Texas
Mental Retardation Services System
A
Crisis That Must Be Dealt With Now
For
over thirty years, Texas has built a statewide system of community supports for
individuals with mental retardation.
Over the past six years however, population growth, rising health care
costs and limited access to funding resources have threatened the availability
and quality of not only services to those currently being served, but to those
in need. It
is a crisis that nobody wants to talk about.
The
critical under-funding of mental retardation services in our state has prompted
a call for action by a coalition of all the major mental disabilities advocates
in Texas. The
Community Services Coalition asks that you work to provide our
most vulnerable citizens with the highest standards of care and the opportunity
to lead a productive and dignified life that every Texan deserves.
Join
the Community
Services Coalition by supporting and allocating:
$15.9
million (state funds, biennial) to Maintain Current Services for HCS Waiver
Program.
Without these dollars, an estimated average of 183 persons will lose
their services.
The HCS Waiting List is currently over 18,000; Texas cannot afford to
allow persons with critical needs to loose their services.
$80.4
million (state funds, biennial) to Address Equity Funding Issues Across the
Local Community Mental Retardation Authorities.
This
request is intended to address areas of the state with below average per capital
funding levels for community mental retardation services by distributing
Medicaid HCS Waiver slots (1,344) to the local MRAs that are below the mean.
If this item is not funded, TDMHMR will not achieve its objective of
equity funding for mental retardation.
$6.8
million
(state funds, biennial) to Upgrade Salaries for Nurses in Community
Direct Care Settings.
This request will help address recruitment and retention issues for
nurses employed by community centers and by private providers of waiver and
ICF-MR services.
As the national nursing shortage worsens, community providers will
continue to have difficulties in staffing and retaining nurse positions.
These medical positions are critical to client care and compliance with
accreditation standards.
$81.1
million (state funds, biennial) to Upgrade Salaries for Community Direct Care
Staff. These
funds are requested to provide for a salary increase for community direct care
workers and their supervisors to address critical recruitment and retention
issues experienced by community care providers.
This request will provide for close to a 10% salary increase for direct
care workers in the community, bringing these workers closer to the salaries
paid to direct care workers in TDMHMR facilities (state schools).
$71.3
million (state funds, biennial) to Reduce the HCS Waiver Waiting List.
This
request will provide waiver services to 1,200 persons who are on the HCS Waiting
List. This
item, the beginning of a multi-year effort to address the waiting list, will
address 15% of the current HCS waiting list.
Remedy
the crisis!
Support
$255.5 million (state funds, biennial) for