URGENT!! Adult day care program to shutdown

[Guest guest]

Dear Governor Crist, Speaker of the House Rubio and Senate President Pruitt:

I am not sure if you have read this article about the only program that serves adults with developmental disabilities in Naples is closing in a month? This is just the beginning of a huge crisis that is hitting the state of Florida's developmental disability population. The recent cuts in the budget are systematically undoing years of hard work and efforts by providers and families to provide a meaningful life to our most vulnerable citizens. You cannot tell me that it is okay to have the only program in a county close. You cannot tell me that it is okay to have our adults with developmental disabilities sit at home and just exist. You cannot tell me that you can sit by and let this continue to happen. I beg you to stop the bleeding and appropriately fund these programs.

In Brevard County, the Achievement Center that has been in existence for 40 years, recently closed its Adult Day Training program in Melbourne. Now they have the one location in Rockledge and families are expected to drive over an hour to get their adult child to that program or else they are in the same boat as the families in Naples. That is made even more difficult, because the transportation funding decreased as well. A family whose son lives at home is now investigating a group home near the Rockledge location. This means that the cuts that were implemented will actually cost the state an additional $30,000.00 or more for this one client, because the program closed. Multiply that by the 4,500 people who have appealed their tier placement and you can see what your actions have done. The cuts will actually end up costing Florida taxpayers more.

I have lived in Florida most of my life and I must say that it makes me sick to my stomach that we can all just look people in the face and say we don't have the money. That is a lie. The state of Florida wastes more money in a week, then it would cost to fix this problem.

In today's addition of Florida Today newspaper one of the Republican candidates for the state legislature stated there is $16 billion dollars in the budget that is considered non-essential. So those non-essential programs are more important than the most vulnerable in our society? Because some of that money could have been diverted to avoid this crisis. The amount of funding that has been cut from the Agency for Disabilities budget is only about $100 million dollars. If we have $16 billion that is non-essential, then why hasn't anyone funded these programs appropriately? Please don't tell me that it is complicated. It isn't complicated. It is very simple.

This is an emergency. This needs to be addressed before more programs close. Please do not pass the buck and say we have to wait until the next session. I request that you have a special session to address the plight of the developmental disability community NOW.

There are group homes closing. There are programs closing. There are families that are scared to death. Are you proud of your accomplishments in this area? Well, you shouldn't be. The state of Florida is number 49 in the country for social services spending and funding for persons with developmental disabilities.

Please don't make us wait any longer. Please don't ignore our population. Families and caregivers of persons with disabilities make up about 15-20% of the voters in this state. I promise you, that we are not going away. We are here to stay and we want action. Why is it that there always has to be a lawsuit to get Florida to do the right thing? We don't want any more lawsuits. WE WANT ACTION BY THE PEOPLE THAT WE ELECTED INTO OFFICE.

Regards, Ven Sequenzia, Jr. PresidentAutism Society of AmericaState of Florida ChapterNew MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Dining, Movies, Events, News more. Try it out!

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Family Care Council Communication:

For your information and sharing.

Bob Wessels

Employment Coordinator, Community Outreach, FCC Liaison

Agency for Persons with Disabilities

201 West Broward Blvd., Suite 305

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Tel: - Fax:

Email: _Wessels@...

www.apdcares.org

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The Agency supports Persons with Developmental Disabilities in Living,

Learning and Working in their Community.

----- Forwarded by Wessels/APD/DCF on 10/14/2008 12:12 PM -----

APD News/D20/DCF

Sent by: Jeff

Saulich

10/14/2008 12:08

PM Subject

APD News Clip -- Adult day care

program to shut down Nov. 14

(Sunrise of Collier) -- Naples

Daily News

Naples Daily News - October 14, 2008

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/oct/13/adult-day-care-program-shut-down-nov-\

14/

Adult day care program to shut down Nov. 14

By LIZ FREEMAN

NAPLES — Kathy Heider doesn’t know how to tell her 39-year-old daughter,

Amy, who has epilepsy and is developmentally disabled, that she won’t be

going to her adult day program anymore come next month.

Sunrise Community of Collier County, formerly known as TECH, is closing its

adult day program in East Naples on Nov. 14 because of state budget cuts.

“She will be devastated,†Heider said of her daughter. “I just don’t

understand it. Why pick on Naples?â€

Officials with the Miami-based Sunrise Group said state budget cuts and a

revamped Medicaid waiver system for how people with developmental

disabilities are classified for services is making it impossible to keep

the program afloat.

Sunrise is required to give a 30-day notice to the state Agency for Persons

with Disabilities of its plans to close after the Oct. 15 start of the

revised Medicaid waiver system with service caps, hence the Nov. 14 closing

date.

Besides Amy Heider, another 55 adults with developmental disabilities and

their families who have relied on Sunrise’s day program at 3984 Arnold Ave.

will have no place to turn.

Nobody else runs a similar program in Collier, which is effectively a

respite program for the families of the adult children with developmental

issues. The program operates Monday through Friday and offers help with

daily living skills and other pre-vocational activities.

“We have struggled over this,†said Weeks, chief financial officer of

Sunrise Group. “It is something we very much hate to do. It was not taken

lightly.â€

Sunrise will continue to offer in Collier its supportive living assistance

and supportive employment programs, where some adults with functional

levels of disabilities are able to live independently in apartments and

acquire job training skills at an employer’s workplace. Locally, 39 local

adults are involved in the supportive living and supportive employment

program, said Starzyk, Sunrise executive director in Collier.

Families of the 56 local residents who regularly come to Sunrise’s

adult-day center are being notified now of the planned closing. Where they

will turn for help is unclear.

“That is the question we put forth to the state,†Starzyk said, adding that

not operating the day program will save $480,000 a year, but the money for

services for the individuals remains attached to them if they can find

other services.

Some people might be able to go to similar programs in Lee County but

transportation becomes an issue, and the state would have to bend some of

its rules to allow that, he said.

Weeks, Sunrise’s CFO, said the parent nonprofit organization has been

subsidizing the Collier program by $150,000 to $200,000 a year in recent

years, for a total of $500,000 in the last five years. That is no longer

sustainable now that revisions to the Medicaid waiver system with new caps

on services is kicking in, which would make the Collier program operate at

a new deficit of $13,000 a month, he said.

“The debts have slowly grown and the state has not provided adequate

funding,†Weeks said. “The (Collier) program was one of the biggest

losers.â€

Sunrise has not taken steps to close down any of its other programs in the

state, although there has been some consolidations, he said.

If an outside charity or donor stepped forward to cover the $13,000 a

month, the Collier adult day program could be kept open, he said.

“It’s very possible,†Weeks said. “We would be very interested, if we

hadn’t closed. Time goes on and it gets more difficult.â€

“If a miracle comes, who knows,†said Starzyk, the local executive director

of Sunrise. “But it certainly is not something I plan on.â€

The building on Arnold Avenue where the adult day program operates is on a

month-by month lease, he said. The program also has 12 employees, who are

being told they are losing their jobs.

Ernie Bretzmann, executive director of the United Way in Collier County,

learned late last week of Sunrise’s plan.

“We hate to see this happen,†he said.

The United Way chapter had provided Sunrise of Collier with $90,000 this

year and was prepared to allocate $90,000 for next year but was asking

Sunrise to come back by December with a plan to raise $135,000 in 2009 to

help stay solvent, he said.

“We feel they needed to work harder on finding resources elsewhere,â€

Bretzmann said. “We encourage agencies to go out and raise money. They

(Sunrise) decided not to do that.â€

For Heider and her daughter, the impending closing of the adult day program

will mean a disruption to the rhythm of their lives. Every weekday morning,

Amy gets picked up by a special-needs bus outside the family’s home and is

driven to Sunrise five mornings a week. She stays there during the day and

plays bingo, plays on the computer and socializes.

“She knows everybody,†her mother said, adding that her family would be

willing to help somehow keep the program operating.

“That is all she had,†Heider said. “She loved it. (Sunrise’s closing)

is

going to take the joy out of her life.â€

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