From the Joplin, Mo.,
Globe. In the picture, Kristy Janssen, of Parsons, stands next to a tent Wednesday as she participates in a protest in the lobby of the Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services office in Pittsburg, Kan.
PITTSBURG, Kan. — Armed with handmade signs, noisemakers and even a camping tent, a group of physically disabled protesters and their care providers staged
a sit-in Jan. 7 at the local branch of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services in Pittsburg.
For protesters like Gary Bossell, who is on disability because of a heart condition, the Medicaid Home and Community Based Services waiver program through SRS provides them with resources for everyday living.
“I can’t get up to dress myself some days; I can no longer drive,” said Bossell, 42, of Chanute. “So I need assistance with basic living skills.”
Bossell was one of about 65 protesters who descended at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday upon the Pittsburg office for SRS at 320 S. Broadway.
As it turned out, the tent was not needed.
Greg Jones, one of the organizers of the protest, said the protest ended without incident around 5 p.m. after he spoke with Don Jordan, secretary of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. He said Jordan agreed to meet with a delegation from the statewide physically disabled waiver advisory committee by Jan. 31.
“We’re not stopping by any means,” Jones said. “The message was sent. We just hope the secretary and the governor’s office will react appropriately.”
Jones said the group has set up a Web site, http://www.stopthefreeze.com/, that will be updated daily.
Carrying homemade signs and chanting “business as usual ain’t gonna happen,” the group set up Wednesday morning in the lobby of the building and vowed not to leave until members had a discussion with representatives of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ office and with Jordan. Some of the members even pitched a tent in the middle of a reception area, apparently intent on staying through the night if necessary.
The controversy started when SRS announced in a press release on its Web site that effective Dec. 1, no new participants would be added to the physical disability waiver service. The freeze does not affect frail elderly, traumatic brain injury patients and medically fragile children. The department will continue to pay for care for disabled people who choose to leave their homes and be placed in nursing homes or assisted-living homes.
Plans call for the department to review the freeze after the new fiscal year begins on July 1, according to SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce.
“We have seen an unprecedented spike in demand for the services,” Ponce said in a phone interview Wednesday. “The reason (the freeze) was done is the program itself was spending over $10 million more than was allocated.
“The decision to freeze access to the program was not taken lightly. It was something we had to do to be fiscally responsible and to continue services for those currently using the program.”
Ponce said representatives from the governor’s office and Jordan have offered to meet with protesters to discuss the situation.
“Right now, our main concern is that we are able to continue to provide for customers who are coming to our Pittsburg office,” she said.
Jones, who works as director of advocacy for Southeast Kansas Independent Living, a Parsons-based organization that advocates for the disabled, said his appearance at the protest was “personal.”
“I’m a person with a disability,” he said. “This hard freeze basically means that if I’m currently getting services and I leave that slot, I can never come back. When the waiver dies, the slots won’t be filled. They will be lost to attrition.”
Several protesters who were interviewed Wednesday said they consider themselves or family members who are physically disabled to be too young to be confined to a nursing home, rather than be given a waiver to help pay for part-time personal care at home.
Bossell, the Chanute man, said the state’s option of paying for his care if he checks into a nursing home doesn’t seem like a good option. He said that despite his heart condition, he is active in church and works with other disabled people in his hometown.
“I’m a fairly young man,” he said. “And right now, I don’t want to live the rest of my life in a nursing home. Not when I don’t have to.”
The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services freeze, officials said, was
instituted to prevent the program from “overspending” while the state is in the
middle of revenue shortfalls and budget cutbacks as a result of the economic downturn.
From the Joplin, Mo., Globe. In the picture, Kristy Janssen, of Parsons, stands next to a tent Wednesday as she participates in a protest in the lobby of the Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services office in Pittsburg, Kan.