When direct-care workers and their clients can’t get the support they need through government agencies, they can always try the courts. That’s what Oregon resident Clay Freeman is doing in a federal civil-rights lawsuit, which would require the state to increase the base pay for some home care aides in the Oregon Home Care Commission (OHCC).
Only by guaranteeing workers a sufficient wage, says Freeman v. Goldberg et al., (pdf) can Freeman hire the help he needs to exercise his federally granted right, under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, to live at home and remain a functioning member of his community. And the wages paid to his workers, the suit says, must reflect the complex levels of care they deliver.
Freeman, a C2 quadriplegic who broke his neck in a 1996 diving accident, is 34 years old. He depends on 11 machines and around-the-clock care, which had been provided by a team of five caregivers. Because of the intense level of care provided, he was initially allowed to pay his caregivers a few dollars more per hour than was earned by others in the Medicaid-funded consumer-directed home care program.
The system worked. According to A June 13 article in the Oregon Statesman Journal (free to subscribers only), Freeman’s in-home caregivers not only took care of his complex physical needs but helped him stay integrated in the community. They took him to classes at a community college, from which he graduated in 2006, and to movies and other outings, “including school functions and sporting events for his five nieces and nephews.”
But the state cut off the additional funding about three-and-a-half years ago. After the rate his workers earned dropped to OHCC’s standard $9.90 an hour, Freeman began to find recruitment and retention very difficult.
By the time he filed the lawsuit, he had only two of the five caregivers he needed and was in “extreme crisis,” according to the suit. “My present situation is very precarious,” he said. “I am experiencing a lot of anxiety and I fear that I will not be able to find sufficient caregivers without further financial aid and support from the state.”
His two remaining providers were feeling the pain as well, alternating 24-hour shifts.
In early June, U.S. District Court Magistrate Thomas Coffin issued a temporary order requiring the state to provide Freeman with five caregivers at $12.90 an hour, $3 an hour more than the standard for OHCC workers. The judge also ordered the state to supply training by a licensed registered nurse.
Freeman’s lawyers are asking for a permanent court order to enforce the higher rate. The discovery period for the case will conclude in October.
More states can be expected to be faced with similar demands unless more is done to improve wages, benefits, and other supports for diret-care workers, says PHI National Policy Director Steven Edelstein. “States may be creating an expectation for service in the community that their payment policies and workforce policies don’t necessarily support. If we are going to meet the coming demand, we have to pay more attention to making these quality jobs.”
Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org
$12.90 ?? Wow!!
I have been working in this field for ten years now and I have never seen that amount paid!
Right on!!