Volume 1 Issue  30    Date   April 15, 2004

Connecting Point is an email update service from the CORE (Choices, Options, and Resources, Education) Project of Washington PAVE (Parents are Vital in Education). The Connecting Point provides information, resources and updates to help transitioning students and adults with
disabilities, their families, schools, and other organizations and agencies understand services and options available for adults needing additional support.

In This ISSUE:    

1) States Average Nursing Home Costs, 2003
2) One Million Adults with Disabilities Lack Adequate Help with Essential Needs
3) Home Healthcare in California under Attack
4) Free Medication Resources

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1) States Average Nursing Home,2003   According to a 2003 GE Financial survey of more than 2000 nursing homes, the average nursing home cost was $57,700 per person.  
The high was Alaska at $166,700 and the   low was Louisiana at $35,900.  
Costs in or near large metropolitan areas, such as New York City or San Francisco, will be much higher than the state average.
(Information taken from Kiplinger's Retirement Report - March 2004)
One Million Adults with Disabilities Lack Adequate Help with Essential Needs

•  Only Thirteen states have higher average nursing home cost that

     Washington
Alabama                        $ 46,600
Alaska                             $166,700
Arizona                           $ 58,600   
Arkansas                         $ 39,300
California                       $  59,900
Colorado                        $ 52,500
Connecticut                   $ 97,400
Delaware                       $ 59,100
DC                                  $ 82,800
Florida                           $ 60,400
Georgia                          $ 43,200
Hawaii                           $ 84,700
Idaho                              $ 54,000
Illinois                            $ 54,100
Indiana                           $ 54,700
Iowa                                $ 42,000
Kansas                            $ 41,100
Kentucky                        $ 51,100
Louisiana                        $ 35,900
Maine                              $ 72,800
Maryland                        $ 64,300
Massachusetts                $ 87,500
Michigan                         $ 62,000
Minnesota                       $ 56,700
Mississippi                     $ 43,800
Missouri                          $ 42,100
Montana                          $ 46,400
Nebraska                         $ 49,400
Nevada                            $ 55,100
New Hampshire             $ 72,500
New Jersey                      $ 80,100
New Mexico                    $ 53,200
New York                        $ 92,100
North Carolina                $ 50,300
North Dakota                  $ 71,300
Ohio                                 $ 55,900
Oklahoma                       $ 40,700
Oregon                            $ 52,600               
Pennsylvania                 $ 66,100
Rhode Island                 $ 69,300
South Carolina              $ 46,800
South Dakota                 $ 43,400
Tennessee                      $ 45,800
Texas                              $ 43,200
Utah                                $ 47,900
Vermont                         $ 68,200
Virginia                          $ 50,200
Washington                   $ 62,700
West Virginia                $ 50,900
Wisconsin                      $ 56,200
Wyoming                       $ 51,400

National Average $ 57,700

2) One Million Adults with Disabilities Lack Adequate Help with Essential Needs  According to a new study from the University of California-San Francisco's Disability Statistics Center, of the approximately 3.3 million adults who require assistance from another person in two or more essential daily life activities, one million receive less help than they actually need. The study points to the importance of expanding access to paid personal assistance services, in particular among those adults with disabilities who live alone, and claims that this can be accomplished through public funding at a relatively low cost. http://rd.bcentral.com/?ID=1601208&s=11667406

3.   Home Healthcare in California under Attack The entire homecare system in this State is in grave danger and may not survive.  Blane N.  Beckwith - blane10@juno.com .  Are you ready for this struggle in YOUR State?
View this article View The Oakland Tribune
Care cuts may hit home hard.
Crowd in Oakland voices concerns about Arnold's plan to slash program for disabled
By Rebecca Vesely, STAFF WRITER
Thursday, April 08, 2004 - About 400 disabled and elderly people and their caregivers from across the region packed a town hall meeting in downtown Oakland on Wednesday to voice their concerns about a state budget proposal to slash in-home care services. Those attending -- many in wheelchairs and requiring assistance -- said Gov.  Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan to cut wages, benefits and eligibility for in-home supportive services, or IHSS, would be devastating.
"This 'terminator' -- he's out to terminate us," said Blane Beckwith, a 48-year-old Berkeley resident who requires around-the-clock care.
The IHSS program assists low-income blind, disabled or elderly people so they can stay in their homes. Care includes housework, running errands bathing, feeding and giving medication.
The governor's budget proposes cutting caregiver wages from $9.50 an hour to mini-mum wage of $6.75 an hour and eliminating their health benefits. Parents, spouses and other relatives could no longer get paid through the program. The county authority that screens workers and provides training would be eliminated.
About 75,000 people state-wide would lose care, at a savings of $365 million next fiscal year. In Alameda County, about 3,800 caregivers would see their wages and benefits slashed, and services for 1,650 disabled blind and elderly would be eliminated, said Charles Calavan, executive director of Alameda County's Public Authority for IHSS.
Pamela Simmons of Oakland has been a caregiver to Elnora Jackson for six years. Simmons said she needs the health benefits provided through her work for IHSS. "It would be hard for me to get medical benefits on my own because I am diabetic; I wouldn't qualify," she said.
State Senate Majority Leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, promised to appeal to his colleagues to take the IHSS cuts off the table. "I don't want this on my conscience, or the conscience of the Legislature," he said. "Lord knows your lives are hard enough without us adding more misery."
Hearings on the state budget will be held later this month. Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe has said cuts to IHSS -- a program that has grown 52 percent in five years to 300,000 enrollees -- are necessary because of the state's $15 billion deficit.
Alameda County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker choked up while speaking to the audience. "It's very emotional for me to sit here in this room," she said. "I know it was a long fight to get reasonable wages and benefits."
Carla Christensen of San Lorenzo sat in the front row listening, leaning against her 13-year-old son Bond's wheelchair. When Bond was one year old, he contracted a rare parasitic disease that "did a Pac-Man number through his brain" she said, and left him blind and disabled. Christensen quit her job and is his around-the-clock caregiver. She earns $1,159 a month through IHSS for 122 of those hours.
The IHSS money is critical for Christensen and her husband, who works as a doorman in downtown San Francisco, to afford the mortgage payment on their house. She fears they will lose their house if the proposed budget cuts go through.  "It's hard for me to comprehend that in an atmosphere of family values, minor children seem like they're being the first ones hit," she said. "I can understand everyone has to do their bit in hard times, but don't pick on them first."

4) Free Medication Resources
Many drug manufacturers have what's called Patient Assistance Programs. These programs are designed to help those who can't afford their medicines obtain them at no cost or low cost. The following web sites provide free information and application forms:
http://www.needymeds.com
http://www.rxassist.org  
http://www.rxhope.com/pap_selectdrug.asp
http://www.helpingpatients.org/  

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Readers are invited to send information about new resources on secondary
education, transition from school, services and supports for adults with
disabilities to connectingpoint@projectcore.org . Approved information
will then be posted.  Additional questions or comments can be sent to
the Project Coordinator at
coordinator@projectcore.org .
While The Connecting Point is not a discussion group, additional
questions and discussions can be posted at
bulletinboard@projectcore.org .
The CORE Project is funded by the Department of Education Rehabilitation
Services Administration.
The CORE Project (In Washington State)
Phone- 1-800-5-PARENT
Phone- 1-509-928-1522
Fax 1-509-928-1522
Web site www.projectcore.org

CORE Project
PMB 175
1324 N. Liberty Lake Rd
Liberty Lake, WA 99019
(A Project of Washington PAVE)