Source: http://ri.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20171011_0000178.RI.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 22:15:57+00:00

Document:
For Plaintiff: Catherine Sansonetti, Esq. Alexander N. Spigelman, Esq.
For Defendant: Thomas J. Corrigan, Jr., Esq.
Before the Court is an appeal from a decision of an Administration Hearing Officer (AHO) of the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services upholding the denial of Christopher Sulima's (Appellant) application for developmental disability services through the R.I. Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (the Department). The Department held that Appellant is ineligible for developmental disability services because he is not a developmentally disabled adult as defined by G.L. 1956 § 40.1-21-4.3 (5).
This Court has jurisdiction pursuant to G.L. 1956 § 42-35-15. For the reasons set forth herein, the case is remanded with instructions to consider whether Appellant is a "[m]entally retarded developmentally disabled adult" as defined under Rhode Island law and therefore eligible to receive developmental disability services. Sec. 40.1-21-4.3.
The Department is a state agency responsible for, inter alia, providing assistance to people with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities. See § 40.1-1-4. The Department is comprised of three divisions, including the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD). Sec. 40.1-1-4(3); see also § 40.1-21-2. DDD was established to "promote, safeguard, and protect the human dignity, constitutional and statutory rights and liberties, social well being, and general welfare of all developmentally disabled citizens of the state." Sec. 40.1-21-4.2(2). DDD is tasked with providing and securing "certain social, protective, and other types of appropriate services for all developmentally disabled citizens" and ensuring "that all developmentally disabled adults in this state receive such developmental, supportive, and ancillary services as prescribed in an individualized program plan, developed with the participation of the developmentally disabled person and his or her family or guardian or advocate." Sec. 40.1-21-4.2(3), (5). Thus, significant and important services are provided through the Department to adults who are developmentally disabled within the limits of available appropriations. See § 40.1-21-6.1; see also § 40.1-21-4.2(3), (5).

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