Op-ed
Group homes are sustaining
protection and purpose for
those with disabilities
BY STEVEN VERNIKOFF
When I started at The Center for
Family Support over 25 years
ago, we were just beginning to
understand the possibilities of communitybased,
person-centered services for people
with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
We were learning to be openminded
about what could be accomplished,
a journey into the now too-familiar term
“uncharted territory.”
The COVID-19 crisis has dramatically
impacted these residents of our group
homes, as well as many other group homes.
They often have other health issues that can
heighten vulnerability and cause severe reactions.
Individuals with Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities are dying as a
result of the virus at a higher rate than the
general population.
Although largely temporary, all are now
confi ned to where they live. The resultant
challenges, including social distancing, are
signifi cant but workable. The residents are
dependent on the staff who protect their
health and safety. We have also stepped
up our staff’s safety through, for example,
proper protective gear and assistance with
public transportation, practices shared by
other group homes.
Conditions are diffi cult everywhere but
imagine those faced by our individuals with
disabilities. We work to incorporate these
often frail (but underappreciated) members
into society, through programs geared to
self-directed support and self-advocacy.
Our mission is “Personalized Support for
a Meaningful Life.”
Group homes are not nursing homes or
long-term care facilities, although we share
a similar group home setting. The “numbers”
on infection rate and mortality rate
of nursing homes refl ect their resources
and distancing challenges. Group homes,
with residents between ages 18 and 55+,
deal with similar issues but typically with
more manageable populations of 6 to 10
individuals. The public needs to know
group home challenges because we help
those with disabilities live and thrive in a
society not so inherently focused.
Safety and Prevention is our overwhelming
priority. Although we were prepared,
the scope of COVID-19 tested our response
capabilities. Senior leadership mobilized a
COVID response team to procure suffi cient
personal protective masks. We suspended
visits to residential locations for nonessential
staff and disinfected all offi ces.
Where staff or a resident tested positive,
that information was communicated to the
Quality Assurance team; contact tracing
and COVID-19 precautionary measures
followed.
Individual routines were severely
disrupted. Those “routines” may include
jobs that some—with aid of their CFS
jobs coach—have often spent months
training for and enjoy. We mobilized a
multi-disciplinary team about what supports
we could continue. We’ve opened
new communication systems so staff and
residents can receive needed mental and
social supports. Zoom and Hangouts keep
staff, residents (and families) connected,
though technology doesn’t replace Not
everything involves technology, though it
helps residents “get through the day.” Like
other group homes, we’re utilizing more
“well calls”, celebrating people who are up
and productive. We try to reduce loneliness
and isolation, as many deal with separation
diffi culties.
Through use of Telehealth, we’ve kept
many staff in place, and limited furloughs.
Some staff members have been redeployed
from day to residential services in both
New York and New Jersey. Safety procedures,
such as taking temperatures before
home re-entry, have been effective but
incomplete answers.
By the traumatic nature of COVID-19,
we have experienced some staff attrition.
It takes a special person to carry out these
special programs and services, but that is
who is needed. And like many nonprofi ts,
continued fi nancial support helps sustain
our mission of personalized support for a
meaningful life.
Steven Vernikoff is the Chief Executive
Offi cer of The Center for Family Support.
Editorial
Avoiding a COVID-19 summer
horror movie in New York City
There’s a great scene in the classic
horror fi lm “Jaws” where the town
mayor is trying to convince the chief
not to close the beaches in the middle of
summer due to a shark attack.
“You yell ‘barracuda,’ and everybody
says, ‘Huh? What?’” the mayor tells the
chief. “You yell ‘shark,’ we’ve got a panic
on our hands on the Fourth of July.”
Here in New York, amid our own panic,
Memorial Day — the unoffi cial start to
summer — is approaching. No New Yorker
wants to be stuck in a stuffy home or apartment
all season long. We want to go out
and get some fresh air — and there’s no
better place to do that than the many amazing
beaches we have in Brooklyn, Queens,
the Bronx, and Staten Island.
The problem this year, however, is COVID
19, and the ease in which it passes
from one person to another.
We’ve struggled for nearly three months
now trying to get it under control, and we’re
fi nally on a slow, steady decline in infections.
Yet New York State is still losing more
than 100 people to this illness every day.
If you’ve ever been to Coney Island on a hot
Saturday in July and encountered the throngs
of people on the sand and the boardwalk, you
can imagine the nightmare health offi cials can
visualize with a highly contagious virus like
COVID-19 thrown into the mix.
Even so, Governor Andrew Cuomo
announced Friday that the state beaches
would reopen for Memorial Day weekend,
under strict crowd limitations. Local
governments were left to make their own
decisions for their own beaches, and Mayor
Bill de Blasio made his Sunday: The city’s
beaches will remain closed to everyone except
those who want to take a seaside stroll.
De Blasio made the right call for New
York City. The virus is still too prevalent
here, and even if half-capacity limits and
tough-to-enforce mask requirements are
imposed, there’s still a great risk of beach
congregations spurring a second massive
wave of coronavirus cases that would put
us right back where we started in the crisis.
The beaches should open here this summer.
Hopefully, by late June, the numbers
will have dropped to the point where that
will be possible.
But if we open up too soon, we will indeed
have something worse than “a panic
on our hands on the Fourth of July.”
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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