After years of funding cuts, group
homes now on the front lines
BY BEN VERDE
The coronavirus pandemic
has brought local hospitals
and nursing homes to their tipping
point, forcing doctors and
nurses to ration essential protective
equipment — but another
class of caregivers has
found themselves on the front
lines, and fear their struggle is
going unnoticed.
Group homes that house people
with developmental disabilities
have been hit by the coronavirus
just as hard as nursing
homes, and have found their
small residential houses transformed
into around-the-clock
medical facilities, offi cials say.
Adding to the challenges,
some residents of the homes
have a hard time understanding
the gravity of the situation,
leading to diffi cult situations
when a resident falls ill and
needs to be contained to their
room.
“We’re just like a nursing
home, we become an incubator.
If somebody gets sick it’s
like somebody getting sick
in your house,” said William
Guarinello, CEO of HeartShare
Human Services, which serves
children and adults with developmental
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disabilities. “How do
you keep them sequestered if
they are an active developmentally
disabled individual?”
And for the direct service
providers who care for the
group home residents, social
distancing is nearly impossible,
as they continue to perform
tasks for residents which they
cannot do themselves.
“The nature of the work
that our DSPs do with them is
hands-on, they have to be up
close and personal,” said Joe
Riley, CEO of the Guild for Exceptional
Children, which operates
group homes in Bay Ridge.
“Social distancing does not
work, it’s direct contact.”
This leads to the virus
spreading quickly once it
makes its way into a home.
HeartShare has lost four residents
to the virus, while 18
residents and 17 staff members
have tested positive — and that
number is increasing daily, a
company spokesman said. An
additional 35 residents are presumed
to have the virus but
have not had access to testing.
The Guild has lost one resident,
while six residents and about 12
staff members have tested positive,
Riley said.
Meanwhile, group home
staff, who make less on average
than their counterparts in
the medical fi eld, continue to
clock in every day, now armed
with personal protective equipment
including N95 masks,
face shields, gowns, and rubber
gloves. But directors worry
that their caretakers may be
left out of the swell of appreciation
currently surrounding
other healthcare workers.
“You hear a lot about fi rst
responders,” Riley said. “You
don’t really hear a lot about the
DSP’s who basically agree to be
exposed to the virus for what
amounts to minimum wage.”
Staff at the Guild are currently
working seven-day shifts,
with no one leaving or entering
the premises, Riley said.
To make matters worse,
the personal protective equipment
that these homes have has
come at no small cost. When
HeartShare found themselves
scrambling with every other
service provider in the area to
purchase the life-saving materials
they needed, they paid $20
per N95 mask and $120 a gallon
for hand sanitizer, Guarinello
said.
“We paid usurious amounts,
I mean criminal amounts,”
he said. “But what do you do?
What do you tell somebody?
‘I’m not going to pay that?’ We
don’t have the money to pay it,
but you pay, you fi nd a way.”
The current outbreak comes
after years of the state chipping
away at the operating budgets
of group homes statewide, with
$2.6 billion in funding lost over
nine years, and additional Medicaid
funding delayed for the
same amount of time.
“Right before this pandemic
hit, all of the agencies were really
on a point of destabilization,”
Guarinello said. “Some
only had 40 days of cash on
hand and that’s before the pandemic
happened.”
As the pandemic enters its
second month, caretakers say
they are worried the group
home system has been lost in
the shuffl e, and have called on
the state to assure those caring
for the developmentally disabled
that they have not been
forgotten. They’re also hoping
for additional funding they
need to function as a whole once
the virus subsides.
As for everyday people,
home operators ask only that
they count group home caretakers
among the healthcare workers
and fi rst responders they
applaud every evening.
“If you have a residence on
your block, maybe take your
neighbors and applaud them,”
said Guarinello.
NICK’S LOBSTER HOUSE
understands that we are all going
through a tough time.
Nick’s Lobster House is continuing
its 65 years of service to its neighbors,
by offering:
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