The article below is from the NY Times, and excerpted by Inclusion Daily Express.
Cuts To Community Supports Put Seniors And People With Disabilities At Risk Of Institutionalization
(New York Times)
July 21, 2010
HILLSBORO, OREGON– [Excerpt] As states face severe budget shortfalls, many have cut home-care services for the elderly or the disabled, programs that have been shown to save states money in the long run because they keep people out of nursing homes.
Since the start of the recession, at least 25 states and the District of Columbia have curtailed programs that include meal deliveries, housekeeping aid and assistance for family caregivers, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research organization. That threatens to reverse a long-term trend of enabling people to stay in their homes longer.
For Afton England, who lives in a trailer home here, the news came in a letter last week: Oregon, facing a $577 million deficit, was cutting home aides to more than 4,500 low-income residents, including her. Ms. England, 65, has diabetes, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, arthritis and other health problems that prevent her from walking or standing for more than a few minutes at a time.
Through a state program, she has received 45 hours of assistance a month to help her bathe, prepare meals, clean her house and shop. The program had helped make Oregon a model for helping older and disabled people remain in their homes.
But state legislators say home care is a service the state can no longer afford. Cuts affecting an additional 10,500 people are scheduled for Oct. 1.
Entire article:
Cuts in Home Care Put Elderly and Disabled at Risk
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/us/21aging.html
Related:
Cuts to home care services devastating for people (Associated Press)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0721c.htm
In-home caregivers, clients get more time (Statesman-Journal)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0721b.htm
Oregon legislative leaders announce plan to restore some cuts to senior, disability programs (Oregonian)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0721a.htm
Planet of the Blind 
I work in a nursing home and it amazes me that people don’t consider it a higher priority to do everything possible to help people remain at home in their later years. Don’t they realize that old age is the one disability we all face?
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I remember that Clinton signed into law a large social system welfare cut under the outcry of the poor rigging the system and going state to state to picking up food assistance and jobless assistance checks(welfare queens). Clinton was doing his bipartisan crap to appease the republicans which was a very centrist move. People were outraged at news documentaries (60 minutes) that tracked the lifestyle of poor people gaming the system. Rather than fix it they just cut it out. I agree that giving out handouts leading s to living on welfare is not progress. You want to make a Republican mad? Say this: Mexican Immigration, more votes for democrats more cheap labor for republicans. THey hate that notion that they are involved in the boarder mess.
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“Pennywise and pound foolish” is the appropriate addage to apply.
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