Executive Director Vicki Smith is quoted in an Associated Press story 11/19/2011, NC prison warden steps down after scathing report. The story also ran on NBC 17 News (http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=f0%2BGVkfoRE%2BF1IKSCDLrhZ8YdQxyCzZa). She was also quoted in the Winston-Salem Journal Editorial: Punish criminals, don't abuse them

Vicki Smith was quoted in a Policy Watch article on legislative proposals to close one of three residential schools for people with disabilities.http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=B%2FE8sBqpo9PYlYrRcHVGkJ8YdQxyCzZa

Vicki was quoted in a Hickory Daily Record story on the increase in homelessness that could result when the state moves mentally ill patients out of adult group homes. http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=iqTCEaFilQXYlYrRcHVGkJ8YdQxyCzZa

Vicki was quoted in a Carolina Press report on the effect of moving mentally ill patients out of adult care homes in Western North Carolina. An excerpt was published in Mountain Xpress. http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=FUycghAuhbDYlYrRcHVGkJ8YdQxyCzZa

The Charlotte Observer quoted in Vicki in an editorial on 11/23/2011, http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=bkKivG%2FrTc6F1IKSCDLrhZ8YdQxyCzZa

Vicki Smith of Disability Rights was quoted in an Associated Press story on the resignation of the warden at Central Prison in the wake of a scathing report on conditions there for inmates with mental illness. http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=f0%2BGVkfoRE%2BF1IKSCDLrhZ8YdQxyCzZa

Raleigh Public Record is doing a two-part series on changes to how mental health services will be changing throughout the state. Read part one: New HMOs for State Mental Health.

Vicki was quoted in a Policy Watch report on a forum on the stakes in the transfer of mentally patients from adult care homes. http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=35hjUy7ZH7bYlYrRcHVGkJ8YdQxyCzZa

Vicki Smith, executive director of Disability Rights North Carolina, on Thursday shared a North Carolina Policy Watch panel with Joshua Smith, legal director for Georgia's protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities and mental illness. The advocates will discuss the persistent problem of finding appropriate placement for North Carolinians with mental illness. The state is the subject of a federal investigation, instigated by Disability Rights, over the use of assisted-living centers as homes for people with mental illness. The event was held at Marbles Museum in Raleigh. Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/26/1518357/dnc-launches-ad-for-american-jobs.html#ixzz1ZSeub0iI

Regulators to visit several area nursing homes, (8/16/11) Winston-Salem Journal

Big changes for developmentally disabled in NC. Listen to the interview. http://www.wfae.org/wfae/1_87_115.cfm?action=display&id=7631

Executive Director Vicki Smith is quoted 8/14/11 in the News and Observer, Mentally ill in NC could face loss of homes. 

CenterPoint rejected for Medicaid-waiver program.On 7/27/11 the Winston-Salem Journal quoted Vicki Smith saying there is a "great deal of pressure on DHHS to quickly convert LMEs to Medicaid waivers so the General Assembly's cost-cutting targets can be met."

Vicki Smith of Disability Rights was quoted in a Winston-Salem Journal report on a lawsuit aimed at the state's plans to reduce mental health care costs at the expense of some patients.

http://www2.journalnow.com/business/2011/jul/07/lawsuit-budget-cuts-could-have-wide-ranging-effect-ar-1184761/

And on WFAE radio.

http://www.wfae.org/wfae/1_87_316.cfm?action=display&id=7542

North Carolina News Network.

http://www.ncnn.com/edit-news/7042-advocates-sue-over-changes-to-medicaid-funding-formula

N&O/Charlotte Observer.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/06/1324146/disability-services-cuts-lead.html

Closing the door to community colleges: An overrreaction to tragedy. Posted by Vicki Smith on 2/8/2011 in Progressive Voices

NewsObserver.com/Letters ~ Preventing Illness. Read Vicki's letter Regarding your Jan. 21 editorial "Waiting for care."

Listen to Vicki Smith's interview on wral.com 1/25/2011. Critic: Medicaid program problem not an isolated incident.

by Vicki Smith published 11/29/10

Disability is a natural part of the human experience. It does not discriminate. It crosses all income brackets, striking every age group at any time. The disability experience is open to people of all races, cultures and ethnicities. It accepts people with any religious belief, welcoming all points of view into its embrace. It does not differentiate based on gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. Disability is bi-partisan, pulling members of every political point of view into its chambers.

One out of five North Carolinians will have a disability during their life. These disabilities include physical disabilities resulting from spinal cord injury or traumatic brain injury, intellectual disabilities, deafness and blindness; and mental illness including bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia or post traumatic stress syndrome. Nothing about disability is simple. It is a complex phenomenon that affects every part of society. Disability has a profound impact on everyone with whom it comes into contact. Experiencing a disability changes forever the individual with a disability and their family and friends.

If that change wasn't challenging enough, North Carolinians with disabilities are now faced with an even greater challenge. With Republicans now in control of the General Assembly, new leadership will decide how services for thousands of people with disabilities will be funded. This scares the heck out of much of the disability community -- the threat of less government usually translates into cuts in government funded programs. That fear is reinforced by the prediction of a 4 billion dollar shortfall in revenue. North Carolina is in dire straits.

And that puts the few gains made with Mental Health Reform at risk. Individuals who have been successfully living in the community may have their services cut to the point that they have to move to more restrictive settings. Cuts will result in greater costs down the road, because the needs of people with disabilities just don't go away.

Fewer community based services will result in unnecessary transfers to other more expensive environments - emergency hospitalizations or jail.

Instead of focusing on cuts to Medicaid, why not take this opportunity to stop following the flawed plan of mental health reform -- one that everyone agrees has failed -- and really move from relying on more expensive institutional care to developing comprehensive community services. Community based care is not only cheaper in the long run, it improves quality of life, creates jobs, benefits the larger community and is what almost all people with disabilities want. Instead of simply making cuts, reducing immediate costs for the short term, let's fix the service system. Instead of smaller government, wouldn't it be better to have smarter government?

Why is the state still making decisions based on a plan that has failed over and over again? How can the Governor or the General Assembly know where to make cost saving changes until a thorough evaluation of the current plan has been completed? Expanding and strengthening community based services is common ground for the disability community and the Republican Leadership if legislators take a hard look at costs. Why not call for a moratorium on any new major changes until a new plan can be developed? For example, constructing expensive and flawed buildings -- like the new Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro -- is pure politics and part of the flawed planning started under the Easley Administration.

Since change is inevitable, let's be smart about it. Cutting services now without deliberate and thoughtful thinking will cost more in the long run. Decisions about government funded services are not just about money -- they are about people. These folks are not strangers; they are sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters. We know what disability is and what it is not. Disability is not a political issue. Disability cannot be categorized as a special interest. It is everyone's interest.

There is common ground, let's use it to build a strong foundation for the future.

• WRAL-FM's News & Views with Chris Fitzsimon - Don't miss Vicki's interview Sunday morning. Here is a short preview http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2010/09/14/stable-housing-not-warehousing-need-for-ncs-mentally-ill-video/.
• Vicki Smith of Disability Rights was quoted in an NBC-17 report on a DRNC report on abuse allegations at the North Carolina School for the Deaf in Morganton. http://wake.mync.com/site/wake/news%7CSports%7CLifestyles/story/53597/abuse-probe-at-nc-school-for-the-deaf-begins
• And in the N&O/Charlotte Observer-http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/07/17/1568067/director-of-nc-school-for-the.html
• Morganton News Herald-http://www2.morganton.com/news/2010/jul/18/ncsd-under-investigation-ar-303505/
• Myrtle Beach News cited Disability Rights' role in the allegations. http://theseashanty.net/Myrtle-Beach-News/2010/07/inquiry-begins-at-school-for-deaf/ and WBTV-http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12820320

• Vicki was quoted February 27, 2010 in an Asheville Citizen-Times story on the rising numbers of mentally ill inmates in Buncombe County detention centers. Click here to read the story.
• Vicki Smith of Disability Rights NC was quoted in an N&O story on a possible suicide at a state prison. Inmate smothered himself with bag, autopsy finds.
• North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC, Wednesday, February 17, 2010. Thousands of mentally ill patients in North Carolina are losing their services. During last year's state budget crisis, North Carolina's mental health system took huge cuts. Listen to the audio.
• Vicki was interviewed for a WRAL-TV segment on Disability Rights' call to ban prone restraint of students. Group seeks federal ban on pinning prone students.
• DMV sites a challenge to the disabled as reported in the January 31, 2010 article in the News and Observer. "We have been hearing that DMV offices have problems related to accessibility." said Vicki Smith, executive director of the Disability Rights North Carolina. Click here for the story.
• Vicki was also quoted in an N&O report (January 28, 2010) on a state investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at youth detention centers. Also, State agency: no evidence of improper conduct. (News-Record)
• Disability Rights director Vicki Smith was quoted in an N&O story January 27, 2010 - "Sadly, this young man is just one of many who will be stuck as the cuts to state services really hit home." Read the story where Mom camps out to get spot in mental ward for son.
• Vicki was also interviewed January 12, 2010 for a NBC-17 segment on a proposal in Raleigh to charge drivers with a handicapped placard to park downtown. http://wake.mync.com/site/wake/news%7CSports%7CLifestyles/story/46751/raleigh-considers-charging-disabled-drivers-to-park.
• Vicki Smith was quoted in an N&O story December 28, 2009 that a federal judge had ordered the state not to enact budget cuts that would result in two people with disabilities losing their apartments. http://www.newsobserver.com/2009/12/28/259207/federal-judge-halts-mental-health.html.
• Patients in DHHS lawsuit to keep health services for now (WRAL.com) December 28, 2009. Watch the video.
• Jail as Safety Net (Newsobserver.com/letters November 16, 2009).
• Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC): Interview with Vicki Smith, Director, by Tovah M. Wax, Ph.D. in the North Carolina Psychologist, Vol. 61 No. 2: March/April 2009.

Documents are provided in PDF format, allowing any computer to open them with the free Adobe Reader.

• DRNC highlighted in Philanthrophy Journal article by Reporter Julia Vail on January 26, 2009. Link to the article Nonprofit Aims to Advance Rights for Disabled.
• DRNC Executive Director Vicki Smith was interviewed Saturday, 14 June 2009 by Karen Moye-Stallings for her cable TV show. "Speak Up, Speak Out." The show aired on Time-Warner Raleigh Channel 10. The program will be re-broadcast throughout the month (those outside the area or who do not have Time-Warner Cable will not be able to receive it).

Vicki was quoted in an N&O item on her letter to Gov. Perdue urging the governor to stop resisting a federal directive to find adequate housing for adult mentally ill patients. http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=saUbxuGv9pCF1IKSCDLrhZ8YdQxyCzZa

Vicki also wrote an op-ed in the N&O on the points she made in the letter. http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=c8t02Ry6mjeF1IKSCDLrhZ8YdQxyCzZa