Samantha R lawsuit may improve behavioral care
About a decade ago, Dana and Tim Rhoney found themselves locked in battle with the state after struggling for years to get needed services for their daughter Samantha, who has a moving disorder and an intellectual disability.
“The only thing that we were asking for was just some additional service hours to have the workers to come in and give me relief in taking care of my daughter,” who is an “extreme self-abuser,” Dana told The News & Observer.
The Rhoneys would have caregivers come to their home through the N.C. Innovations Waiver, a backlogged state program that provides access to a wide range of behavioral health services for those who qualify.
But their regional mental health office — officially, Local Management Entity/managed Care Organizations, which administer the waiver program — started cutting Samantha’s services, putting them all at risk, said the Rhoneys.
After two rejected appeals of denials of care through the state’s office of administrative hearings, the Rhoneys had to admit Samantha at the age of 27 into the J. Iverson Riddle Developmental Center, a stateoperated developmental center in Morganton, they said. She was there for over seven years.
Lacking funds for an attorney, Tim said he had to represent Samantha’s interests in court both times. And both times, “There was not any talk about, ‘Hey, we’re going to give you the services to keep her in your home,’” he said.
These struggles led the Rhoneys to work with the legal advocacy group Disability Rights North Carolina, which filed a lawsuit in 2017 that became known as the Samantha R. case. Disability Rights NC argued that the failure to provide access to communityand home-based behavioral health services violated the rights of people with disabilities.
The state Department of Health and Human Services and Disability Rights NC are on the brink of entering into an agreement for the state to improve services.
“Even though our daughter is very challenging, she also is very vibrant and social. She loves to be around other people when she’s doing well and not having her behaviors,” said Dana.
At the institute, “Samantha was not able to access community so her ability to enjoy life and prosper and flourish was being dampened,” she said.
AGREEMENT DETAILS
Lisa Grafstein, an attorney with Disability Rights and a Democratic senator representing Raleigh, told The News & Observer that Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour indicated that he would approve the consent order between the state and Disability Rights NC.
The agreement follows mediation between DHHS and Disability Rights NC after DHHS appealed an extensive order issued by Baddour in 2022.