Have I missed it?

I am at a loss for words. What an intelligent, beautiful and heartfelt post. More people need to read this.

Thank you for sharing and Bless you and yours

“What lies ahead of us and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Bravo to you both for all that you do -

I’ve fallen short from time to time and still struggle with the challenges and sorrows. It’s been the torch I wish I could have passed on. It has burned me and left scars. I have found, somehow, the strength to do my best day to day, and to dampen my fears of the future. I haven’t found it to be the transformative spiritual journey that others have, and that may point to some deficiencies in me. But from this very average and well-populated place, people like me face these challenges of parenting, of love, every day.

I get outraged when the advocates of “small government” think I could and should tackle this unanticipated aspect of parenting without community/state/federal assistance. I would have gone under long ago without early learning programs, respite care, special education…..and now, in his young adulthood, home and community-based supports that give him a quality of life. I bring my best to my child; I use my “bootstraps” (….humor, commitment, ability to learn, friends, research, persistence through denial of services, building positive relationships with service providers, regrouping and renewing my efforts to build a life for him, advocacy…..) But I could NOT do it without help.

Thanks to each of you for the tax dollars that reached my family (in the form of services) and kept us from going under. Thanks to the personnel at state agencies and non-profit and direct service providers who kept (and keep) us from “falling through the cracks.” Thanks for the advocates who push these issues forward towards solutions that work, that recognize the needs and humanity of “the least among us.” The alternatives are pretty grim.

A hundred years ago kids like mine who survived infancy were hidden away at home or in institutions, often abused and ignored and devalued until their early deaths. In Alaska, we shipped our children away to Morningside Hospital in Portland until the mid-twentieth century, when we built our own institution, Harborview in Valdez. In the mid-1990s, through extensive advocacy and during the governorship of Tony Knowles, a true advocate and humanitarian, Alaska took the step of closing Alaska’s only institution Harborview, in favor of serving this population in home and community based services to children, adults, and families. We thought we had turned the corner, that it was a brand new day for kids and families.

This remains the right thing to do, financially and morally. This year, in Texas, kids like mine placed in residential state schools were led to participate in “fight club” events for the amusement of the workers who were “caring” for them. People with disabilities are so very vulnerable in every way, yet they are best protected when they are included in the everyday life of families and communities – and the cost to serve them, even those with the most significant needs, is LESS that hospital, nursing home, or institutional care. That is why the medicaid waiver program exists, and why it should be expanded to meet the needs of disabled Alaskans at all stages of life.

It is beyond comprehension to me that under the Palin administration, despite warnings that this was a critical problem, the ball has been dropped in regards to the vital services provided by medicaid waivers, and that even the ability to APPLY for assistance has been halted. There is plenty of blame to go around, but what is important is that we fix this, now.

As I raised Max, I had this little motto on a scrap of paper taped to the inside of the bathroom cabinet. I focused on it every day while I brushed my teeth. It kept me going. I think it is the same thing that keeps Mudflatters and service providers and public servants who genuinely strive to make things work for those among us who need our active help and concern.

It reads like this: COURAGE does not necessarily roar. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says, “I will try again tomorrow.”

That, pretty much, is all there is for any of us.

8 lawsuits and undoubtedly more to come; 4-5 month moratorium imposed by Medicaid/Medicare; negative publicity, intense scrutiny, and headaches for all involved in this aspect of state gov’t, including the gov. of record.

How convenient for you, Ms. Palin. You are “progressing your higher calling” while everyone gets to clean up the mess.

Don’t count on it, lady. The bloggers will hound you on this issue and every other issue about which you have lied or shirked your responsibility.

Here’s a link re: older AKns & Medicare http://tinyurl.com/ljott2, & a great read by former LG of NY http://tinyurl.com/c44ah5
10:41 PM Jun 8th

True reform should benefit, not neglect, older Americans, the very bedrock of society! In AK, 80,000 AKns age 60+, to be affected by reform.
10:40 PM Jun 8th

RE: Admin’s health care reform: should take place in open, not behind closed doors. It must be sustainable, rather than “deficit neutral”
10:39 PM Jun 8th

Money is available in the state budget, Hilgendorf said, but a nationwide shortage of registered and licensed nurses has made hiring in Alaska particularly difficult, she said. (snip)

A hiring freeze instituted earlier this year by Gov. Sarah Palin as a cost savings measure delayed some hiring..”

It is unclear what impact the understaffing has had. The CMS review noted that from October, 2006 to May 2009 there had been 27 deaths among people waiting for initial assessments, and 227 deaths among those waiting to be reassessed.

http://juneauempire.com/stories/071509/loc_463956258.shtml

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Facts summary:

The programs were/are understaffed..

Money was available in the state budget.

Palin still instituted a hiring freeze as a “cost savings measure.”

8 lawsuits. 254 deaths

ADN: “No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services….(snip)…The state plans to start doing fatality reviews…”

What is “unclear” about the impact that understaffing has had???

8 lawsuits are just the tip of the iceberg. Now that this matter has gone public, expect the number of lawsuits against the state to skyrocket. Gov. Palin should be personally included in those lawsuits for the “cost savings measures” instituted at her command as the Chief executive of the state.