DMH: Does JAY NIXON know about DMH's Keith Schafer and MRDD's Bernie Simons?????

What he should know: 1. Together they have purposely damaged the service coordination delivery system for the developmentally disabled in the southwest corner of the state. They have undermined what once was a well established system that took over a decade to build. This system took many resourceful and dedicated people years to put into place. In less than 18 months it has been dismantled to the point that it is not recognizable. The argument presented for this destruction was false and dishonest; basically created. To this day they still claim it was done to reduce caseloads. What really occurred was a questionable alliance with the SB 40’s and private providers throughout the state. Some day we will know more about this. 2. Mr. Keith Schafer and Bernie Simons have placed true believers in as center directors both in Springfield and Joplin. In Springfield, the regional office has suffered tremendous loss in talent and dedicated staff. They have currently lost over half of the service coordinators; morale has been and continues to be assaulted, and worse, they have experienced the wide scale loss of faith in the system by consumers and families. 3. How did they do it? Please see other blogs on this subject under DMH: Eleven Steps to Downsizing a Regional Center and the many other entries. To give an example of the ongoing abuse of power at the Springfield Regional Office: The director has instituted a second series of office moves in the building. For the second time in 12 months she is requiring at least 75-90%(to be determined) of the staff to physically move their offices, again. The first time was in the fall. This would be upsetting to any serious organization or business. You should want your people to feel stable and secure in their work environment. Unless you want them to leave? 4. Since Mr. Simons placed his selected center director at the Springfield office, she has completed the following tasks/damage: She ended the funding for Recovering Wishes for Families, an organization that took several years to get up and running. This organization alone helped over a thousand people and was relied heavily on by the service coordinators; She did away with a computer donation program that allowed access to free computers to families without cost to DMH or the families; she fired the only hourly worker who had a developmental disability and who had been with the Regional Center for 15 years; she intimidated the director of the NETWORK (family) organization to leave (also moved her to a smaller office- kind of a closet) and then she forced the organization out of the building; she re-directed a behavior resource team away from families in the community or natural homes, to so called waiver residential settings. Making it harder for families in the community to access this service; and the final insult was pushing the only designated resource person left in the state who was covering both the Joplin and Springfield Regional Offices, out. She is now gone. This resource person literally saved the state thousands upon thousands of dollars! 5. Mr. Simons has established new job positions for the continuing downsized regional offices: He has created positions with new titles, with no known definition , without job descriptions, no salary guidelines, no known beginning or start dates, but yet the positions were interviewed for and applicants picked. The staff has been told, “When we know you will know”. “Maybe we will know something next year”. In any case the employees that were selected will continue to carry their administratively created, heavy caseloads, serve on appointed committees, expected to continue to perform at a high level, etc., with no raise, no idea what the job is, no idea when it will start...... Does the private sector work this way????? Mr. Nixon, if you read this and end up in a new job next year, please visit with these two men and ask them about what they have done. They have hurt consumers, families and employees in the name of loyalty to those who brought them to the party (Mr. Simons was brought in from out of state for the purpose of dismantling this system by Mr. Blunt via Mr. Keith Schafer and the Mental Health Commission). They want a smaller government so as to avoid responsibility and liability and as quickly as possible, regardless of the talent drain and who gets hurt.