The other large cuts made by the Governor are to DMR administration, where they may send the caseloads of service coordinators toward an impossible 60 people each; to the Autism department, which was increasing the number of families receiving early intervention; and to DOE-DMR, a joint program which attempts to coordinate community based services for young people with special needs and DMR eligibility to keep them at home and avoid expensive residential school placements. It can be argued that all of these cuts target the minority of the most disabled people served by DMR, but the flat-funded or slightly cut contracted community-residential system is also under great demographic pressure, and thus more people with mild and moderate MR/DD are waiting around longer without any or adaquate services, although provider capacity is at least being maintained.

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DMR – The Novel

Paperback: 319 pages $15.95

Publisher: One Tiny Pizza Publishing (April 28, 2008)

http://www.otppub.com/dmr.html

COFAR members will probably not want to read this well-written novel, based on the author’s six months of real-life work at a state-operated group home. That’s too narrow a slice to get everything right, as family members understand from a lifetime with our loved ones. Trask also made a literary decision to make his central character a slacker and binge-drinker, who is even more clueless about the DMR system than the average six-month hire.

But when our friends offer to give us a copy of DMR, we should suggest that they read it. Trask does a very good job with the characters who have severe-to-profound MR/DD, and with the group dynamics of a small residence. So little has been written, fact or fiction, about that world, that his novel is a good read for the general audience, and bound to provoke more interest. We wish there were a few non-fiction studies, TV documentaries, even academic works to recommend next, but for now we can point out that there are volunteer opportunities in every city and town.

            If readers ask about facts, we will have to remind them of a brief reference deep in the book to the state-operated group homes serving the most disabled people. To call the book “DMR” without clarifying that point is unfair to the majority of people with MR/DD who are better able to communicate and thrive in community settings. The book almost entirely omits family members, or any other guardians. Don’t give this book to a career mental retardation worker, either. Most of the employees are described as goldbricking, sleeping on overnights, routinely falsifying paperwork, and neglecting treatment plans. COFAR members do encounter workers like that, but there are also the saints and miracle workers. There are some good workers in the book, and a lyrical passage about taking the residents for a swim. 

            Most troubling for COFAR members will be the author’s decision to center the character’s moral vacuity on a sexual relationship between a staffer and a non-verbal resident.  The character doesn’t know what to think, and it is left up to the reader. Informed readers will know that a profoundly retarded woman cannot consent to rape, and that the character has neglected his duty as a mandated reporter, by doing nothing.

             The novel is not widely distributed, but it is in some Mass. bookstores, and the author does readings and appearances. The link above will give you a way to order the book on Amazon. If there is interest here, COFAR did an email "interview" with author Trask which has his serious reflections on the state of he DMR system in which he worked, and a more positive view of the work itself.