The Politics of Work

There are a lot of changes happening in all areas of the DD field. (DD meaning - developmental disability). I am going to explain this (although I don't know why) in a very non technical way. It is definitely not all of the details - not even a lot of the details - just the details pertaining directly to me mixed up a bit with my own observations and opinions. If you are reading this and want just the cold hard facts and politics about it - you will have to do your research elsewhere. Sorry. Just trying to explain to my family and friends what kind of changes my work is going through and a little bit of background on what I do.

So, I am now at my 3rd facility/organization who support people with these developmental disabilities. These are disabilities that usually occur before 3 years old. These disabilities are genetic and didn't happen from an accident. Anyway, I have been doing this since 2004. When I first started, I was taught this basic principle: WE SHOULD BE WORKING OURSELVES OUT OF A JOB!

This statement means that we are teachers. I am responsible for support and teaching people how to do things that they couldn't do otherwise. I am responsible for teaching people to be independent and to make sure they have everything they need to do things on their own. I take this very seriously. Some of the people I work with may never be able to do things on their own. Some of them I support so that they can learn to eat independently. Some of them may just need verbal help to remember the steps to take when bathing. Others, need verbal support and encouragement when it comes to controlling their anger or reactions to other people. And then I also support some people who need total care but are learning to walk or maybe just to entertain themselves with constant supervision. Whatever their need, I support them and try my hardest to find ways for them to learn.

There are some people who work in this field that have the same goal and objective as I do. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who work in this field who make choices for the people w/ disabilities (usually in the staff's best interest and not the client's). These people often do things for the clients instead of teaching the clients to do for themselves. It is alot easier to just do it for them and it takes a lot less patience. It also comes with a lot less resistance from the clients and a lot less overall work.

(bottomline) The DD Waiver is: an amount of money that the government pays to organizations on behalf of each client to provide staff and support services for them. The way they know what to pay the organization for is that staff must document all of the services that are being given. Here is where a lot of the problem comes from: Staff #1 may document: "Jill" took a bath and ate breakfast. Staff #2 may document: "Jill" was verbally prompted by staff that it was time for her bath. Jill required verbal reminders from staff about the things she would need to complete this task. Jill gathered the equipment and was physically assisted with setting the water to the temperature of her choosing. Jill undressed and got into the tub without assistance. Jill was then verbally prompted to wash her hair. Jill needed physical assistance with rinsing her hair free of the shampoo.....etc.... See the difference. #1 looks like Jill did it all by herself; #2 shows the support she actually needed. 9 out of 10 staff document like #1. So, the government (despite many warnings to the organizations) has said, well, we are paying you for supporting these people when all of the documentation says that they can do it by themselves.

Anyway, a year or so ago, the government has (for whatever reason) cut the amount of money that they are going to pay organizations to care for our clients. When these cuts take place the organizations will not be able to provide all of the services that they do now including the staff to client ratios amongst other things. Some of the clients are receiving one staff to one client services - this may decrease to three clients to one staff. When the organizations started fighting these cuts, the government decided to test each client individually to see what kind of services they actually need. The organizations initially thought - yeah! that will work. Here lies the problem:

The organizations are so USED to advocating for the clients. Showing the client's strengths and accomplishments instead of their disabilities and things that are difficult for them. So, right off the bat they began saying all of the things that the client's could do - emphasizing on the positives. They government took these results and again said, "oh, they don't need all of the help that you say". After the results come out there were a lot of clients who could never realistically live on their own - that they government has cut all staff for except 3 hours a day. With this in mind - many of our clients don't have families who can care for them - if they did, they wouldn't need us. Anyway, in a continuous fight, the organizations have been able to push back the cuts till January. They were supposed to happen in July. We have also gotten the government to retest some of the clients now that they know how to take the test.

So, sorry for the very dry work talk. But that is just a little bit of the insight into my career and the work that I do. Hope you guys have a great week. My post hopefully will be a little more light hearted next time.