Senator LaValle Holding up Advanced Home Health Aides

June 8, 2015 (Albany, NY) – Disability Activists, as part of a broad coalition of stakeholders, met with Senator LaValle’s staff last week to call for the creation of Advanced Home Health Aides (AHHAs), a service that will help thousands of New Yorkers to live in their own homes. Senator LaValle, who chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee, through which this proposal must pass, has remained opposed to the proposal. Video of the meeting is online.

“I have a progressive disability,” said Jensen Caraballo, Social Media Coordinator with the Center for Disability Rights (CDR). “One day, I am not going to be able to self-direct. When that day comes, if there’s no program … I’ll end up in a nursing home.”

At issue is legislation to allow nurses to assign certain health-related tasks to AHHAs, trained, experienced workers, so that people with disabilities and older adults can live in their own homes. Caraballo currently receives assistance with these tasks through Consumer Directed Personal Attendant Services, which requires the consumer to manage his or her own attendants. The AHHA proposal would help consumers who are not up to that work to live in the community as well.

Disability advocates brought to LaValle’s attention the stories of five people in LaValle’s district who remain trapped in nursing facilities for want of assistance with these tasks. These stories put a human face on the issue: people driven from their houses; people afraid they will never again see their family; lives torn apart because a trained, supervised Advanced Home Health Aide is not there to help them take a pill in their home. Senator LaValle was unmoved by these stories.

“This is a small change that will make a big difference,” said Adam Prizio, Manager of Government Affairs at CDR. “The data shows that people who receive these services at home have better health outcomes, live longer, and are more integrated into our society. The AHHAs will help thousands of people to live in the community, regardless of their disability.”

Legislation to create AHHAs has passed the New York State Assembly, and Governor Cuomo supports the creation of the program. A broad coalition of organizations has urged the Senate to negotiate the creation of the program this year, but Senator LaValle’s opposition has kept a bill from being introduced this year.

“The average nursing facility stay for an older adult is six months,” said Prizio. “If we don’t pass the bill this session, people who were forced into a facility today will be dead before we can act next year.”

Contact for More Information:
Adam Prizio: 603-867-4910
Stephanie Woodward: 585-546-7510

Click Here for Link to Advanced Home Health Aide Sign-on Letter