Care workers seeking changes

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff

Dotti Adams usually has time to herself in the mornings, before she wakes her husband, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
She also gets a chance to go grocery shopping, or to the movies, when a personal care assistant comes to her home, about 20 to 25 hours each week.
The rest of the time, Adams is on her own.
“I have to do a lot,” she said.
She said the assistant helps out a lot. Personal care assistants work under the Medicaid plan, helping out with the daily living, fixing food and providing transportation for the elderly and the disabled. They are an alternative to nursing homes.
State Director of Virginia Association of Personal Care Assistants David Broder said people generally prefer having an assistant come to their home rather than going to a nursing home. Broder said personal care assistants are often less expensive and more customer directed. However, he said the demand is increasing because family members today are less available as care givers in comparison to past generations.
Ana Maria Mendez, the group’s regional representative, said there are about 850 personal care assistants in Southwest Virginia. Those workers, Mendez said, receive no health care benefits. She also said there is a pay discrepancy depending upon where they work and live. Pay in Southwest Virginia is about $8.60 per hour, she said. A counterpart north of Roanoke, she said, could make about $11.14 per hour, all funded by Medicaid.
Broder said the lack of health care and the discrepancies in pay result in a high turnover rate.
“There’s no system to get a pay increase,” he said. “And there’s virtually no opportunity for career advancement.”
Broder said he knows of a person who went through 12 personal care assistants last year.
“I think we really have to work on this today,” he said.
Broder is part of a campaign across the state advocating a 10 percent wage increase and subsidies to purchase health care for assistants. Personal care assistants brought the issue out at public hearings last week in Norfolk, Fairfax, Rustburg and Richlands. The hearings were held to get input on Gov. Tim Kaine’s proposed two-year budget. Personal care assistants plan to address the state Senate’s Finance Committee and the House Appropriation Committee on Jan. 14.
Meanwhile, Mike Guy of District Three Governmental Cooperative in Marion said personal care assistants remain in high demand in Southwest Virginia. Just in the District Three area, there are 25 people on the waiting list for respite services and 205 waiting for homemaker services.
District Three provides services for Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, Washington and Wythe counties, and the cities of Bristol and Galax.
Adams said she would continue caring for her husband at home, with the help of a personal care assistant, until it gets too hard. But that won’t be anytime soon, she said.
Right now, her husband is happy. She’s happy, though she does see the workings of the disease. She had to stop taking him on walks when he stopped recognizing their home upon return. And he doesn’t always remember her name.
“He knew me, he knew my name until last summer.”
To contact Caitlin Sullivan e-mail or call (276) 628-7101.

More stories on homecare:
Vance Whiteaker takes care of his wife Lona in their Damascus home. To read his story, ‘In the business of taking care’, click here: http://www.swvatoday.com/comments/in_the_business_of_taking_care/news/1369/

Mahlon Moore and Anne Good take care of eachother in their Abingdon home. To read their story, ‘Friends for life’, click here: http://www.swvatoday.com/comments/friends_for_life/news/1305/