Office For People With Developmental Disabilities

OPWDD is very good at making apologies and lame excuses. (We don't have the staff...

The staff doesn't have the certifications...We are unable to support your needs...We have no openings...)

Our son has had a revolving door of care coordinators over the last 2 years. They couldn't make his transition from one city to another a smooth one even though both cities were within New York State, less than 2 hours apart, and the care coordination agency had offices in both locations.

We finally got respite services, after nearly 2 years of hounding OPWDD, but still no day program.

OPWDD makes rules that create problems for people with special needs. Our son was overweight and a borderline diabetic, but the group home he was living in couldn't restrict his diet because of an OPWDD rule that the residents have to have choices. Our son operates at a 6-year-old level even though he's 25.

It would be like allowing a 6-year-old to get up in the middle of the night and help himself to snacks. This means nothing to OPWDD.

OPWDD also made a rule forbidding the group home staff to give our son supplements, which his doctor ordered, because we bought them from an online dispensary rather than a pharmacy.

With the taxes we pay to live here,we shouldn't have to put up with this.

I care for a developmentally disabled young adult child. The NYS Office for People with developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) certifies & regulates agencies that provide various services to the disabled "consumers." Problem is, typically the agencies do as little as they think they can get away with.

They care far more about themselves than their "consumer"... the individual they are supposed to serve. They are supposed to follow many rules and regulations (vendor manual; NY CRR; etc). They typically discard any mention of they rules.

Worse yet, OPWDD ignores most common infractions...

unless there is a death. It is a terrible situation of the "consumer."