Dear Editor:
I am a mental health care provider for Seneca Health Services. I help my father care for my two brothers. Both of them have Autism and mental retardation. Only one of them can talk. They both require 24/7 care and supervision.
I am both hurt and disgusted at how the Department of Health and Human Resources snuck in their proposal to cut services to these most helpless individuals after the legislative session had passed. Every family with a disabled child on the Medicaid Wavier program with be hurt by these cuts. Those with the most severely handicapped ones will be hurt the most.
These cuts placed hard caps on many services these people receive and cut hours back so that many families will be hard pressed to continue to care for them. Many of those who are wheel chair bound or who need 24/7 care may be forced into institutions and taken from the families who love them. This makes no sense either since the institutional care will cost three times as much as the at home care they have been getting. In some cases it would cost the state $200,000.
Please let your voice be heard and help us to reverse these painful and harmful cuts. Money should never be more important than the life of a disabled child or adult. These people need to stay in their homes with the people who love them and care for them the best. These cuts are both greedy and stupid. Help us to stop them before they go into effect.
Elizabeth Mazzella
Upperglade, WV
