Stating that people with disabilities are being “denied their right to equal access to proper medical care and treatment” when hospitalized during the Covid-19 pandemic in Connecticut, Disability Rights Connecticut filed a formal complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, urging the federal agency to “immediately investigate and take swift action” to uphold the equal rights of individuals with disabilities and advise Connecticut to “eliminate its discriminatory guidance and instead develop revised, mandatory, uniform, standards.”
DRCT and other advocacy organizations in Connecticut have, for more than a month, sought the issuance of policy guidance by the state Department of Public Health (DPH), to assure that Connecticut has a uniform policy in place for hospitals to adhere to that would allow a patient support person for hospitalized individuals with disabilities. Such policy guidance is in place in states including New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois and California.
DPH has not issued such guidance; instead, the state Department of Developmental Disabilities (DDS) issued guidance addressed not to hospitals but to families, released last week, stating that it was developed with the Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) and the DPH. The DDS guidance states that the CHA “will strongly recommend and work with hospitals to allow one support person to accompany an individual served by DDS.”
That guidance has numerous flaws and falls short of ensuring that the rights of individuals with disabilities are protected, the complaint details.
Disability Rights Connecticut is joined in the federal filing by the national organizations of the Center for Public Representation, CommunicationFIRST, and The Arc of the United States, and the Connecticut organizations of The Arc of Connecticut and Independence Northwest: Center for Independent Living of Northwest CT.
