What’s the difference bet. Hamaspik and hasc center

amother

Navy

Thu, Aug 08 2019, 9:20 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I’m trying to help an adult male relative find a residence or day hab program.
I’m not from the ny area.
A process was recently started with hamaspik and they directed the original person helping, to get the relative on Medicaid and become a ny resident which was done.

I’ve now come into the pic and have spoken with hasc center who may have an opening in a residence coming up but wanted to know where in the process hamaspik was.

I’m trying to understand if there’s a reason to work with hamaspik or just go over to hasc to continue the process.

What does hamaspik actually do? Do they have residences or day programs? Can they work alongside hasc?

When I tried to get answers from hamaspik, they just said to continue working with them.

Any help appreciated.

I dont know anything about Hamaspik but will tell you to be very vigilant if you place him in a Hasc residence as I have seen some of the counselors (mostly the older Russian ones) yell, hit and otherwise be abusive towards the individuals they take care of. It is officially not legal but the agency does not train these counselors in their own language so they dont fully understand that they cant treat individuals like that. Besides for that, Hasc does exploit their employees and doesnt treat them very nicely. They will get rid of employees who complain about the standards of the house or those who report abuse instead of getting rid of the abusive counselors or changing things for the better. You may not see any of this going on when you visit but rest assured it does happen and it is not possible to put a stop to it so choose wisely about where you place your relative. Good luck!

amother

Green

Thu, Aug 08 2019, 10:10 pm

amother [ Navy ] wrote:

This has not been my experience at all!!!
My DS is in a Hasc home.
They let us visit anytime without notifying.
We come ALL the time and NEVER saw abuse committed to the residents by staff members.
My DS is verbal and talks to us on the phone often.
There was once unfortunately an incident where another patient/resident with special needs too in the same residence tried acting inappropriately with DS (undressing him)
The staff reported it immediately to the justice center and to us the parents and directed me to speak with Hasc's Quality Assurance department run by Avi Sacks. He was awesome to deal with and completely transparent with us.
They cooperated completely with the state investigation which lasted for weeks and held briefings and meetings with us whenever we wanted throughout.
The Justice Center also provides a free family advocate for any family whose relative was involved in any reported cases which was also helpful.
Immediately after the incident the supervision levels for both my DS and the other individual have been increased very tightly and will stay that way permanently due to this incident. They had to hire more staff because of that.
Not one staff member was fired for this at all.
There was one particular supervisor in Hasc (not the residence manager) who annoyed us by saying invalidating things to us afterwards and we complained and reported his/her insensitivity to Shmeel Kahn as well as to the Quality Assurance Department who took our complaints very seriously despite the fact that this supervisor is "high up there" in Hasc. And we heard from inside sources that they really came down tough on that supervisor because of our complaints.
If this supervisor would be directly involved in my DS's care we would have maybe taken firmer action but he/she is not so we decided not to go too far with that. It was only stupidity of simply saying the wrong things to parents at a vulnerable time and not abuse or "covering up".
Hasc gave us all the paperwork involved in the state investigation as soon as anything was available although they were legally required to black out the other resident's name. They did verbally tell us who it was so we can be an extra "inspector" that the tightness of supervision is always up to par. And this was a long time ago and we never observed any lack of supervision.
So yes things like the above can happen in any home more so perhaps then if a child/adult is in their own family's home if - huge emphasis on IF their family is healthy and safe.
Also my DS joined the home as soon as it opened, and one day soon after right after yom tov I observed a temporary staff member who was hired for that yom tov only browsing on his smart phone and it really bothered me so we complained and they never hired that staff member again.
I think the only way that staff member was there to begin with was because as a new home they were a bit unorganized for the first few weeks until everything fell into place.
My DS loves many of the staff members like real family.
I don't feel comfortable posting under my SN as many people who know me irl would immediately know who I am if I did based on all the info I just provided.
But if you know anyone unhappy with any Hasc residence have them reach out to the Quality Assurance department immediately.
I also have no clue what "old Russian counselors " you are referring to.
All counselors I have seen speak English perfectly well that I would assume English is their first language.
I also have seen mostly younger counselors.
If you know of issues please complain!!

amother

Navy

Thu, Aug 08 2019, 10:31 pm

amother [ Green ] wrote:

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