COFAR blog

Shannon Guenette, who heads a corporate agency that runs group homes funded by the Department of Developmental Services (DDS), is trying to get state lawmakers and policy makers to understand the impact the COVID crisis has had on direct care staffing in her agency’s residences.

She is facing a staffing shortage that appears to be afflicting the entire DDS system, yet legislative leaders don’t appear to be aware of it. And DDS Commissioner Jane Ryder confirmed in an email to two COFAR members only late last week that the staffing shortage is a “severe” problem affecting “all of our agencies.”

Guenette,  who is the executive director of Almadan, Inc., which operates three DDS-funded and two Department of Mental Health-funded group homes in western Massachusetts, maintained that, “This isn’t a situation where we can turn grills off at night. My fear is we’re going to hit a breaking point if something doesn’t change soon.

“It’s a heavy weight on our team,” she added. “We have concerns for staff burnout, and worry what will happen if the staff shortage continues.”

The irony is that the state received $5.3 billion earlier this year under the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Of that amount, some $500 million can be spent on DDS and other Home and Community Based Services (HCBS). The ARPA is one of the federal stimulus bills passed last spring.

The ARPA funding is earmarked, among other things, for higher pay to at least temporarily recruit new direct care workers.

Yet, Guenette said, even though she understands the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved the state’s plan for spending the ARPA funding, the money still hasn’t been distributed to DDS group home providers. She said she was told at one point that the ARPA funds might be distributed by late fall. The delay won’t help the current critical need, she said.

In addition to the ARPA funds, the state began the current fiscal year in July with a projected $4.2 billion budget surplus. Yet the money is not reaching direct-care workers.

Guenette said Almadan’s total staff, which is normally around 100 full-time and part-time workers, is now down to 65 employees. Almadan provides residential, shared living, and individual support services, and some of its programs are more than 40 percent vacant in terms of staff.

Low wages have forced many direct care staff to work for multiple providers to earn a living, Guenette said. She said raising wages could help in hiring staff with more experience or passion in the field. Some staff have in fact left to accept higher paying positions in other fields.

DDS commissioner only now commenting on staffing problem

Ed and Gail Orzechowski, who are COFAR members, wrote last week to DDS Commissioner Ryder about the Almadan staffing problem. Gail’s sister, Carol, is a longtime resident of one of Almadan’s group homes in Pelham.

In an emailed response to the Orzechowskis on Friday, Ryder she she is “well aware of the severe staffing shortage all of our agencies are experiencing. It is a great concern to all of us. “

Ryder added that the administration is “in the process of getting the ARPA funds out to our agencies, but unfortunately it will take some time.”  She said the funds  will be retroactive to July 1.

Guenette noted that even though the funds will be retroactive, they are intended to be provided only through December of this year, and thus will only be “a temporary fix for a much larger problem.”

Ryder’s email is the first acknowledement she has made, that we are aware of, of the staffing shortage. Neither Ryder nor state Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders ever responded to our request in mid-July for comment when we first heard reports of a DDS staffing shortage.

In response to a follow-up email on Wednesday of this week from the Orzechowskis, state Senator Joanne Comerford said she planned  to contact Ryder about the staffing and ARPA funding situations. “ARPA funding is moving through MA — albeit more slowly than I’d like,” Comerford stated.

Legislative leaders don’t see a need for hurry

Despite the concerns about the staffing shortage from Ryder, Guenette, and from parents and guardians of DDS clients, legislative leaders don’t appear to perceive a need for hurry in distributing the federal funding.

According to CommonWealth magazine, Senate President Karen Spilka said in early August she believes there is “wisdom in waiting” to spend federal ARPA recovery money. “We are no longer in the state of emergency, the major state of emergency at the height of COVID,” Spilka said, according to the magazine.

Spilka added that, “We are no longer in the rescue situation where money is needed to be spent urgently and quickly. We are now in recovery mode and back to the more normal budget type of appropriation process.”

But without the additional federal funding, Guenette said, Almadan can’t afford to pay its direct care staff enough to recruit new workers and compete with jobs that pay a living wage as little as $18 an hour.  Almadan is currently able to pay its staff $15.25 an hour. She said she sees the low pay, in part, as a social justice issue because much of the staff of DDS-funded facilities are from marginalized, minority populations.

Guenette said Almadan has been fortunate in that there are currently no COVID positive residents or staff in its group homes. Almadan has a 90% vaccination rate among staff, and 100% among residents. DDS is requiring that staff be tested every week.

She said that when the crisis began, Almadan was proactive in their measures to keep everyone safe “with a dearth of (DDS) guidance.” The agency immediately began purchasing PPE and cleaning supplies, she said, and found food delivery sources that didn’t require any contact with the community.

Many DDS providers, however, are not in Almadan’s advantageous situation with regard to staff vaccinations. The Baker administration last publicly reported in April that less than 50% of DDS provider staff had been vaccinated.

We urge people to call or email their legislators, and call the Children and Families Committee at (617) 722-1660 to ask them to push for quick distribution of the ARPA funding in order to boost direct-care wages in the DDS system.