|
04-03-2007
Testimony on House Bill 119 - David Hunter
Testimony on House Bill 119
Before the House Human Services Subcommittee
April 3, 2007
David Hunter, LISW
Athens County Help Me Grow Project Director
Mr. Chairman and members of the House Human Services Subcommittee. My name is David Hunter and I am the Athens County Help Me Grow Project Director and Clinical Supervisor. Having spent most of my professional life working with troubled teenagers, it became obvious to me that the cost of treating, rehabilitating, or incarcerating youth is extremely high compared to the cost of early intervention in the most formative years of a child’s life. The knowledge of how devastating early abuse, neglect and other trauma is to the healthy development and future functioning of our children is what brought me to the Help Me Grow program. I am here to share with you the impact of how funding reductions have affected our County and the families we serve and to urge you to support adequate funding for this vital program.
Based upon funding projections for FY 08, without the Governors increase, our funding will have decreased by twenty one percent (21%) since FY03. We are facing up to a 10.78% cut this year. This, while program requirements have steadily increased. Up until now we have tightened our belt and tried to do more with less and fortunately our administrative agency has provided many support services at no cost. I understand the need to more equitably fund counties and have not previously complained. However, with continuing increased program costs and decreased funding, we are now at the tipping point in our ability to meet the most basic requirements of the program.
We work in a rural Appalachian County with a high poverty rate. 94% of the over 200 families we serve earn less than 300% of the poverty rate. These families have multiple needs and multiple barriers to meeting the basic developmental needs of their children, let alone the special needs of children at risk for or with developmental delays or disabilities. Lack of transportation, inadequate housing, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, and isolation, to name a few, mean Service Coordinators must help address multiple issues in order to help families. With current funding cuts we will not have the time or resources to adequately serve these families.
Perhaps a brief case example will help illustrate. We are working with a family with a child under two with Global Developmental Delays. The child needs numerous services. The mother is barely out of her teens. She was severely abused and neglected as a child, can not read, is seriously hearing impaired, was abandoned by her abusive husband, has no transportation, has inadequate housing, lacks medical care, etc. In order to address this child’s special developmental needs the Service Coordinator has spent hours helping this woman get the help she needs. The child is now receiving services and the mother is learning to adequately parent this child. We will not be able to address these kinds of needs with current funding levels and children’s developmental needs will not be met, meaning much higher costs to society and the State down the road.
Our Service Coordinators are working with 35 to 40 families. The time and expense to travel to families homes is a major expense when trying to cover a large rural county. Helping our families with transportation to medical and therapy appointments is critical. Some families must travel to Columbus to get the services their child needs. Without our assistance and support many families would not be able to get to these services. In addition, parent training, children’s socialization groups, and other supportive services would be in jeopardy without additional funding. While increased funding to Help Me Grow will allow services to be provided to many additional children it is also critical to maintaining quality services.
Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to share my concerns. I know you have tough funding decisions to make. Please take into consideration the fact that the developmental needs of infants and toddlers can’t wait and provide needed increased funding to Help Me Grow. I would be happy to answer any questions at this time.
|
