ABU Letter

Kathleen Flannigan
1910 Oxford Street, #210
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 666-0588

February 21, 2008

Henry Long
Regional Center of the East Bay
7677 Oakport Way, Suite 300
Oakland, CA 94621

Dear Mr. Long

This letter, from Kathleen Flannigan, a client of Regional Center of the East Bay,
and whose case manager is Henry Long, is to inform you of the behavior of Abu, an
employee of Unity Social Service, an organization that has a contract with RCEB.

I live an independent life here in Berkeley, going to school, creating art work,
taking care of my cat, and visiting with friends and family -- with the help of Felicitas, my
in-home supportive service worker and best friend. She comes to my house seven
days a week to assist me. I think of her as my daughter. She has been working for me
for 20 years.

Abu supposedly was the supportive service worker, whose job, funded by the
RCEB and the State of California, was to assist me with house cleaning, shopping, and
planning meals. Abu helped me with none of these tasks. Rather, he only made my
bed (with much disgust -- my body fluids might somehow pollute him), washed a few
dishes, and put my medications in a plastic pill box. This perhaps took him 10 minutes
at most, yet he would be paid for the entire 2 hours. At the medication box task, he was
useless -- leaving out important medications that I had to renew. I then had to go to
Kaiser to pick up the medications, taking perhaps 4 hours waiting at the Fabiola
Pharmacy.

I also found his housekeeping skills to be terrible. The only dishes he washed
were those that were physically in the sink, leaving alone any on the countertops.
When I reminded him that he was supposed to be helping me for three hours, he merely
informed me that he had better things to do.

He has held this position this August, and he has never had me sign a time
sheet. Also, since August, I have been asking him to find me a supportive service
worker who could work at least three hours. He pleaded "fatigue." He said he could not
help me with shopping because he would have to utilize his car and he did not want to
pay the meter fees. He also did not show up for work sometimes and never phoned to
tell me he was not coming. I found his personal behavior toward me to be rude and
insulting, and he was very controlling and arrogant.

Abu was also supposed to help me with medical appointments that were difficult
for me. I had to have root canal dentistry done at the UC San Francisco Dentistry
School. I asked Abu to be of assistance to me. I took paratransit; he took his car. He
was very late arriving at the dentistry school and wanted to leave early before
Paratransit arrived to take me back to Berkeley. I was very tired and still under the
influence of medication. I had to threaten him with calling his superior if he did not wait
with me for Paratransit. Threats, in my opinion, are the only things that motivate Abu to
do his job.

This problem was finally solved about a month ago when my housekeeper,
Felicitas, took over Abu's job. Please note that Abu described Felicitas' job as "coming
to work for a few minutes and pocketing the rest of the money." Felicitas has turned out
to be a wonderful, supportive service worker and is very careful with my medications.

The day before Thanksgiving, I was hospitalized at Kaiser Oakland. I was there
for three weeks with a broken back, a compacted colon, and pneumonia. I was then
transported to a Kaiser nursing facility in San Leandro for a week. With the support of
my son, Gabe, friends, relatives and Felicitas, I have made a complete recovery.
Kaiser sent a Home Health Team to my apartment to help with my recovery, and this
team agreed that I was completely restored to health.

While I was at Kaiser Oakland, my family and I felt that Abu was interfering and,
indeed he took over, informing my initial case manager that I belonged in a nursing
home and was completely incapable of taking care of myself. He was also quite
threatening, telling Felicitas (and I personally overheard this conversation) that he had
the power to place me in a nursing home for the rest of my life any time he wanted.
Later, Abu also told Felicitas that he could employ "force" to compel me to obey his
decisions.

On February 15, 2008, I called you and told you that I wanted no more contact
with Abu or Unity Social Services. You agreed to terminate our contract effective March
1, 2008, and you would send me a list of agencies that will continue to allow me to keep
Felicitas as my support worker. Even so, Abu continues to call me and Felicitas
demanding that Felicitas call him once a day with a status report.

I hope this letter will not end up in a file in a vast bureaucracy. I am a strong
person, able to defend myself, but the more vulnerable clients of the Regional Center
might not have the strength to navigate the system and protest Abu's oppression. Is it
not the goal of Regional Center (and the whole de-institution movement) to promote the
independence and incorporation into the community of its clients -- free from excessive
control, from autocratic authority -- and enable them to enjoy autonomy and have the
power of choice in their lives? Abu, in my opinion, exemplifies the old institutional pattern of exploiting
the vulnerable, and taking advantage of their powerless..

Sincerely,

Kathleen Flannigan

cc:

Matthew Timbo, Unity Social Services
Ellen Goldblatt, Chief Legal Counsel
James G. Marks

Ellen Goldblatt
Chief Legal Counsel
Protection and Advocacy Inc.
1330 Broadway, Suite 500
Oakland, CA 94612

James G. Marks
1231 Rio Cresta Way
Sacramento, CA 95834