FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MAY 7, 2020 • HEALTH • THE QUEENS COURIER 37
health
As COVID-19 pandemic rages on, group
homes seek donations for frontline staff
BY BEN VERDE
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
A Staten Island group home is soliciting
donations for its staff ers, who have had to
transform into frontline medical workers
almost overnight, management said.
“Our staff has been unbelievably amazing,”
Courtesy of Eden II
“Most of our direct
care workers are making
just above minimum
wage, and the
idea that we’ve now
asked them to become
healthcare workers and
put them in really complicated
situations, it
just doesn’t feel right
that we’re not able
to provide them with
some type of increased
money.”
Joanne Gerenser, executive director
of Eden II programs
said Joanne Gerenser, executive
director of Eden II programs, which runs
a network of support services for people
with autism on Staten Island.
According to
Gerenser, the
pandemic has
over turned
the daily
tasks of the direct service providers that
care for the residents of the group homes.
Eight of Eden II’s residents have tested
positive for the coronavirus, Gerenser
said, but all have managed to stay out of
the hospital — which has turned the residential
facilities into around-the-clock
care centers.
“Our nurses need to receive some kind
of medals of honor,” Gerenser said. Staff
are tasked with looking aft er restless participants
and providing them with structure
for hours on end while they are
unable to go outside — a nearly herculean
task, according to Gerenser, a speech
pathologist.
“I used to do these 30-minute sessions,
and making sure that your session provided
structure so that your session went
well, sometimes was really challenging,”
she said. “I sit there sometimes at my desk
and I think about these direct care workers,
who have to now provide structure 16
hours in a row, in a house, oft en not able to
go anywhere — it just boggles my mind.”
Direct service providers in group
homes make little more than
minimum wage due to
a decade of
budget cuts
from the state that have left most
homes treading water even before
the pandemic hit.
Th e staff at Eden II have had to dip
into their own bank accounts to replace
clothing destroyed by bleach aft er disinfecting
themselves, according to Collins.
Th e fundraiser, which has netted roughly
$16,000 toward its goal of $20,000 as
of April 29, aims to soft en that blow, and
provide the workers with the hazard pay
their employers are unable to give them.
Th ey have also received support from
Fare it Forward, a fundraising eff ort that
aims to provide frontline workers with
free transit fares.
“Most of our direct care workers are
making just above minimum wage, and
the idea that we’ve now asked them to
become healthcare workers and put them
in really complicated situations, it just
doesn’t feel right that we’re not able to
provide them with some type of increased
money,” said Gerenser.
With the state budget full of austerity
measures, group homes can only expect
more funding cuts, Gerenser said, so
fundraising may be the only route workers
have to an increase in pay.
“Th e only way we’re going to be able to
get money in the hands of our workers
and thank them for what they are doing is
through fundraisers like this, so it’s been
very rewarding seeing how many people
are stepping up,” she said.
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