Crowd seeks disabled services
Funding DSPD needs would cost $8 million; surplus is $1 billion
"The bottom line is that my family and I are hanging on by our fingernails, emotionally and financially. We are living in daily crisis," said Rebecca Hyde, a single mother whose 18-year-old daughter, Dahlia, suffers from uncontrolled epileptic seizures, requiring her to have constant supervision.
Dahlia is among the nearly 1,900 Utahns on the state's Division for Services with People for Disabilities waiting list. Many have been waiting for years, some decades, for DSPD services such as in-home help and respite care.
"I hope you will consider the crisis that not just my family but hundreds, hundreds, of other families are struggling with," Hyde said to members of the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.
The legislative committee will ultimately make funding recommendations to the Executive Appropriations Committee for funding divisions within the Utah Department of Human Services.
With a state budget surplus this year of some $1 billion, many on Wednesday said there is no better time than now to fully fund the DSPD waiting list, estimated to cost $8.2 million.
"What I wanted to concentrate on today was one word, and that word is opportunity," said Andrew Riggle with the Disability Community Alliance. "We have the opportunity this year to make significant progress on this issue."
Unfortunately, those who qualify for services through DSPD — the physically disabled, those with traumatic brain injuries and the mentally retarded — are unlikely to see much help this year. The mentally ill, substance abusers and elderly are also unlikely to see a great deal of extra money coming their way.
Committee members recently learned that federal budget cuts and rule changes have caused an $11 million shortfall in the Department of Human Services' current budget and an estimated $20 million shortage for fiscal year 2007. The cuts will impact many of Utah's vulnerable children, such as those in foster care and the juvenile justice system.
Any monies allocated to the department will likely go toward keeping those affected programs intact, although director Lisa-Michele Church pleaded with lawmakers not to stop there.
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