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Home care attendants ask for a better salary and benefits

Better salaries and benefits for home care attendants are the goals of the new Consumer Workforce Council (CWC).

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For personal assistants of persons with disabilities to receive better wages and benefits… that is the mission that the new Consumer Workforce Council (CWC) has mind.  “This effort stems from the philosophy of independent living”, said Germán Parodi, Independent Living expert for the Liberty Resources organization, which advocates for the rights of the persons with disabilities.

“We want to help many people to stay in the community, and out of the institutions and shelters and to keep those that are in the community there with the help of personal assistants”, he said.

Parodi stated that the people that decide against going to an institution or shelter receive better care than those who resort to these centers.

“In an institution the medical module and a patient does not decide on his/her care”, Parodi stated.  “The consumer, on the other hand, is in an independent living module and decides how things are done.”

The CWC, launched on October 1, is made up of persons with disabilities, elderly people and the personal assistants who themselves provide for the care.

According to the American Community Service (ACS) office, there are 1,851,000 people with disabilities in Pennsylvania and some 75,000 are Hispanics.

Around 34,893 care workers are estimated to provide for their care, according to the Center for Personal Assistance Services of the University of California in San Francisco. The critical issue here, Parodi said, emerges when one considers that the personal assistants do not receive adequate wages for their services.

“Someone working as a personal assistant earns between $9 and $10.50” he said.  “We know that that equals less than $20,000 a year”.

He added that the objective of the CWC is to help personal assistants earn that which institution and shelter assistants earn: Between $11 and $14.

A disabled individual can request the help of a personal assistant –whether a family member, a friend or a person dedicated to providing such care services—through the Medicaid “Buy-In” program.

Parodi indicated that 80 percent of the funds pertaining to this program are presently destined to the institutions or shelters, while the remaining funds are destined for those who decide on “independent living”.

This coalition will begin to lobby for Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell to destine more funds for personal assistance services.

A report with recommendations presented to the Rendell administration in 2002 points out that funds for this type of care should be increased, not only to provide for assistants with better wages but also to develop “competent” information for other cultures and in other languages, aside from English.

“It is important that we receive the same pay and benefits received by those working in institutions or shelters”, said Adele Butler, of Action Alliance of Senior Citizens.  “In this way we can be happy and do our work well and have satisfied customers”.

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