8 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 16, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
сoronavirus
After years of funding cuts, group homes
fi nd themselves on the front lines
BY BEN VERDE
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Th e 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, with fears
that 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 aroundthe
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 operates
over 100 sites across Brooklyn,
Queens and Staten Island
serving children and adults
with developmental 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.
“Th e 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.”
Th is 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, with
the number increasing daily, a company
spokesman said.
An additional 35 residents are presumed
to have the virus but
have not had access
to testing. Th e
Guild has lost
one resident,
while six residents
and
about
a
dozen 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 caretakers worry that
the workers 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 DSPs who basically agree to be
exposed to the virus for what amounts
to minimum wage.” Staff at the Guild are
currently working seven-day shift s, 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 told
Brooklyn Paper. “But
what do you do? What
do you
t e l l
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.”
Th e current outbreak comes aft er 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.”
Th e nonprofi t homes have also been
deprived of a 16 percent yearly increase
in funding for cost-of-living expenses
that state-operated homes typically
receive, leaving them with shrinking
budgets while operating costs such as
food and rent increase regularly.
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. Th ey’re also hoping for
additional funding they need to function
as a whole once the virus subsides.
And 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.
Courtesy of HeartShare
Human Services
A HeartShare staff -
er and resident
working together
prior to the pandemic.
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