Times are tough; hit the most vulnerable
Once again, the state budget aims to cut programs, staff and funding to the Department of Health and Human Services, and raise fees for such things as copies of birth and death certificates — things all people have to have.
When Mike died, everyone, even the cable company and the phone service provider, wanted an original copy of his death certificate just to cancel services that were paid up to date. I sent some of them copies and they were satisfied.
I paid $15 each for originals; now they’ll be 24. Had I not refused to send some people originals, I could have spent up to $300. That might not sound like a lot of money, but it can be a big bite out of a budget for a family that has just lost its breadwinner.
Gov. Perdue’s proposed budget will continue up to 9 percent cuts in Medicaid, which already is desperately underfunded. Try to find a doctor who is accepting new Medicaid patients. The rates are so low already that most physicians and other service providers lose money.
The same is true for a lot of government-funded programs.
Goodwill Industries had to cut its employment support program because the state paid so little money. In the Asheville area, two programs remain: one at Liberty Corners and one at the Irene Wortham Center.
But Liz Huesemann, director of the Irene Wortham Center, said her program might have to go if the rates fall any lower.
“It’s not good,” Huesemann said. “It’s cming to the point where we might have to cut people or programs, and I hate to do that, but it’s coming to that point.”
Under the proposed budget, the state would reduce by 7 percent the amount it sends to nonprofits such as the Institute of Medicine, the Special Olympics and Action for Children. It would reduce Community Health Grants by 7 percent as well.
The budget also would reduce programs that help recruit physicians to rural areas where there are too few doctors; it also would reduce the program that recruits psychiatrists to rural areas and to state psychiatric hospitals.
Child care centers would get hit with higher licensing fees, while Smart Start, which funds subsidies for low-income children, would be cut by 4 percent.
It would reduce the AIDS Drug Assistance program for two years and eliminate positions and reduce contracts in the Early Intervention Program, which helps children with special needs before they get to school.
A highly successful program to recruit and retain child protective services social workers will be killed if the budget goes through as is. CPS experiences such a high turnover rate that children can be endangered. The biggest piece is the number of social workers who start in CPS and decide in short order that the work is just too stressful and depressing. Workers who go through the program are more likely to know what to expect and therefore more likely to stay on the job.
That’s just some of the cuts.
It seems whenever there’s a problem finding money, health and human services get cut first.
No one seems to realize that many of these services prevent the need for much higher-cost community and health services later on.
When you cut the after-school program, kids who have nowhere to go are more likely to find trouble and enter the justice system; when you cut a social services training program, you increase turnover among soial workers and thereby increase training costs.
When you eliminate psychiartic beds in hospitals, people with mental illnesses end up in emergency rooms and jails, where the costs are much, much higher.
Aside from the cost in dollars, though, is the cost in human dignity. We don’t place a priority on people, just on the bottom line.
We offer millions of dollars in tax cuts to lure businesses here, but we can’t offer anything to people in need.
Our priorities are screwed up; it’s time we started to straighten them out.
Have a beer in May
Stop into Altamont Brewing, 1042 Haywood Road, West Asheville, any time in May and ask for their "charity" beer of the day. Buy one and Life o' Mike gets $1. In fact, we get a buck for each one sold. So go in every day and have one to support Life o' Mike.
Thanks, Altamont!
Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a peer support program for people with one or more serious or chronic medical issues or disabilities.
We aim to reduce isolation and fear among people who have conditions, including psychiatric illness, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mild dementia or other cognitive disorder or disability, thereby reducing depression and complications as people learn to improve self-management of their medical conditions.
Patient Pals help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration. They can help people develop a list of questions to ask the doctor and then accompany the person to the doctor to make sure all the questions are answered, taking notes to be sure the person understands the doctor’s answers.
Our trained volunteers also accompany their “Pals” to art exhibits, movies and walks outdoors, meet for coffee, call to check in and more.
Our Pals have experienced weight loss, improvement in diabetes, HIV, psoriasis, depression and more, just because they have someone who cares about them. Some relationships develop into longer-term friendships; other Pals move on to more independent lives.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.
Start From Seed
Life o' Mike has a new program- Start from Seed (SFS).
SFS is a volunteer doula program aimed at providing non-medical, comprehensive support to low income, high-risk women and families of Buncombe County focusing on three areas:
1. We help new doulas with certification and training in return for their participation as a volunteer doula for SFS
2. We mentor volunteer doulas with their first few clients
3. Our volunteer doulas provide birth and postpartum doula services to low income, high risk moms, providing support and tools to empower them as a new parent.
A birth doula is a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth; a postpartum doula provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period.
Start from Seed clients are referred to us from the Buncombe County Department of Health’s Nurse-Family Partnership Program, Western North Carolina Community Health Services, and Mission Hospital. The Program is intended and designed for growing clients’ inner strength and helping them gain empowerment to help them cope with the emotional, physical and mental challenges of childbirth, labor, and motherhood.
Our new moms and their infants have many needs. If you would like to help them get off to a good start, please visit our Start from Seed web site: Start from Seed, or call Program Director Chelsea Kouns at 804-814-9946.
I know — Health and Human Services in NH got a big cut that is being passed onto the programs that serve the most vulnerable people in our communities. This world is just too warped to bear!!
But heaven forbid we should have a broad-based progressive tax in NH.
The rich would have to pay their fair share and we can’t have that!!!
Gubinatorial candidates have to take a silly oath not to institute any broad-based tax before they can actually ever consider running for office. It’s infantile and selfish and oh so stupid NH.