Free PA Captioned Telephone Relay Service for People who are Hard of Hearing

Pennsylvania’s Captioned Telephone Relay Service (CTRS) offers a free captioning service for Pennsylvania residents, who have difficulty hearing on the phone. The CapTel units may be purchased online for around $99 or given free to low-income residents through the Telecommunications Device Distribution Program. For more information, contact Lauren Cramer at 202.215.3159 or lauren.cramer@hamiltonrelay.com.

This July, members of the PA CAP staff will participate in the annual Pennsylvania Statewide Transitions conference.  The conference is held in State College PA.  Co-Sponsors include PaTTAN and OVR.  CAP will present on a variety of issues including self-advocacy in the transition process and the workplace and understanding the ADA as amended and how it relates to your employment.

CAP advocate Lee Lippi is working with a group of other stakeholders in Harrisburg to help the OVR citizens advisory committee (CAC) to take shape again.  The purpose of the CAC is to give concerned customers, vendors, community members and others associated with OVR/BBVS services the chance to discuss the needs of Pennsylvanians with Disabilities.  You can stay tuned here for more information about the CAC and information about meeting dates and locations.

CAP Attorney Jamie Ray-Leonetti has been selected to participate in the 38th Annual Institute on Rehabilitation Issues.  The group will spend a year examining the topic of providing VR services to underserved populations.  The first meeting will be April 4-6 2012 in Little Rock Arkansas.

On March 17, 2012, Jamie Ray-Leonetti and Frank Leonetti represented CAP at the first annual Women with Disabilities Expo in West Philadelphia.  This event was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Sickle Cell Foundation, IDEAL magazine and State Senator Shirley Kitchen’s Office.  Senatore Kitchen was a Keynote speaker.

 
Outreach to Unserved/Underserved Populations

PA CAP is always looking for ideas or ways, to expand the groups to whom we outreach. Our advocate that spends a lot of time going over some of our case statistics, in particular the category “Primary Disabling Condition” is getting an idea of who we are serving and who is not getting to CAP. Amputees, TBI and kidney (genitourinary conditions) transplants are three populations that CAP believes are unserved/underserved. In FY 2011, CAP clients that have any of these 3 disabilities make up only about 5% of our total cases. This statistic gives us good information so we can better target our outreach. To this end, in FY2011, we have outreached to the Amputee Coalition of America.

This organization was in and of itself a good contact and lead to others. A list of amputee support groups in PA was sent to us. We are happy to report we spent time and effort contacting each of these support groups, some of which include; Western PA Amputees, Central PA Amputee support group, Amputees for Amputees, Lehigh Valley Amputee support group. In FY 2012, we will continue to uncover groups, providers, and rehabs that work with this population. In contacting some of these support groups and providing information about CAP and OVR services, it was great to hear the excitement in an amputee’s voice when they understood that if they are able to work, they can possibly receive help getting a new prosthesis if they apply to OVR. If they encounter a problem with this vocational rehabilitation service, they now know they can call CAP. The hopeful tone of the person’s voice who would not have known about such support without our call reaching out can be the difference in the person working or not. If OVR can provide a prosthesis, the person can work, without a prosthesis this person may not be able to work. What an impact our outreach can have!!

Another group that our case profiles show is an underserved population is individuals who have a traumatic brain injury, TBI. Again, we have made some strides in contacting various organizations, support groups, etc. that work directly with these individuals.

In FY 2012, we will continue to get more involved with these populations and help increase their awareness of CAP and OVR services.

Customer Satisfaction Survey available at the PaRC Website
We need your help in order to better serve people with disabilities in Pennsylvania. You can help us by taking the Customer Satisfaction Survey.

By completing this survey you are helping us to ensure that quality vocational rehabilitation services continue to be provided in Pennsylvania. Learn more about this survey, its impact on people with disabilities in Pennsylvania and how the history of vocational rehabilitation requires that we continue to participate.

Please note the survey is on the PaRC website at www.parac.org.

This Philadelphia OVR customer contacted CAP because she needed services in order to maintain her self –employment. She had an open case with OVR, but the services she requested were not being provided in a timely fashion. This was causing her to lose money in her business. The customer is a person with paraplegia and other disabilities. Due to both the natural aging process and a recent injury, she was unable to do some things as she had before, such as transferring in and out of her bathtub. She requested that OVR make modifications in her home including installation of a roll in shower and a partial lift system. After an in home evaluation, OVR agreed to the requested modification, but it had been almost six months since the agreement and “nothing was happening”.

CAP contacted the counselor to address the delay. CAP learned that an OVR vendor needed to be replaced with a different contractor because contractor number one had displayed poor workmanship on some other OVR jobs and was therefore, no longer being used as a vendor. This need to change contractors had created the delay. Once the customer learned of the reason for the delay, she was a little more accepting. Even so, she still needed the home modifications to be expedited so she could get back to her consulting business on a more full time basis. The struggle to take a shower so that she could prepare for work was causing her to cut back on her work days. CAP advocated for the customer and through discussions with both the counselor and supervisor, OVR agreed that this situation was placing the customer’s long time self-employment in jeopardy. Therefore, the customer was placed near the top of the list for completion of her modifications and things got done. As a result, the customer was able to maintain her self-employment and avoid going back on Social Security Disability.

This case is interesting because it illustrates two key points. First, communication between the counselor and customer is essential to keeping a positive working relationship. Second, situations involving “job jeopardy” should be brought to the attention of the counselor immediately to help avoid an unnecessary return to Social Security.

The Little Rock Foundation provides resources to blind and visually impaired young adults. CAP advocate Margaret McKenna will speak to their new director, and a group of parents of blind and visually impaired children to inform them about the advocacy services that CAP provides. Margaret will also share information about how to obtain services through the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services (BBVS). This outreach will take place on Feb. 1, 2012 at 1:30 pm at Children’s Seashore House Philadelphia.