To see the video clip that went with this online story, click here.
I want to thank the Arc of Effingham's Nina Dasher for her help in making this story happen at the last minute. To learn more about the Arc of Georgia's efforts, click here. Also thank you to all those families on the waiting list who had very important stories to tell as well that I called throughout the afternoon. Note that they got the number of waiting wrong - they were using numbers from December - it is now 6,812 for people with DD and 138 for people with physical disabilities. For a list of cuts, go to the Unlock website.
State lawmakers continue looking for ways to cut two billion dollars in spending, as Georgia faces a historic budget shortfall.To see the video clip that went with this online story, click here.
The Governor’s proposed budget includes cutting $428 million to lower property taxes, $350 million dollars in cuts to education, plus cuts to transportation, prisons, and healthcare.
One area facing critical cuts is special needs service programs for the developmentally disabled, specifically developmental disability waivers. The waivers help families with providing special services and care—like mental health benefits, wheelchair ramps, and at-home caretakers— for their loved ones.
Jennifer Lanier, 37, lives with disabilities most of us can’t imagine. “Mental health status, and disability status… I had back surgery, and I suffer with schizophrenia… a developmental disability also,“ says Jennifer. Jennifer lives with a family friend but spends most of her time confined indoors.
“Either go to doctor’s appointments, or stay at home and put puzzles together,“ she says. Jennifer has qualified for a developmental disability waiver from the state that would help her in a number of ways. “Transportation, that’s a big thing I have a big problem with, because you have to call 3 days in advance to get the Medicaid van,“ she explains.
But advocate Nina Dasher says Jennifer is one of 6,700 hundred Georgians and their families on a waiting list for this assistance.“When you have a developmental disability, your functioning is that of a child most of the time, and that takes constant care for a lifetime,“ says Dasher, who herself cares for an 18 year-old granddaughter with developmental disabilities.
Dasher says Governor Perdue’s current budget includes no money for the program.
“It’ll be at least 18 months before anybody else with a developmental disability will get on that waiver, and as the population that has the waivers when they die, that money is not being left in the budget,“ she says.Joyce Arnsdorff says she’s happy to open her home to Jennifer but wishes the government could do more to help.
“It’s like they say, ‘Well, you know you need to be taken care of, so we’re going to take care of you, but we’re not going to do as much as you need,‘“ she says.
Advocates for Georgians with developmental disabilities have started a campaign called Unlock the Waiting Lists to try to reduce the number of people waiting for these services.
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