James Ross (left) and Anthony Winnick (right) pictured with instructor Pam Bozman, receive day services at Dundalk’s Arc of Baltimore Center on North Point Road.     photo by Heather Perlberg

 

 

by Heather Perlberg

To raise awareness and garner support for the developmentally disabled community, Dundalk’s Arc of Baltimore center hosted the latest of several statewide town hall meetings on Dec. 7.
    About 150 people filled the Arc center that evening. Individuals with developmental disabilities and their family members, caregivers, community leaders, health advocates and elected officials listened to pleas for help and stories from families in need of services.
    The state’s Board of Public Works made cuts to the budget for the current fiscal year, which began in July 2008 and ended in June.
    Included in the cuts were payment rates, residential services, day services and employment, cut by about  2 percent. Respite care was cut in half and family support (which was on a system of rolling access) was cut by at least 10 percent, according to Steve Morgan, executive director for the Arc of Baltimore.
    Gov. Martin O’Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp are empowered to make cuts to the budget if revenue projections aren’t being realized.
    In August, revenues were falling short, Morgan said: “Five or six cuts directly affected people with developmental disability services.”
    “Some families may not get respite this next year because of the cuts,” Morgan said in a post-meeting interview. “Those minimal, low-cost supports go a long way [in] keeping a family stable.”
    One man at the meeting, a single father, fought through tears, his son sitting in a wheelchair to his left. His son’s troubles are increasing, the man told the crowd. He is receiving food stamps, his insurance won’t cover the new eyeglasses his son needs and his service worker was laid off due to budget cuts, he said.
    A CCBC Dundalk student with a developmental disability told the group that she is expected to graduate in May and will be ready to work after two years of training.
    “It is my time, but I will still need help. I will not be able to work without help,” she said.
    Many families spoke about the importance of reducing and eventually eliminating the Developmental Disabilities Administration’s waiting list.
    In Baltimore County alone, nearly 3,000 people were on the list as of June, according to information from the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration. The full list is comprised of more than 19,000 Maryland residents.
    Children and adults with disabilities including Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism have been waiting for DDA funded services such as family support and respite care, employment programs, transportation assistance and art therapy.
    Watersedge resident Michele Hill, statewide coordinator for the End the Wait Now! campaign, said the purpose of the town hall meetings and the campaign in general is to reach polititians, introducing them to issues and families.
    “The DDA was spared from the last round of budget cuts, so somebody must have heard something,” Hill said in a phone interview. She has three children, two of whom are autistic.
    Hill’s 12-year-old son has been on the waiting list for about five years. On top of his autism, he was diagnosed with bipolar and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders. He was hospitalized this summer for attempting suicide and once spent two months at the Kennedy Krieger Institute for not eating, she said.
    The 10-year Dundalk resident praised the special outreach program  at Battle Grove Elementary School that her daughter attended.
    The classes are designed to accommodate kids with special needs. Her daughter, now 5, “went from nine words to fully verbal in that program,” she said.
    Hill said the county schools have beneficial classes, but there are no programs for children who age out of the school system.
    “When [my son is] a transitioning youth, then that’s when he’s on his own and that’s when it will become frightening,” Hill said. “If people are given supported employment and in-home services that they need, they’ll go out and get a job and pay taxes.”
    Those on the DDA waiting list are placed in priority categories depending on the severity of their needs. But a lack of funding means high-priority individuals are still waiting.
    The 58-year-old son of Dundalk resident Mary Winnick has been on the waiting list for about 15 years, Winnick said in a phone interview.
    Her son is mentally retarded and has had two bouts with cancer, two cornea transplants and is diabetic.
    “If anything were to happen to me, [he] would have no place to go. I’d like to see him placed somewhere while I’m alive so I know he’s taken care of,” said Winnick, who is in her 80s. Her husband is 84 and has health problems of his own.
    “I had a back operation a year ago. I got 10 days of respite, but I never got any help after that,” Winnick said. “I think that I’ve done fairly well with the state, that they didn’t have to pay for him to be in residential [care]. Now I want to get him in, to no answer.”
    Winnick said she found a place for her son in a residential home that would still allow him to go to the Dundalk Arc Center during the week, but she is still waiting to hear from the DDA about whether he will be placed.
    The Arc of Baltimore currently serves 1,500 people in daily services, Monday through Friday, or 24/7 foster care or assisted living in Baltimore county and city. It provides intermittent services such as respite, educational services and smaller support groups to 6,000 people.
    “We are not able to serve [more] people – not because we don’t have the space. It’s because we don’t have the funding,” executive director Morgan said.
    State Sen. Norman Stone (6th District) and State Del. John Olszewski Jr. (6th District) addressed the crowd at the Dundalk Arc Center meeting and pledged to do their part.             “We’ll be your voice in Annapolis,” the senator said. “We’ll do anything we can, first of all, to avoid any further cuts and provide additional funding.” 
    Some meeting attendees asked the elected officials about a possible tax on alcohol to fund needed services.
    Olszewski, a former social studies and special education teacher,  said it could be difficult to get particular funds earmarked, but said he looked forward “to engaging everyone in this conversation and maybe one day putting an end to the waiting list.”
    O’Malley has not indicated with certainty whether there will be any more cuts to community services for people with developmental disabilities, according to Morgan. The budget is usually announced in early January.
    “Families need a break and they need the funding, and they really do need it now,” Hill said.