“Hopefully today encourages our Supervisors to do the right thing for county In-Home Caregivers and their families,” said county In-Home Caregiver and Bargaining Team Member Kathy Sobilo. “I’ve been overwhelmed by how much support we (county In-Home Caregivers) have received- from Caregivers across the state, IHSS recipients, Senior and Disability Rights organizations as well as people in the community who now know what’s going on.”

Currently, Humboldt County In-Home Caregivers are the lowest paid IHSS workers in the state of California ($8/hr.). They have never received an hourly wage above the state minimum requirement or had any type of benefits. Wages and benefits for the IHSS program are determined by County Board of Supervisors and vary by region throughout the state. Humboldt County In-Home Caregivers have been bargaining with the county for over a year and are seeking a modest $1.50 hourly wage increase over the course of two years. When viewed in light of the average hourly wage of Caregivers in surrounding counties ($9.87/hr.), the county’s refusal to offer any type of raise or benefits for county In-Home Caregivers is especially regressive.

“Today was a great day for Humboldt County In-Home Caregivers and Caregivers statewide,” said CUHW Statewide President Gail Ennis. ”It’s time Humboldt County In-Home Caregivers got the respect they deserve. Improving the lives of those that care for Humboldt’s most vulnerable can’t wait.”

To view video footage of yesterday’s Valentines’ Day rally click here.

Eureka Satellite Office

840 E. St. Suite 15

Eureka, CA 95501

P: (707) 407-0542

CDCAN DISABILITY RIGHTS REPORT
#010-2012 – JANUARY 19, 2012 – THURSDAY

State Budget Crisis – Breaking News:

FEDERAL JUDGE ISSUES PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION THAT CONTINUES STOPPING STATE & FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS FROM IMPLEMENTING 20% IHSS ACROSS THE BOARD REDUCTION

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 01/19/2012 03:32 PM] – A federal district court judge in Oakland, as expected, issued a court order that will continue blocking the Brown Administration and the federal government from taking any steps to implement the 20% across-the-board reduction in service hours for hundreds of thousands of children and adults with disabilities – including people with developmental disabilities – and seniors who receive In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS). The reduction would have also impact hundreds of thousands of IHSS workers. US District Court Judge Claudia Wilken issued the court order – called a “preliminary injunction” during the hearing held today in her court room in Oakland. The State will likely appeal the court order. The order issued today by Judge Wilken remains in effect unless a higher federal court – in this case the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals or the US Supreme Court decides to reverse it or if Judge Wilken decides at a later date to modify (change) it in some way.
Judge Wilken issued on December 1st a temporary restraining order that blocked the reduction from taking place until a she decided whether or not to grant a more permanent order to stop the cuts from being implemented. The preliminary injunction granted by Judge Wilken – requested by those filing the lawsuit (IHSS recipients) – means that the State federal governments would still be blocked from implementing the IHSS 20% cuts. In issuing the temporary restraining order in December, Judge Wilken had found that the reductions violated federal law and likely would, if implemented, cause immediate significant harm to people with disabilities and seniors in the IHSS program who would be impacted by the cut in service hours.

Judge Wilken heard today from attorneys representing IHSS recipients and the Brown Administration in the lawsuit “David Oster, et al v. Lightbourne”, (“Oster” is an IHSS recipient and “Lightbourne” is Will Lightbourne, the director of the California Department of Social Services, the state agency that oversees statewide the IHSS program). The case was previously titled “V.L. v.Wagner” (“V.L.” was the initials of an IHSS recipient and “Wagner” is the name of the previous director of the Department of Social Services).

The lawsuit was filed by Disability Rights California (DRC), Disability Rights Legal Center, National Senior Citizens Law Center, the National Health Law Program and San Diego attorney Charles Wolfinger on behalf of the IHSS recipients. The union plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which include five SEIU locals and United Domestic Workers-AFSCME, represented by law firm of Altshuler Berzon LLP.

20% Cut Part of the 2011-2012 State Budget “Trigger Cuts”

* The 20% across-the-board cut in IHSS hours amounting to a reduction of over $100 million in State general fund spending in the remaining months of the 2011-2012 State Budget year (and continue into the following budget year) was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2012 but never was implemented due to the temporary restraining order that was issued in December. The 20% reduction did include several exemptions to the cut for certain eligible persons in the IHSS program. With the court order issued today – the State and federal governments are still blocked from taking any steps to implement the cut for now.

* The reduction was part of the $1 billion in “trigger cuts” that were part of the 2011-2012 State Budget that was pulled because the State’s revenues fell significantly below what was budgeted last June.

* Among the other state budget “trigger cuts” included $100 million reduction in state general fund spending to the developmental services budget for the 2011-2012 State budget year that ends June 30, 2012 – with another $100 million covering the 2012-2013 State Budget year.

* The 20% across-the-board reduction is in addition to other cuts and major changes to the IHSS program Governor Brown proposed as part of his 2012-2013 State Budget.

(CNN) — Whenever Felicia Hudson gets overwhelmed juggling a full-time job and caring for her ailing father, she finds solace in a piece of paper hanging in her office…“Circumstances do not cause anger, nervousness, worry or depression … it is how we handle situations that allow these adverse moods,” it says. “We actually choose our own attitudes. I choose to be calm, well-adjusted and happy!”

She can’t remember where she found the motto, but focusing on it is one of several coping mechanisms Hudson has developed since she took her father out of a nursing home in July 2008 and moved him into her two-bedroom apartment in San Diego.

By then, 72-year-old Alvin Hudson had suffered three strokes and been diagnosed with diabetes, kidney failure and renal disease, requiring a long list of medication and dialysis three times a week.

It was only a matter of days before Hudson became overwhelmed, she says.

“It was like, ‘oh my, what did I get myself into?’” the 51-year-old Georgia native recalls. “Sometimes, I would just go into the bathroom and cry.”

She laughs about it now, but in the beginning, “it was horrible,” she says.

She’d go to her job at a manufacturing plant at 8 a.m., leaving at lunch three times a week to bring her father to a dialysis center. She’d return to work and stay late to make up the time, and then go back to the center to pick him up. Those were just the normal days. If he had an extra appointment with the dentist, podiatrist or general practitioner, she took the day off to shuttle him around and sit in waiting rooms.

“I put my life on hold,” she said. “I was trying to do it all.”

It’s a scenario familiar to many across the United States as adult children become caregivers for aging and chronically ill loved ones. With the first of the baby boomers turning 65 in 2011, the number of Americans entering retirement age is expected to nearly double by 2030, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Aging.

As the country braces for the prospect of providing health care to roughly 72 million adults, the impact on caregivers is coming into focus. A study released last week found that Americans caring for aging and chronically ill relatives reported higher levels of stress, poorer health and a greater tendency to engage in unhealthy behaviors to alleviate stress than the population at large.

Moreover, 55% of caregivers reported feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand, according to the American Psychological Association’s “Stress in America” survey, which was conducted online among 1,226 adults in the United States in August and September.

While emphasizing results among caregivers, the survey also found that 22% of Americans reported “extreme stress” and 39% said their stress had increased over the past year. Those results were higher among caregivers, who were also more likely than the general population to report doing a poor job at managing and preventing stress, according to the survey’s findings.

“People who care for loved ones tend to take on a lot, but don’t take care of themselves,” said Beverly Hills psychologist Fran Walfish, who helps look after her 90-year-old father. “It’s easy to neglect yourself when you try to be all things to everyone else, but something has to give and it catches up with you.”

The report emphasizes the public health implications of high stress levels, with caregivers reporting greater rates of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and depression.

“It takes an incredible amount of self-awareness but you have to be willing to say I need help, I’m not omnipotent,” Walfish said. “It’s impossible to be all things to everyone, so what we have to do is have honest straight talk with ourselves about how much we can handle and when we seek help from others.”

The same lesson applies to those who are stressed, without the added burden of being a caregiver, she said. Significant sources of stress among respondents included money (75%), work (70%), the economy (67%) and relationships (58%), according to survey results.

Regardless of the cause, stress often results from taking on too much and not knowing when to stop or ask for help.

“People feel a lot of pressure, especially in this economy, to not complain or set limits for themselves. Before you know it, you can have a bodily reaction that can be very negative, from extreme depression to heart attack or stroke,” said Andrew Spanswick, chairman and CEO of KLEAN, a residential addiction treatment center in West Hollywood, California.

“Americans are chronically sleep-deprived and overworked, so most people could really benefit from taking time for themselves and figuring out a way to relax,” he said.

For low-income households, a reprieve can be hard to come by. Even as work piled up around her, Hudson didn’t complain, fearing for her job security. She’d lie awake at night worrying about finances. With the rest of her family across the country in Atlanta, she felt alone. She lost contact with friends, put on weight and began to neglect basic household chores amid the hustle of work and caring for her father.

Help finally arrived for Hudson and her father when they discovered an all-inclusive elder care center that accepted Medicaid. St. Paul’s PACE, which stands for Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, functions like a day care for the elderly, providing medical services, social outlets and meals under one roof, along with transportation to and from the Bankers Hill campus.

“What we usually encounter is a very overwhelmed adult child who is trying to work and can’t keep things together. Oftentimes, their house is a mess, they’re financially burdened and they no longer have outside ties to the community because all their time is spent caring for the mom and dad,” said Amanda Gois, marketing director of St. Paul’s PACE.

“The adult child is almost at the point of resenting the parent they love and the parent is often depressed and withdrawn and has lost a desire to thrive or connect with the community because he or she doesn’t want to be more of a burden,” she said.

Now, Hudson no longer has to bring her father to appointments. The program picks him up from home three times a week and brings him to the center, where he receives his medication and has lunch with other clients. The program also brings him to the dialysis center and back before returning him home. One night a week, someone from PACE comes to the home and cleans his room, changes his sheets and provides extras like a foot rub.

“The goal is she can now enjoy her dad versus having to care for her dad,” said Gois.

For Hudson, it’s working. She joined a gym with a goal of taking off her caregiver weight. She has the ability to focus on her job and work overtime if she wants.

At home, she still occasionally takes refuge in the bathroom if she has a disagreement with her dad. But it’s a world of a difference from when they first became roommates, almost four years ago.

“It’s a godsend,” she said. “I’m finally getting my life back.”

WHAT: Join a CUHW In-Home Caregiver Teleforum and receive the latest information about IHSS, the state budget and the 20% trigger cuts. It will allow you to ask live questions and participate in polling questions along with other members from throughout California.

WHEN: Thursday, January 12th @ 5 pm

HOW: You will receive an automated phone call at the number we have listed for you in your membership records. All you have to do is press 1 on your keypad and you will be able to join CUHW members from all across the state on the call.

THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR THIS CALL!

If you would like to take this call at a phone number different from what we have listed for you, please call our Member Resources Department at: 1-855-834-4034

Vice Chair – Karen Varner

Treasurer - Amando Correa

Secretary - Connie Acevedo

Baby Board Member – Dalene Kilmartin

If you are an In-Home Caregiver in Tulare County and would like to become involved with your local chapter please send an email to: chairtulare@cuhw-leaders.org or visit the Visalia Satellite Office:

Visalia Satellite Office

Location: 1811 Sunnyside Ave. – Visalia, CA 93277

Vice Chair -Altagracia Avila De Sanchez

Treasurer -Charles Watkins

If you are an In-Home Caregiver in Tehama County and would like to become a part of the chapter leadership please contact the Tehama County Chapter Chair Diane Crisel at: chairtehama@cuhw-leaders.org or call us at: (916) 239-3535.