Four stories about how budget cuts in different states means the loss of disability-related programs. In the picture from Quincy, Mass., the Department of Mental Retardation and Department of Mental Health cuts will cause layoffs at Quincy based Work Inc., a non-profit that employs more than 100 disabled adults in a variety of jobs. Betsy Baumgartner, 43, has been employed since 1989.In Pennsylvania, The Lebanon Daily News reports that county commissioners may be cutting even more jobs before the end of the year. "Many county human-service departments are largely state funded, including Children and Youth Services and Mental Health/Mental Retardation. If the state pulls money from them, as expected, jobs and services may be cut, the commissioners said," The Daily News reports.
In South Carolina, The Post and Courier in Charleston reports "the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs axed five child day-care programs, including the Webb Center in Charleston. Parents of 30 children cared for at the Webb Center, which has eight staffers, are desperate to find another place for their kids because the department announced last week the center will close in about five weeks because of the state budget crunch. Many of the parents said at a meeting Thursday night that they worry about being able to keep jobs and homes because they may have no alternative other than to care for their children at home. Their kids, who have disabilities including mental retardation, autism, Down syndrome and Fragile X syndrome, receive specialized day care at the Webb Center that the parents fear can't be found elsewhere."
In Virginia, The Examiner in D.C. reports "proposed cuts in Fairfax County’s mental health services would shunt more than 300 mentally disabled riders off the county’s trusted transportation service, as well as squeeze other support services for a highly vulnerable population. County leaders, facing a $500 million budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year, have asked all agencies to show how they could trim their bottom lines by up to 15 percent."
In Quincy, Mass., The Patriot-Ledger reports:
Geralyn Hughes is devastated that she’s losing the job she loves on Wednesday. It’s no ordinary layoff for Hughes, 45, who has a learning disability. She represents the face of a unique group of jobless adults grappling with a shaky economy – people with developmental and intellectual disabilities or mental illness whose jobs rely on state funding.
The funding that supported Hughes’ job at Work, Inc. in Quincy was slashed in Gov. Deval Patrick’s round of budget cuts last month.
The Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission lost $1.1 million for employment assistance for adults across the state with severe disabilities.
Locally, Work, Inc., which provides training, support and job placement for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities and mental illness, directly lost $100,000 from the state Office of Disabilities and Community Services.
A job support program for adults with mental illness – called Service Employment Education, or SEE – also was ended when the Department of Mental Health lost $3.7 million for adult community services.
Cyndi Roy, spokeswoman for the state Department of Administration and Finance, said making $1 billion in state cuts while protecting local aid to cities and towns led to tough decisions.
“We came up with a big number, and we then went to the individual agencies to determine how those cuts would be distributed,” she said.
For Hughes, who lives in Avon with her mother, who is retired, these cuts mean losing a place to go every day.
“I’d rather be making money like everyone else,” she said this week. “I don’t want to depend on anyone.”
The Arc of Massachusetts, an advocacy group for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities with offices across the state, opposes the $1.1 million in cuts to employment assistance.
“More than half of the people served by this program are living at home with family
and are not going to have anywhere to go,” said Josh Komyerov, Arc’s director of
government affairs. “It will have a domino affect on other family members, who
may need to leave jobs to be with them.”
According to Arc, 200 of the disabled adults facing unemployment live at home with families who may not have an immediate solution for taking care of them.
Anne and George Coffey of Whitman have decided to pay out of their own pockets for their son to continue his work program.
James Coffey, 25, who is developmentally delayed and has a seizure disorder, requires a full-time work coach, which made finding a job for him difficult, George Coffey said.
“We’re not well-off, the economy has hit us pretty hard,” he said, “but (paying for James’ job) is not even up for discussion.”
The Coffeys estimate they will pay a few hundred dollars a month.
James Coffey, who does janitorial and landscape work through Arc’s regional office in Brockton, beams with pride when he brings home his weekly paycheck, his father said.
“It’s just great for his ego,” George Coffey said, “and that’s the saddest part of this whole thing. Not that it will cost the family money, but the self-esteem that some of these folks will lose.”
Not everyone affected has run out of options, though they now have fewer. About 75 of Hughes’ colleagues at Work, Inc. are now stuck in on-site job training programs. They are ready for a job placement in the community, but they will stay in training until funding is restored.
Betsy Baumgartner, 43, of Weymouth is among those with stalled job tracks. Betsy, who is developmentally delayed, assembled soup packages recently in a training workshop at Work, Inc., but with prior work experience she is capable of much more.
In addition to adults with learning disabilities, the budget cuts hit hard at vocational support services for adults with severe mental illness.
An estimated 2,000 adults statewide have lost training services and job coaches through the elimination of 22 Service Employment Education programs across the state, said James Cawley, spokesman for Work, Inc.
“It took us by surprise because the (SEE) program had its highest placement rate in 2007,” Cawley said. “It’s a travesty.”
The news hit hard for Quincy native Charles Maguire, 59, who got a job as a recreation assistant at the Weymouth Health Care Center through a job coach at Work, Inc. that he speaks to regularly.
“I need his support,” Maguire said. “It’s sort of like dropping me off a cliff.”
