QUESTION
What are the reasons behind wait lists for home care and case management programs, and what steps are being taken to address them?
1:51:00
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113 sec
The NYC Department for the Aging faces challenges in home care due to a lack of workers and disparities in pay prompted by state policies, and is advocating for equity and enhancing recruitment efforts.
- A shortage of home care workers and a disparity in their wages compared to Medicare home care workers, caused by state funding decisions, result in wait lists.
- The Department for the Aging is actively advocating with the state to eliminate wage disparities between different classes of home care workers.
- Aggressive recruitment measures are being implemented to address the shortage of home care staff.
- The council member inquires about the additional caseworkers and funding needed to eliminate the case management waitlist, with a promise of follow-up on specific numbers.
Crystal Hudson
1:51:00
The the NYC aging term and condition report provided to the council for the period of July 1st through December 31st, showed a wait list of 322 people for home care and 774 for case management.
1:51:15
Why are there wait lists FOR THESE PROGRAMS.
1:51:18
I UNDERSTAND THAT FOR CASE MANAGEMENT.
1:51:22
CASE MANAGEMENT.
Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez
1:51:24
HOME CARE IS One of the challenges we have in home care, there's 2 challenges.
1:51:30
1 is the posity of home care workers.
1:51:34
That has been exacerbated by this different difference in salary imposed on us by the state.
1:51:43
Where they're funding ISEP home care workers at a much lower rate than Medicare, home care workers, and that disparity causes competition in recruiting staff.
1:51:57
Home care is all labor driven.
Crystal Hudson
1:52:01
So is there anything that you can do to to sort of solve for that?
1:52:08
We're advocating strongly
Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez
1:52:09
with the state.
1:52:10
To to eliminate that that disparity in salaries for the same class of people.
1:52:18
We hope that you will join us in lifting your voices on that.
Barbara Bear
1:52:21
Absolutely.
Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez
1:52:23
And the other thing that we're doing is being very aggressive about our recruitment.
Crystal Hudson
1:52:31
How many additional caseworkers and how much additional funding think is needed to eliminate the case management waitlist.
Jose Mercado
1:52:42
So we'll we'll get back to you.
1:52:44
I'm gonna match your numbers.
Crystal Hudson
1:52:45
Okay.
1:52:48
And you've talked already about the
Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez
1:52:50
I have a list of all the things we're gonna get back to you.
1:52:53
Yeah.