State must save key part of human services
Funding must permanently address the crises that threaten to upend the disability system.
Once again, the coronavirus has reared its ugly head, mutating and beginning a deep dive into the willingly unvaccinated and those too young to obtain the vaccine.
Again, we find ourselves depending on frontline workers to keep the rest of us safe by showing up for work, protecting our food and supply chains and caring for the vulnerable among us.
Those heroes rise to the occasion — day in and day out — despite subsisting on wages that qualify them for food stamps, housing assistance or Medicaid substituting for unaffordable health insurance.
Nowhere is this crisis more apparent than in the intellectual disability/autism, or ID/A, community where, long before the pandemic, direct support professionals, or DSPs, endured decades of grossly inadequate wages and staffing shortages while handling lifesustaining responsibilities.
At the height of the pandemic, state and national leaders lauded the dedication of these workers, lamented their poor pay status and acknowledged that the foundation of many of these programs has been weak for years. During the pandemic, lingering problems in maintaining the stability of disability programs deteriorated into a fight to keep the system from imploding.
Leaders have acknowledged the sacrifices of poorly paid frontline workers and have pledged to address the legitimate and crying needs in the intellectual disability community and its workforce.
While there have been some temporary recovery efforts, permanent relief to address the deep wounds and dysfunction laid bare by the pandemic has been lacking.
Before the pandemic, InVision Human Services and other organizations warned the state of a human service workforce crisis that left that system teetering on the edge of collapse, with DSPs quitting their jobs at alarming rates.
These shortages are at a crisis point. Families who have waited for years on the state’s ID/A waiting list are being told that although they are finally eligible, services cannot begin because there is no staff to perform them.
Five years ago, Gov. Tom Wolf required officials to review, update and refresh disability program costs every three years. Three years have come and gone with no review or refresh. In the meantime, rates remain grossly inadequate, DSPs continue leaving, and the system is on the verge of collapse.
There is still time to save this critical sector, and Pennsylvania’s leaders have the power to do it. The state has received a big infusion of funds to fix this crisis. Yet so far it has offered only temporary support. The state needs to tap into this funding now to permanently address the crises that threaten to upend the disability system and the thousands who depend on it.
To prevent a collapse of the system, the state needs to do the following immediately:
• Pay DSPs a living wage. The Department of Human Services takes federal Medicaid funds and pays its own state center DSPs 30% to 40% more than it pays its communitybased DSPs. Why the disparity?
• Stabilize community programs to ensure they are sufficiently staffed with people who have knowledge about those being supported. This can’t happen when turnover is so high.
And what can advocates for people with intellectual disabilities and their families do? Simply hope, pray, and advocate for our leaders to act before the community disability system collapses.
This fall, Wolf and his administration have promised to adjust rates based on new data, costs, and needs. They have federal money. They have an economy on the rebound. And they have legislators who have acknowledged the need.
Will this be the year our elected officials do their best to preserve a critical human service need? The lives of our most vulnerable — and those who care for them — are counting on it.
Blumenthal is vice president of governmental relations and advocacy for InVision Human Services, which has an office in Muhlenberg Township. Brother of an adult with autism, he has worked as a disability official in the Clinton and Obama administrations and a state legislator in Kansas.