Recession Leads to Cutbacks on Services for the Disabled

For those of you that missed the USA Today online article, here's the link: 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-08-06-ada06_ST_N.htm

This actually started about 18 months ago here in Wisconsin.  With the State hiring freeze, as people retired or went on medical leave, ect., their positions were not filled.  While this is a good way to cut the number of government employees, it is also a detriment to many that relied upon the State and Federal government for services and programs. 

We all know of someone that is getting benefits and also working the system to their advantage.  But, for those that are truly disabled and need help with things like personal care in order to stay in their home, this can be disastrous.  The price of being cared for in a nursing home setting can run over 4k a month.  Many are much higher than that.  The price of having a home health aide visit someone in their home is much lower.  When we get to the point where we are now admitting people that could otherwise live in their own homes (most with family members present), we are putting added stress on the disabled person, their families and the State/Federal budgets.  Once a person is declared indigent, the State ends up paying for their care.  For a lot of people in this position (having lost the ability to live independently), the road is not long to being declared indigent. 

Another aspect of this in hearing loss world is one that I've now seen here in Wisconsin.  The Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Office for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing have seen budget and staff cuts (hiring freeze) to the point where they are not able to address all of the problems that they were able to just 18 months ago.  DVR used to be able to secure employment and even get Hearing Aids provided for those wanting and able to work, but being unable to due to their hearing loss and lack of money to pay for hearing aids.  You will see more people being officially declared disabled and eligible for Social Security/Disability payments that could have stayed on their own financially because of this scenario that is unfolding.

The ODDH has seen their staff decrease and thus is now limited to being able to provide services or even connect with almost 30% of the people here in Wisconsin needing their help who have hearing loss, blindness or being Deaf.  When you don't have enough staff to man the regional offices in the State, you can't provide the services or contacts needed.  I know that both offices have looked into obtaining grant money from various sources to try and keep doing what they were.  But, that is also quickly disappearing. 

The disabled among us are not known for being a vocal group.  Most of us are very stubborn and very determined to make things work without help from others.  Yes, I know that there are those that 'work' the system to their advantage, but for the most part, the majority will do anything that they can to stay off of the disability pay horse.  Once you take away the safety net of home health aides, help with employment, assistive equipment, ect., you leave a person with no other choice than to become a State/Federal supported citizen. 

In looking at the many offices of State and Federal Government, I am seeing a lot of duplication of programs/services/staff.  Wouldn't it be nice if an impartial source came in and streamlined the whole thing?  There are many overlapping departments that could actually work together in solving the problems.  But, that would also mean that we would not need as many government workers, offices, cars, equipment, ect.  Hopefully, someone will start realizing that we really do need to do the right thing and figure all of this mess out.  Until then, we all keep paying (taxes, fees, ect.) and getting aggravated until we may one day get to the point where we really don't care about any of it anymore.   When that happens, the tolerance and advances that have been made in getting Society to accept those that have disabilities will dwindle down to all of us looking out only for ourselves.  In other words, if the truly disabled are out of the system, we can all close our eyes to those actually needing help.  Just like we did in the 'old' days.  I'm not sure that I would like living like that again. 

Have a great week!