Scott Shults, 41, lived in a nursing home for nine years after an accident that left him with brain damage and in a wheelchair. Shults was 27 years old at the time.
He hated it.
“I didn’t need to live that dependently for that long,” Shults said. “And I’d rather live on the streets than go back to a nursing home.”
Shults lives in a Scotts Valley house established by the Assisted Living Project, a nonprofit designed to help men and women with traumatic injuries live on their own. To stay there, he relies heavily on monthly checks from In-Home Supportive Services, offered through the California Department of Social Services.
But as the state grapples with a $19 billion budget deficit and slashes services across the board, IHSS faces a proposed 60 percent cut, a loss of about $750 million. Budget decisions are supposed to be made at the end of June.
The statewide program provides personal care at home and other vital household services to about 440,000 low-income seniors and people with disabilities whose health or safety would be at risk without the help.
The proposed cuts would reduce support for home care in California, setting the state back 30 years, according to a 2010 report by the Center for Health Policy Research at University of California, Los Angeles.
If cuts to In-Home Supportive Services are approved, about 350,000 caregivers could lose their jobs or take severe pay cuts, according to the report.
Jody Cramer, co-founder of the Assisted Living Project, said the cuts would hurt the most vulnerable people and would cost taxpayers more in the long run.
“Three of the five residents of the Assisted Living Project receive money from IHSS. If they didn’t have it, they would have to live in a nursing home,” Cramer said. “It costs taxpayers more than twice the amount to pay for someone to live in a nursing home than it does for them to live independently with IHSS.”
Cramer said cutting out 60 percent of IHSS’s budget could doom the Assisted Living Project, which she defends as an effective way for people with brain injuries to improve and live an affordable life — as long as they receive Social Security and state money.
“Sixty percent of men and women injured in Afghanistan are coming home with brain injuries. They are coming home with little options,” Cramer said. “There aren’t many places for people with brain injuries. People are happier living on their own.”
Cramer started the Assisted Living Project in 1996 after her son was in a traumatic accident that left him with brain damage and in a wheelchair, but still able to handle many of his own physical needs.
“I don’t think any young person should have to live in a nursing home,” Cramer said. “They are not set up for young people. The reason why they go there is because there aren’t enough options for brain-injured people, and cutting IHSS will only make that worse.”
Cramer said it’s foolish to force people like Shults and her son, who need only a few hours of help a day, into nursing homes, which cost an average of $6,200 a month in Santa Cruz County.
Shults, who no longer needs a wheelchair, volunteers at the nursing home where he used to live and is a dedicated fundraiser for the Assisted Living Project.
He said he wouldn’t trade his independence for anything.
“I like living at the Glenwood house extremely a lot. It’s a lot better than where I used to live,” Shults said. “I have more freedom — I can do whatever I want. I’m not confined anymore.”
To comment, e-mail reporter Michelle Camerlingo at mi******@pr*********.com, call 438-2500 or post a comment at www.pressbanner.com.
