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Local News

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Disabled Ohioans wait and wait for housing help
Hancock County Health Dept.
By DENISE GRANT

Staff Writer

These are desperate times for the families of adults with developmental disabilities.

Many families have been waiting for help for years, but it usually takes an emergency to get the money needed to house and care for their disabled son or daughter.

There are 33,658 Ohioans waiting for help with housing through the state's "individual options" plan.

Blanchard Valley Center Superintendent Connie Ament said there are 190 people on Hancock County's list.

Sometimes, she has to tell parents that their situation isn't desperate enough. The only reassurance she can give is that if they become too sick and can't care for their disabled son or daughter, or if they die, she'll make sure their adult child gets care.

"We have a couple in their 70s with three adult children with developmental disabilities. He wants a home for them and he doesn't want to split them up," Ament said.

"In order for us to do anything, he would have to say he is no longer able to care for them. He's not willing to do that. He wants to wait.

"I've promised him that we won't let anything happen to them," she said.

Still, the best Hancock County can do for now is budget for six emergencies a year.

Under federal law, the developmentally disabled have a right to live in intermediate care facilities like the three residential homes at Blanchard Valley Center. The homes house 32 adults that are in need of 24-hour supervision, with on-call nursing.

Since the 1970s, the state has been closing its institutions for the mentally retarded and the developmentally disabled in favor of "deinstitutionalization."

Ideally, the developmentally disabled would live in their own homes with the assistance they need to stay there. But community supports are expensive, and the State of Ohio doesn't have the resources to house them all.

In 1997, Ohio be­gan asking qualifying families to waive their federal right to housing in ex­change for an "individual options" waiver, a lifetime designation that helps pay for services at home.

To qualify, a person must have a develop­mental disability and must need significant assistance for most of the day. They must also be Medicaid-eligible, meaning they have little or no money.

The Hancock County Board of Develop­mental Disabilities oversees the county's programs for people with mental retardation and oth­er developmental disabilities.

The board operates Blanchard Valley Center, which includes a school that serves students from birth through age 21, an adult voca­tional and habilitative program known as Blanchard Valley Industries, and the three residential buildings.

Hancock County also provides for 66 people at home through individual option waivers, funded with county and federal money.

While the amount of each waiver varies depending on the care needed, the county currently spends about $105,000 per month, or about $1.1 million a year to fund all the waivers. That's about 27 percent of the bill. The federal government pays the rest through Medicaid.

But it is about more than the numbers to Ament. With her, it is personal.

She has spent her 30-year career working in Ohio's system for the developmentally disabled. She served as an assistant director of the state Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities under former Gov. Bob Taft.

She worked as superintendent of the Richland County Board of Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities for 12 years prior to her appointment to the state post. She was named superintendent of Blanchard Valley Center in 2007.

Ament knows the stories, and they are often heartbreakers.

Darlene Williams, 62, of Mount Cory, said her sister, Sharon Deeds, 56, of Findlay, spent several years on the residential waiting list. Sharon, who is mildly retarded, moved with her mother, Luella Deeds, 87, into The Heritage in July 2006 after a fall left Luella unable to care for her daughter.

Both women then qualified for housing in the assisted-living facility. The arrangement worked for a few years, until Luella Deeds was moved into nursing care.

That left Sharon on her own for the first time in her life.

As she recounted her frustration and worry in trying to find a new home for her sister, Williams fought back tears.

"There were 79 people on the list before her. This sounds terrible, but that meant that 79 people had to be moved off that list or die before Sharon could get help," she said.

Williams wanted her sister to stay in Findlay, where she has more access to friends and social functions.

Once her mother was no longer able to care for her, Sharon moved to the top of the waiting list. She now lives in a group home, supported by an individual options waiver.

Ament said it is the "unknowns" that are unnerving for families. She's not comfortable with them, either.

"In terms of moving past emergencies in this county, we will need to obtain additional funding. It doesn't appear as though the state will be able to do this," Ament said.

"...During the last year and a half we have concentrated on reducing expenditures so we can use local funds to purchase waivers for those who are in emergency situations."

Without more money, Ament said Hancock County "will have to reduce some very necessary services in order to provide basic residential care for individuals, especially considering the fact our caregivers are aging."

By law, the board is only required to provide social workers and residential services to the developmentally disabled. That could leave all the county's other programs vulnerable to cuts.

The board will ask voters to renew a 1.9-mill operating levy in November, but it provides just enough money for current operations. Ament said the board didn't want to ask for more with the current state of the economy.

Ament is advocating changes in the laws that govern waivers to make them simpler and to make the waivers more efficient.

Over two years, John Martin, director of the state Department of Developmental Disabilities, said 3,000 new individual option waivers have been made available to Ohio residents.

As part of a lawsuit settlement, the state is providing Medicaid match money for 1,500 of the new waivers, an expense that is usually paid by the county boards.

Hancock County has received seven of the state-paid waivers.

Medicaid match money for the remaining 1,500 waivers statewide was funded by county boards.

Martin said the department is looking for new ideas, especially "from the field."

One idea getting some attention in Columbus is the idea of using "remote monitoring" to keep watch over clients in their homes. It could help "substantially" with costs, Martin said.

"That's just one example of something that has been brought to us by stakeholders. It has been neat working with the county boards and the providers to be as efficient as we can in these tough economic times," he said.

On the Net:

www.blanchardvalley.org

www.dodd.ohio.gov



Grant: 419-427-8412,

Send an e-mail to Denise Grant


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1 Comment

Harold E Brown wrote:
Can,t get help
“ I uesde to live in Findlay my I now live in Gulfport Ms my son Jonn went Blanchard Vally. But now I need help here in Mississippi Harrisison county The South mississippi Reagional Center which is in Long Beach says I have to get my son over to them.My problem I dont drive any more.They have vans running around all over yet they cant help me.Iam going to Social Security and see if can get him help its hard supporting him and myself on my Social Securty.chek. ”
Saturday, February 27, 2010 11:31:16 AM
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Benton Ridge Shooting

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