After 29 years of working for Community Connections Inc., I am resigning as executive director to draw attention to the drastic changes being forced on people with developmental disabilities by the state of Colorado.
I started working for CCI as one of the first providers of an integrated preschool in Southwest Colorado starting in 1981 and have worked in almost every position at Community Connections since I was hired in 1987.
The philosophy that was followed in the formation of the agency in 1985 included the belief that all people with developmental disabilities, starting from birth, should have opportunities to be included in all aspects of life. This philosophy has been followed for the last 25 years at Community Connections and is now on the brink of being compromised by lack of sufficient funding.
On Community Connections’ horizon is the possibility of developing group homes that place up to eight unrelated people in one residence. This model of living is a step back to before the 1980s when group homes or institutions were the only option for most people with developmental disabilities. I will not support this type of backward movement.
In 2006, the developmental disabilities system in Colorado changed when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid directed the state to switch from managed care to fee-for-service. The 20 community-centered boards throughout the state had no idea of the widespread consequences this change of funding would create.
Five years later, Community Connections and the remaining community-centered boards along with more than 35 service providers in our state have sustained millions of dollars of cuts with more cuts to come. Some service providers have closed their doors, and one board has gone bankrupt. There is a breaking point where the funding will fail to keep CCBs operating unless some changes occur in the very near future.
I think that every company working in the developmental disabilities field in Colorado is on the brink of not being able to provide the long-term care services that are currently being provided to more than 8,000 individuals in Colorado.
Community Connections started really feeling the budget crunch when major funding cuts began in 2009. Smaller agencies, like Community Connections, are at risk first for closure, especially those that have little or no support from the counties and cities they serve. They are hit harder financially because the infrastructure to run a company like Community Connections must remain the same: They must have an executive director, finance and HR departments and managers to run the programs whether they are large or small. And then there is the high cost of living in Southwest Colorado, which affects Community Connections’ ability to find affordable and accessible housing for more than 100 adults with developmental disabilities in our area.
Cost-savings plans have been put in place at Community Connections. It started four years ago by freezing wages for all staff and initiated other cost-savings plans to adapt to the cuts in funding that began in 2006. These plans include reducing hours of operation, reducing employee benefits and initiating furlough days in order to prevent the cuts from affecting the people we serve.
If current predictions are right, I believe another 6 percent to 9 percent Medicaid rate cut is coming soon to all community-centered boards, and that may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Instead of fixing problems within the two systems that regulate those agencies and service providers, the state is now investing huge amounts of time applying for a federal grant that is being called “Money Follows the Person.”
I think the real effort needs to take place within the Division for Developmental Disabilities, health-care policy and financing, and the state of Colorado’s process for changing state statutes.
The people who depend on Community Connections’s comprehensive program for feeding, bathing and mobility, cannot go without services no matter what happens.
However, without changes, these are the very people who will be affected by the loss of direct support professionals and host home providers who provide these services and often devote themselves to the individuals they serve. In the end, no one wins if the state of Colorado keeps moving backward with the hope that a federal grant will answer all of Colorado’s developmental disability funding problems.
It will take constitutional and statute changes to help our state survive this economic crisis, and these changes need to be a top priority of our new governor.
In the meantime, it will take our community pulling together to help our friends and neighbors with developmental disabilities continue to get the services they need today.
Jackie Morlan lives in Bayfield.
