The Future’s Not So Bright

With continued cuts in government spending for Medicaid, Social Security etc., the future is not looking so bright for the elderly. It has already become more and more difficult for this population to access any kind of supportive services. Furthermore, it has become increasingly difficult for government-mandated agencies to fulfill their duty to provide, not only the safest but, the least restrictive environment for their elderly clients.

In Ohio, when an individual has reached the point that they are unable to take care of themselves, it is the duty of the Adult Protective Services worker to intervene and apply for guardianship for those who have no family and for those cases where there has been no estate-appointed fiduciary.

Sound like a simple plan? Maybe, except for the fact that there are no volunteers to be guardians for these individuals and no funding to pay someone to take on this difficult task. Even when you are able to find a few good-hearted souls willing to take responsibility for the life of someone they have never met; then you need to have the gall to ask them if they are willing to pay the $250.00 application fee. Even family members who are willing to apply for guardianship for a loved one, are often deterred by the expense that can be involved in the process.

Although many of us are thankful for the increase in life expectancy possible for people of our century, there is also the possibility of living to an age where we may experience some degree of disability. Not just a physical or mental disability, but some disabling event that may cause us to lose the very things that we struggle our whole lives to maintain.

It is heartbreaking to hear the stories about the elderly woman heating her home with her oven after her furnace breaks because she can’t afford to have it fixed; or the elderly gentleman forced to leave his home because he can’t afford to fix his leaking roof. Where is our compassion and sense of duty? These are our parents, our grandparents, but most of all, human beings in need of a little help.

Tara Wallace
Health Services Director
Athens County Job & Family Services

A Human Crisis Ignored

Our agency recently released a report regarding the huge backlog and denials for Social Security disability programs. While most of the report is based on the situation in Athens County, there is also evidence that the problem is pervasive throughout the state and the nation. The bottom line is sick and disabled people are not receiving the benefits they are entitled to, in a reasonable amount of time or, in many cases, not at all.

The majority of applications for Social Security disability or SSI are denied at the initial application. Upon requesting a review of their case by a hearing officer, those cases are then largely approved. In Ohio, the average length of time for a denied applicant to receive the opportunity for a hearing is almost two years. With a majority of those applying for disability assistance being denied, this clearly poses a huge challenge in protecting the well-being of our disabled population. One can not help but wonder why we are not able to do a better job determining eligibility accurately in the first place.

The Ohio Medicaid disability determination process utilizes the exact same criteria in determining disability as does the Social Security Administration, yet the majority of Medicaid initial applications are approved. While this process of determining eligibility takes an average of 120 days, they seem to be more likely to get it right than the Social Security Administration, which deals with their initial applications within 90 days. Perhaps if the Social Security Administration provided the same case management support and time frame utilized by Ohio’s Medicaid Program, we could take a step in the right direction to resolve this issue and cut down on unnecessary litigation.

It is of interest that a recent report issued by the USDA regarding Food Stamp recipients indicates that since 2000, the number of Food Stamp recipients with no income has more than doubled. Perhaps this has something to do with the disability applicants who are waiting years to get their benefits and living with no income in the meantime. It is difficult to do justice to the serious personal crisis that this poses for those sick and disabled people who not only wait months to get medical care, but perhaps years to get income support to meet their basic needs.

Is this the way we should or want to treat our sick and disabled people? Our federal and state representatives have known of this problem for years and yet nothing seems to be done to fix the situation.

We need to treat this as the human crisis that it is and react in much the same way as we do with natural disasters. We must use all the resources we can to fix this problem as soon as possible.

[where: Athens, Ohio 45701]

Help is NOT on the way

On July 29, 2007, USA Today ran stories: Disabled worker cases at record and Disability delays can lead to personal havoc, about the lengthy delays individuals have to wait for Social Security disability claims. The articles included a list of the Social Security Administration offices with the shortest and longest average waits for hearings on whether an applicant is too disabled to work, which included on the longest waits: Columbus with 841 days and Dayton with 735 days.

In Ohio, this means an average wait of 2 to 2 ½ years for determination; one of the slowest states in the nation. Not only is this havoc for the applicants, but for their families, many of which have dependent children. Families waiting for Social Security determinations are forced to rely on cash assistance (Ohio Works First) benefits from the state in the meantime. But living on cash assistance in Ohio, means living well below the poverty level; and in Ohio, there is a lifetime limit of 36 months for cash assistance benefits – which is likely to run out before disability determination is made. A typical family of three receiving OWF benefits would receive a maximum of $410 a month (Federal Poverty Level for family of three is $1431 per month).

For these families life is a constant struggle to meet basic needs. In Athens County, nearly one-third of the adults receiving OWF assistance have some serious disability. And, their family struggles are further compounded by the fact that the one or more caretakers in these families are disabled and trying to care for children while trying to deal with their own disabilities.
From the article, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue says the backlog of cases doubled in six years and could reach 1 million by 2010. Clearly, no help is on the way.