LAKEPORT — Chloe Karl reported Tuesday that 43 out of 538 In Home Support Service recipients surveyed recently said they”d had days where they were left without care because their provider wasn”t available that day. Of those, 61 percent had a backup and 23 percent were confined to bed, according to a survey IHSS conducted.
The IHSS advisory committee brought a proposal before the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday for a rapid response program, meant to fix the rift.
“It”s not a huge number,” said Karl, adding that she learned at a recent state conference where almost all of California”s counties were represented that all either have or are developing such a program.
“There”s always going to be gaps, and there”s always going to be needs that are not met,” said presenter Chloe Karl, the advisory committee”s current chair. What she and the county Department of Social Services were asking for was the chance to look at the possibilities.
The Board of Supervisors gave them the nod to go ahead and explore the idea of contracting with an outside agency for rapid response services.
Karl wanted to be clear that rapid response “is not emergency services and does not take the place of protective services.” It is intended to provide a stand-in when a consumer”s IHSS provider isn”t able to show up.
Two possibilities DSS director Carol Huchingson highlighted were the option of contracting with a local agency at an hourly rate and contracting with county employees to fill in service gaps during regular business hours.
The drawback to contracting with an outside agency, said Huchingson, is that since the services are on an as-needed basis, it would be hard for a contractor to come up with a flat rate based on estimated hours of service they would provide.
DSS will bring its findings back before the board regarding the rapid response program at a later date. But it was one of three parts of the item before the board. The first was a report from IHSS” advisory committee, the second was the rapid response proposal and the third was the conceptual approval of a the committee”s $52,966 budget.
The board chose not to act on it and allow it to naturally reoccur at the county”s annual budget hearings, coming up in August.
“I”m uneasy about giving implied support and consent to a budget item before it”s gone through the budget process,” said Dist. 5 Supervisor Rob Brown, which was echoed by the Kelly Cox, the county”s chief administrative officer.
Dist. 1 Supervisor Ed Robey clarified for the audience that “California allocates a sum for each advisory committee, so that”s not out of county general funds. This is not a request for funding, it”s their idea of what to spend it on.”
Robey further noted that this was the committee”s first year sitting down and budgeting the money ahead of time.
Dist. 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington questioned how much discretion the committee has in using the funds, to which Huchingson replied that the money — which is the same amount for all of California”s 58 counties — has to be used to cover the advisory committee”s direct costs.
What exactly that means has yet to be defined. “Fifty thousand dollars is a good chunk of change,” said Farrington. “There”s a lot of money there that could be used to actually pay for the rapid response program, or to pay for RN or LVN-caliber providers.”
Karl responded, “That is not within our domain; we”re not talking about professional providers.” She did talk about doing outreach into the community, including a newsletter for providers and recipients; radio advertising and training meant for committee members which she noted are also open to providers and consumers.
“We know that it”s & impossible for someone who is ill to fire somebody they depend on. We want to educate the consumer about who is out there in community to support them. They don”t have to put up with a provider that”s not appropriate,” said Karl.
“I just wish there was a way to use the funds to provide more direct services,” said Cox. He further noted that he personally had some problems with the conceptual budget as proposed.
Cox clarified later Tuesday that the board will be able to address the proposed budget”s line items at the budget hearings in August.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
