PARTICIPATE IN THIS IMPORTANT SURVEY

While preparing for next Monday’s DBH performance review hearing, I also want readers to be aware of the survey being conducted by Georgetown University’s School of Medicine on the experience of people with disabilities and their caregivers with mental health services here in DC.  If:

- you or someone you care for relied on supports from 35 K before it closed

- you are a disabled person who has interacted with one of the DBH community service agencies

- you are a caregiver who has interacted with one of the DBH community service agencies

- you have experience supporting people with disabilities at one of DC’s community service agencies

Then this survey is for you!  And if Georgetown gets good participation from the community, the (confidential) information they collect will be indispensable to the DC council and to DBH itself as they focus on needed reforms to better serve DC residents.  As you know if you’ve been reading my blog lately, I’m very focused on this topic right now, and very much looking forward to the outcomes of the Georgetown survey.  Here's a short description:

"[Georgetown is] looking for participants who are either adults with physical and/or mental disabilities, the direct caregivers of adults with physical and/or mental disabilities, or community-based mental healthcare providers practicing in the DC area. The primary goal of this study is to identify perceived barriers to mental healthcare access in participants with disabilities and their caregivers…By collecting the perspectives of both patients and healthcare providers, the hope is to gain a better understanding of the experiences of the disabled community and…to continue addressing the barriers to mental healthcare access that still exist today."

For more information, take a look at the attached flyers for people and caregivers and for community providers, and be in touch with Mary Tresvalles (mat321@georgetown.edu) with any questions.  Please help if you can!

REGISTER TO TESTIFY AT DBH PERFORMANCE REVIEW

I want to share a quick follow-up (thanks to Marcia Huff in councilmember Henderson's office!) about the upcoming DBH performance hearing.  The link to sign up for this hearing on February 3 is now live. 

Also, DBH responses to the committee's preliminary questions are due by January 27 and will be posted on the same link after they are received.

FY 2026 Performance Reviews Upcoming!

At last Saturday's Project ACTION! meeting, I reminded folks in the chat about upcoming performance review hearings before the DC council.  Here is the schedule:  DC council performance review calendar.  This is the first phase of DC council deliberations in preparation for the FY2026 budget.  A second phase of hearings, probably later in March, will address the budget itself.  

You'll see that - as was the case last year - the DDS performance hearing is quite late, not until March 3 - which will not provide much time between the hearing and the mayor's budget proposals.  As indicated in my previous blog posts in September, October and December of last year, I also have my eye on DBH during this budget season - that performance hearing is coming up soon, on February 3, so if you plan, as I do, to testify at that hearing, keep your eye on this link which should open up for witness signups in the next couple of days.

As you prepare for your testimony, and for your advocacy more generally, please recall this message that I included in an email on January 8:

As you read in my last post of 2024, there will be some continuity in the DC council’s oversight of DDS starting in January.  In fact, there is a lot of continuity in the council overall:  as you plan to testify or to contact your councilmembers over the coming year, you’ll want to use this page from my blog as reference: DC council contacts.  Another page in my blog, Terms and organizations, provides background on some of the terminology I use in my blog posts for your background.

The above resources will be helpful references for you as we come together in our advocacy throughout 2025 and beyond!  Very best to us all in this new, and challenging, year - 

Carol Grigsby (she/her/hers) is a dedicated advocate, focused on advancing rights and increasing opportunities for people with developmental disabilities in Washington, DC. A former member and chair of the DC Developmental Disabilities Council, I currently serve on several local groups focused on issues affecting the disability community. In addition to advocating for full inclusion of people with disabilities in our local community, I strongly support full rights and representation for residents of DC, where I have lived since 1978, since without real democracy no one in DC, disabled or non-disabled, will ever be fully empowered. Opinions in this blog are my own.