Originally posted March 18th, 2016
UPDATED: March 31st Typos, Typos and Typos, dammit!
It is typically against my policy on social media to discuss organizations or people by name unless there is notoriety factor and a strong case in favor to do so.
I want to discuss my first hand experiences with The Moore Center (previously known at the time as Moore Center Services, Incorporated) as a one time purpose and used as a historical record of my experiences for others to learn. The reflected accounts were from about 1995 to 2010. (More relevant accounts ranged from 2007 to ’10.) I can’t speak for them today because I do not know personally what is going on day to day as I have not been affiliated with them for years.
What I will say is I have sources who to this day who have had negative experiences or dealings with them. Simply put, The Moore Center is the largest area agency for Medicaid Waiver services for the state of New Hampshire, but acts as a charity organization instead.
Over the years, my mother had went to The Moore Center at various stages in my life and was shown the door; when I was a child, to when I was a teenager (when she got laid off of her job of 15 years) to when I was about 18 to then be told come back before I turned 21. Respite was not well explained like today, or even 2010 for that matter. My mother had said that she would pay my grandmother for things like that.
In spring of 2007 the “transition” had begun. We went through the intake process with them for at least a couple of hours. It went OK, but I wasn’t really honest about myself and my daily living. I forgot to kinda lower my standards to appear to be “needy”. The assessment was similar to the SIS or HRST test (if others have been evaluated.) By the time I did the SIS and HRST, I figured out how to be honest but also be true to my needs. The problem was I was being too much like my peers and coming off as “well I’m just like everyone else”…another example of no good deed goes unpunished.
The transition from school to adult life or services (the lack thereof) wasn’t well planned out only because the plan was just checklists. Organization charts or project management of my life was non existent. Technology was not embraced well and the card-carrying females would panic if they had to do technological things in the documentation sense.
Factor that my 21st birthday fell in the middle of the New Hampshire biennial budget (Fiscal Years go from July to June, but would budget two fiscal years on odd spring years/) This would create a collateral mess. Could’ve the whole mess ended in a different outcome? In 2007, then Governor John Lynch passed a law that required a minimum of 90 days for individuals to be on the “wait list” for cutover from school age to Medicaid Waver services. However so many people had aged out (from about 2007 to about 2010) and was waiting for nearly 18 months – over a year and a half to get any funding.
But did The Moore Center know about that? I think it’s safe to say so – these people aren’t that stupid. The problem is they did bad budgeting because they didn’t know who was aging out. As you know, Londonderry, NH is a world class town and of such they feel its more important for the SAU management to look at every RSA and Federal Laws over looking at the students eye to eye. The SAU operated on following all the rules – even if it was dumb ones; which was their long time mantra.
And because NH or Federal Laws doesn’t require area agencies and school districts to work together as neighbors or in the best interest of the individual – this would explain why The Moore Center couldn’t budget for clients aging out. (More on how this disaster could’ve been averted later.)
*
Nearly four and half months prior to my 21st birthday, we met with my first Transition Coordinator around November. The lady was promising – but she gave me her two weeks notice in an email the following day. However it was my responsibility (at least in their view) to go reach to other people to find another transition coordinator. Working the phones and sending emails took most of December; even the original intake coordinator even had the guts to say “You may not even need our services.”
And this may had been one of the first starting points of insecurities. This was the time I started to somewhat be “dumb” to get into the system. By the way: This woman still works for the area agency, I’ve seen her email circulate in my circles.
The first meeting of a transition team or should I use it in air quotes since “transition” was barely a concept occurred in January. All four parties (area agency, SAU, GLEC and me) were in the room to start the process in less than two months. This transition coordinator was a male, without much of a compassion or a heart. He was very robotic, reading off talking points such as “services are not an entitlement, and are subject to eligibility” and remained serious during that meeting meanwhile most of the conversation after that meeting occurred in email. Even worse they never challenged the early intake process. Originally I was classified under Asperger’s Syndrome only because my nitwit pediatrician couldn’t tell the difference and The Moore Center people would say “well we based off what your primary care said” – i.e. that was the official form of the diagnosis. .
The 21st birthday was the biggest disaster in my life after the 6th grade debacle 9 years prior. My inner support from school age knew what was going on but chose to see the disaster unfold and most likely would’ve point the finger to me for the collapse. Throughout my first 3 years as an adult, everything was a day to day because the future wasn’t easy to predict (The Moore Center also helped make this matter worse.)
Around late spring, was when I knew there was no funding for the new fiscal year, and of course the transition coordinator was continuing to send emails (with high priority) directing me to go to various temporary programs. A common issue was miscommunication and the lack of having everyone on the same page, and it wasn’t me because I had to keep everyone on the same page. The only thing that remained consistent was I had the same transition coordinator – even though I personally didn’t like him at all. Men like him should be working in a basement processing information instead.
There is an annual Family Support Conference, and the agency never seemed to take advantage of a Granite State tradition of families attending a 2 1/2 day event that traditionally was in the mountains on the first or last weekend of Spring Vacation. Two family support people from Manchester would go up somewhat on their behalf. But those two people are now deceased and in the last 3 years there’s yet to be any successors. In fact there is no representation in the monthly planning meetings (which on fair disclosure, I am am member of) since their passing.
*
Another flaw in the agency was the aggressive marketing especially during times of trouble. The Moore Center was an early adopter of social media. Great! The problem was they were spending too much time on Facebook and YouTube when so many people were on wait lists. Most of the content was just run of the mill sales pitches, despite being the authorized Medicaid Waiver agency for that part of the state. While that may be more touchy-feeley unlike my transition coordinator, the problem was too much time was being spent as the economy was tanking from about my 21st birthday in March to the ultimate collapse that September. Obviously every state was on a cost cutting mode at that point.
There was bunch of blog posts and Facebook page updates of them appearing on a morning drive talk show of a host now the principal anchor at NH1. I laugh at this because they would kiss up their their neighbors as the Clear Channel/iHeartRadio talk station was in the same building, and given the weak signal – 5,000 watts if only AM radio had a Class C (and to steal a phrase from Howard Stern in an 1985 interview by WCBS-TV in New York that “they could shout out of the window and get a bigger audience!”) The idea of pitching a pseudo area agency was their mantra at the time.
The area agency was reflecting the “Old World” values of Everything About Them Without Them. There was more resources for families, parents, guardians, professionals, but nothing for me, about me and specifically for me. This was the same shtick that was following me for nearly 18 years before (when I started school that is.) Nothing was there for me specifically because I am the one with special needs and therefore I am already spoiled with support by professionals. That’s not individualized empowerment, if you asked me.
The budgeting of this area agency was strange at best – going back from the earlier topic. Private sector or non profit organizations are not required to file quarterly reports with detailed financials like a corporation traded on the markets and per to the Securities and Exchange Commission rules. If there was shenanigans, there was no Sarbanes Oxley to stop them. The place was very private, the only places I could be ushered were to and from conference rooms. It wasn’t until mid 09 I saw my transition coordinator’s open office configuration as they told me they typically don’t allow clients to be around there (thank you HIPAA!) but yet my telephone conversations appeared to be in the open – that’s if I called them (how is that compliant?)
Throughout the visits to the area agency, I noticed how fancy the place was after the relocation to near downtown Manchester in mid 2007. It doesn’t take a bright person to understand how bad the place was. The furniture I was sitting on was the same line of furniture I sat at Skyworks Solutions (the worksite) a year before. The second noticeable thing was the operator switchboard (or known as an attendant console) at the reception desk valued around $2,000 for a fancy deskset. They had a PBX, ether Nortel Meridian 1 or that CS1000 VOIP/hybrid system, a system that can handle ether 1,000 users or tons of lines with a few users.The area agency had about 300 staff at the time, probably 2/3s were users, so why would they have such high capacity system if it would never be at 3/4 capacity?
Even worse, the spotting of “thin clients” all around. Thin clients in 2016 is basically those old fashioned dummy terminals just with a mouse with pictures and icons that looks like a desktop machine in a size of a Lindt chocolate box. While most office automation tasks only break a ¼ of a desktop or laptop performance, its more efficient to have a couple fancy computers in the data center or broom closet, and break them up into “sessions” with the thin clients as if they were it’s own PCs. The only problem was that in 2007, the idea of thin clients, virtualization and super high powered servers were existent as a technology, but very expensive. Today the costs are much better to go this path than buying PCs and eating up resources left and right. But given Microsoft’s notorious licencing practices – even with non profits – it didn’t take someone even with Asperger’s to say is this financially right to be splurging on things on or close to a financial crisis?
*
I would receive funding in July of 2009. I wasn’t in the client directed services program at the time, but regardless I was indicated that I “had the drivers seat” but then was conflicted with another yet experience with a very highly structured program. Fortunately that didn’t last long; as I had a “Get Out of Jail Free” card, when I was able to transfer to the area agency on the very southern tier. The funding would be moved by January 1st of that following year – just that we didn’t know about it till weeks before only because The Moore Center apparently had no concern to make a quick call to the people down south to notify it was complete.
I’ve avoided as much contact with The Moore Center, nor do I have much interest in following them. Also I have no intentions to relocated back to Londonderry or live in places like Manchester, because it wouldn’t be in my current region of my current area agency. From what sources tell me today, thing’s haven’t changed that much for the better. And I’d rather do everything in my power to be further away as possible.
It’s an unfortunate situation of mismanagement, manipulation and taking advantage of the vulnerable citizens of society. The pain and suffering of the agency is the reason why I am partially still “stuck”. They had every opportunity to exploit new ideas and be innovative, but they just chose a low result path, and I’m still getting used to progressive thinking day programs or area agencies.
In closing, I think it’s best described in their motto of mediocre values: Creating Opportunities for a Good Life.
*