From penncapital-star.com
By Nancy Murray
I am the mother of three adults with intellectual disabilities. Personally, and professionally, I have advocated for people in the ID/A community for more than 40 years. I want decision-makers in Harrisburg to know that my family and many others have been desperately pleading for help for far too long.
Families have become the safety net for the very system that was created to support them. The crisis in the ID/A community is getting worse every day, and we desperately need all of our legislators to make this a funding priority.
Families, people with ID/A, Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), and provider organizations are united in making formal requests for funding. Today, though, I am a mom reaching out to say ‘Help us. These are our sons and daughters. They are Pennsylvanians and some of our most vulnerable neighbors. They are all of us.’
Increased funding will allow service providers to hire and retain skilled Direct Support Professionals to care for people living in community homes and people living with their families. Today, due to the low wages, DSPs are looking for jobs in other types of businesses and, frankly, where the work requires much less responsibility, training, and effort.
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