Colleagues, families and friends:
You have probably seen or heard about a news report in the New York Times regarding the health and safety of people with developmental disabilities in OPWDD facilities. These are matters of grave concern to me. While I know that the large majority of services provided by OPWDD employees are high quality, even one incident of abuse is too many. I want to assure you that the welfare of individuals with developmental disabilities is our agency’s No. 1 priority. There can be no tolerance for the mistreatment of those entrusted to our care or the care of agencies that we regulate.
We have already made significant improvements to our system in the last three months to improve incident reporting, investigations, hiring practices, and consistency in disciplinary standards. But there is still much more to do, and we will continue to work to ensure that individuals receiving services are not subject to neglect or abuse. A culture of abuse will not be tolerated.
Governor Cuomo remains a strong supporter in assisting us with these reforms. I want to ask for your continued support, energy, and creativity as we work together to move forward in making additional quality improvements to our system. We will continue to garner input from stakeholders and parents to make our implementation of reforms transparent to individuals with developmental disabilities, their families, agency employees, and providers. We will regularly communicate with our staff members, as well, to keep everyone informed as progress continues.
I look forward to working with all of you to continuously improve quality and ensure the highest level of care for the people and families we serve.
Sincerely,
Courtney Burke
Commissioner