Father pleads for greater records access
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- December
- 31
Michael Carey, the father of an autistic boy who died while in a state residence this year, is asking Gov. Eliot Spitzer to give people more time to get records if they think their child or family member is being abused in the residential mental-hygiene system. A provision of Jonathan’s Law that allows families to obtain records retroactively to Jan. 1, 2003 expires today. (Documents from May 5, 2007 to the present remain available.) The law, passed this year, is named for Michael Carey’s late son.
Michael Carey, who held a news conference at the Capitol today, said the state has done a poor job of disseminating information on the law. The state Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities was in charge of developing and distributing a pamphlet to guide families in the process. It took the agency until last month to do so, and the guide is available only on the Web. Carey accused state officials of trying to limit their potential legal liability.
“Those records are vital for families to properly be able to advocate for their children,� Carey said.
A spokesman for Spitzer said the governor does not oppose an extension, but it is up to the Legislature to decide.
Jonathan Carey was suffocated while in the care of two aides early this year. The 13-year-old was living at the O.D. Heck Developmental center in Niskayuna, near Albany. One aide was convicted of manslaughter and the second pleaded guilty to negligent homicide.
Other protections in the law include requirements for residential mental-hygiene programs to notify parents and guardians within 24 hours of incidents affecting their children’s health and safety and provide incident reports upon request.
This entry was posted
on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 1:06 pm by Cara Matthews.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
