates, you can access the results of the PHA questionnaire here on the blog at Results in on Sonoma Developmental Center Friends and Family Questionnaire.

Second Meeting of Newly Reconvened Developmental Centers Task Force Scheduled for October 8

State Capitol Building,
Sacramento, Calif.

The “Developmental Services Task Force” – formerly the “Future of the Developmental Centers Task Force” – will hold its second meeting from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 8th, at the California Department of Health Care Services building in Sacramento. A conference phone line is also available (see below) for anyone who is not able to attend in person. The meetings of the task force are open to the public – and public comment will be taken both at the meeting and over the phone at the end of the meeting. The meeting will be chaired by California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Diana Dooley.

The task force, with its new focus to identify ways to strengthen the community-based services and supports for people with developmental disabilities, held its first meeting with its new mission on July 24th. Issues to be examined by the task force, according to Secretary Dooley’s original July 3, 2014 press release, will include community rates, the impact of new State and federal laws and regulations, and staffing levels at Regional Centers.


A series of just completed regional stakeholder meetings in Fresno, Los Angeles and Sacramento was conducted by the Department of Developmental Services, headed by Director Santi Rogers to receive input from stakeholders on implementation of several of the recommendations by the original “Future of the Developmental Centers Task Force”.
 


MEETING INFORMATION

WHAT: Developmental Services Task Force

WHEN: October 8, 2014 – Wednesday

TIME: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
LOCATION:
California Department of Health Care Services
1700 K Street, First Floor Conference Room
Sacramento, CA 95814


CONFERENCE CALL LINE: 1-800-779-8389
PASSCODE (Verbally given to conference call operator):  DS TASK FORCE.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Jim Suennen, Associate Secretary, External Affairs, California Health and Human Services Agency at 916-651-8056 or email Jim.Suennen@chhs.ca.gov


More information about the original Task Force, including audio recordings of past meetings, is also available on the Health and Human Services website at www.chhs.ca.gov/Pages/DCsTaskForce.aspx.

---

source: CDCAN / CA Disability Community Action Network