In-home help program for needy faces cutback
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Lindsay Jones sits with her father, Robert Jones, at his home in Greenfield.
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HARRISBURG -- Pittsburgh resident Robert Jones' health has been failing for months, but he's still waiting to receive in-home care through a government program called attendant care.
"I've had to leave work because he couldn't get up to get his medicine. If he's too sick to drive [I have to take him to dialysis]. And it's just rough," said his daughter, Lindsay Jones.
Her father has diabetes, and when his kidneys started failing, Ms. Jones said she tried to move as fast as she could to help her family through the application process for attendant care, a government program she helps provide as a service coordinator for United Cerebral Palsy/Community Living and Support Services (UCP/CLASS) in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Jones, of Greenfield, was accepted into the program in January but has been on the waiting list since then. Now, it looks as if he could be on the list for an additional five or six months.
"I've been told there's not money in the budget to put him on" the program, said Matt Perkins, director of attendant care for UCP/CLASS.
Mr. Jones' nephew Jamie Pippman has been helping out while he's on summer break.
"He's going to be going back to school next month. So it's just going to be me and the dog," Mr. Jones said. "I'm just afraid I'm going to get sick here. The other day I had to have my wife and my daughter come home ... I really need this [attendant care]."
Attendant care is available to nursing home-eligible residents between the ages of 18 and 59 who have long-term physical impairments. The program was cut by 14 percent in the state's most recent budget, which reduced funding to various programs to close a $4.2 billion deficit.
In 2010-11, the program received $120 million, $106 million from state funds and $14.2 million in federal stimulus money. This year, the program is receiving $103.5 million.
Most of the program's $17 million decrease came from the loss of federal stimulus money, which had been in place since the 2008-09 fiscal year.
The state itself is contributing $2.8 million, or about 3 percent, less to the program than it did in the 2010-11 fiscal year.
First Published July 25, 2011 12:00 am
