From the Website:
"If you haven’t heard, Families Speaking Up has rebranded as A-Team Delaware. We are excited to be taking the grass-roots work we’ve been doing for the last several years statewide, with one chapter that meets in New Castle County and one that meets on the border between Kent and Sussex Counties. As one of the newest A-Teams in the United States, we have become a part of the national movement for choice in day and residential services. We would encourage you to visit ATeamUSA.net for more information about the other states that have joined this movement. Although our name has changed, our goals remain the same — to ensure that all voices are heard when policies are being made that affect people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families."
Delaware is experiencing the same crisis in caregiving for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) as the rest of the country. Low pay and poor working conditions for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) have resulted in extreme difficulty in hiring qualified people as caregivers and rapid turnover of workers. Families and other advocates thought they had found a solution when legislation passed last year to fully fund the needs of I/DD adults:
"The McNesby Act passed unanimously in 2018, which promised full funding for adults with I/DD in the next three years. Direct Support Professionals are an endangered workforce in Delaware and often leave the jobs they love for higher paying jobs in other industries. It has reached crisis levels and the Joint Finance Committee only put a Band-Aid on the wound yesterday.
"Wearing our green shirts, we held our rally and sat in Legislative Hall during the FY 2020 budget markup for several days. Despite our best efforts, only $2.2 M was added to $1.8 M in the budget for a total of $4 M. Read this press release from the Ability Network of Delaware to learn more."
This disappointing turn of events was followed up by an opinion piece at Delaware Online by Micki Edelsohn, "Be fair to those who care for adults with intellectual disabilities", June 12, 2019:
Although our son Robert has an intellectual disability due to a difficult birth, our goals for Robert were the same as our older son, Andrew: to get the best education, reach his potential and someday live in his own home, have a job and enjoy his community.
While Robert was still in school, we began our dream of raising the funds to build a group home where he could live with his peers, with staff support. In February 1990 a miracle happened: a chance meeting with Charlie Cawley, former CEO of MBNA America Bank. After learning of our plans, to our amazement and delight, he committed that MBNA fund the first group home and, in addition, hire the residents.
That initial home was the catalyst. We established a non-profit, Homes For Life Foundation and created a partnership. Homes For Life raised the funds and deeded the debt-free homes to the Arc of DE. State government then contracted with provider agencies to hire the direct support professionals (DSP’s) to support the residents.
It was a win-win for the families and for the state, now given affordable housing.
Thirty years later, Homes For Life has built 25 group homes and purchased two condos where 104 adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) live. One thing has become very clear, the home is worthless without the dedicated direct support professionals, whose job it is to provide the appropriate support needed.
But today, the State of Delaware has turned its back on the agencies that provide the workforce to care for the most vulnerable people in our society. DSPs have not been paid a living wage.
Without properly paid direct support professionals, the residents cannot survive. The beautiful neighborhood homes will slowly disappear — homes worth millions of dollars, with contributions by hundreds and hundreds of donors (individuals, corporations and foundations) hoping to give a “home for life” to an adult with I/DD.
How can this happen? Gov. Carney and our legislators must fulfill their promise to fully fund the McNesby Act. The lives of our loved ones with I/DD are at stake.
"Wearing our green shirts, we held our rally and sat in Legislative Hall during the FY 2020 budget markup for several days. Despite our best efforts, only $2.2 M was added to $1.8 M in the budget for a total of $4 M. Read this press release from the Ability Network of Delaware to learn more."
This disappointing turn of events was followed up by an opinion piece at Delaware Online by Micki Edelsohn, "Be fair to those who care for adults with intellectual disabilities", June 12, 2019:
Although our son Robert has an intellectual disability due to a difficult birth, our goals for Robert were the same as our older son, Andrew: to get the best education, reach his potential and someday live in his own home, have a job and enjoy his community.
While Robert was still in school, we began our dream of raising the funds to build a group home where he could live with his peers, with staff support. In February 1990 a miracle happened: a chance meeting with Charlie Cawley, former CEO of MBNA America Bank. After learning of our plans, to our amazement and delight, he committed that MBNA fund the first group home and, in addition, hire the residents.
That initial home was the catalyst. We established a non-profit, Homes For Life Foundation and created a partnership. Homes For Life raised the funds and deeded the debt-free homes to the Arc of DE. State government then contracted with provider agencies to hire the direct support professionals (DSP’s) to support the residents.
It was a win-win for the families and for the state, now given affordable housing.
Thirty years later, Homes For Life has built 25 group homes and purchased two condos where 104 adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) live. One thing has become very clear, the home is worthless without the dedicated direct support professionals, whose job it is to provide the appropriate support needed.
But today, the State of Delaware has turned its back on the agencies that provide the workforce to care for the most vulnerable people in our society. DSPs have not been paid a living wage.
The state’s payments to these non-profits only support a wage of $9 an hour. One agency lost 95 percent of their DSPs last year due to low wages; another had a turnover rate of 87 percent, and the turnover rate for most agencies is around 50 percent a year.
Even the most effective business leader could not operate in an environment with a turnover of employees at such high levels.
In 2018, the Michael McNesby Full Funding for Adults with I/DD Act was passed unanimously by both houses of the General Assembly and signed into law with great fanfare by Governor Carney. The Act ensures that funding for services be brought up to levels recommended by the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), namely $42 million over the next three years.
Despite the need for $14 million dollars this year and the promise made, only $4 million is in this year’s budget.
Even the most effective business leader could not operate in an environment with a turnover of employees at such high levels.
In 2018, the Michael McNesby Full Funding for Adults with I/DD Act was passed unanimously by both houses of the General Assembly and signed into law with great fanfare by Governor Carney. The Act ensures that funding for services be brought up to levels recommended by the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), namely $42 million over the next three years.
Despite the need for $14 million dollars this year and the promise made, only $4 million is in this year’s budget.
Without properly paid direct support professionals, the residents cannot survive. The beautiful neighborhood homes will slowly disappear — homes worth millions of dollars, with contributions by hundreds and hundreds of donors (individuals, corporations and foundations) hoping to give a “home for life” to an adult with I/DD.
How can this happen? Gov. Carney and our legislators must fulfill their promise to fully fund the McNesby Act. The lives of our loved ones with I/DD are at stake.
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Teaming up with a national movement for choice, green T-shirts, rallies, opinion pieces and letters to the editor and legislators, and a great big billboard advertising the cause ... This is a great example for other family advocacy groups to follow.
Micki and Lanny Edelsohn are founders of the Homes for Life Foundation in Wilmington Delaware.
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