Our adult daughter, Lindsay, has developmental disabilities. Since the beginning of the year, we have been asking the direct care workers who support Lindsay if they have received the pay increase approved by the Legislature in 2021.
Auburn resident Scott Wilson, 32, and his mother, Annette. The group home where Wilson has lived for seven years is closing amid financial difficulties, and he must now move to a different adult group home in Auburn. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
We were outraged to read in the March 27 Maine Sunday Telegram (“Help never came,” Page B1) that the increased reimbursement rate, to set the wages of direct care workers at 125 percent of minimum wage ($15.94), was not fully funded in the state’s budget. What a colossal blunder! Who was responsible for this? The Legislature? The governor? The Maine Department of Health and Human Services? All three?
How many more group homes will close and support staff will leave while the state sits on a huge budget surplus? How is the state supporting the people who lose their homes? Does the state even know where they are?
We are disgusted with Maine’s lack of support for the developmentally disabled and their direct support staff!
Rob and Luann Lawler
Cumberland Foreside
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