Don't Cut Our Lifeline! WV

Family member of 2 persons with disabilities also a service provider

You are cutting my freedom

I know several people with autism and their family struggles. I see on Facebook the extremes Tracy White goes through for her son, and many many others to provide them with caring teachers, aides, educational rights, etc.

As a nurse who used to care for the amazing individuals with disabilities in Morgantown, WV, please keep the funding that allows them to live in a normal productive environment.

These cuts will most likely mean institutionalization for my son. Please don't make us chose between welfare or an institution for our child.

for my half sisters brother, Eli ❤️

Close friend of a mother of a child with a mental disability that makes her unable to communicate or care for herself in any way.

Have been SFCP for 16yrs !!! Don't understand every 5yrs we have to fight and be put through this !!! I have a family member with S N to !!

I know how much these funds are needed by families. Pulling funds will only cost the state more in the long run and desperately ruin the families that depend on the benefits. Please consider these are humans with special needs and health problems that need constant care for the rest of their lives. They are special in their own way. Not to be handed off to anyone that will not take good care of them. They need to be with family.

I have a son on the waiting list for wavier. Please don't cut services for these people!

Unable to comment due to disability. Also unable to survive without total support.

I have assisted individuals that receive the I/DD waiver. Please do not cut these families life lines. These families need respite care and support as much as possible. If you take respite hours away from these families, more families will have to go on Welfare to support their families. This will cause more and more money to be paid by the working people, since there will be such a boost in families that have to stay home to take care of their child. By taking services from these families, the government will really hurt our economy.

I have a 22 year old autistic son Non verbal We need this waiver service so he can continue to show his independence from Mom and Dad He loves to be out in community with his REM worker Mitchell can't be left alone needs constant supervision His parents work outside of home and need waiver to maintain our life as we know it Please help us don't cut our services

My child has CP

I am a BHT with USC in the waiver program . I feel with the wavier cut backs it will be devastating to my client who needs one on one care 24/7. I hope this is given more consideration before or if the program is changed for the worse

Please stop this injustice. You have no idea how these terrible cuts will affect all these people with disabilities.

Surely there is another way than hurt the most vulnerable individuals in our state and their families. This will force people to find the funds from somewhere else be it unemployment, food stamps, etc. Be the state that sets the precedent for what is right, be a leader not a follower. Help us help our families and loved ones.

Not only am I a support staff for individuals but I also have a sister who has Autism. The changes will hurt her services and cut me out of a job.

We adopted two severely disabled children and have subsequently supported them in a home bought and adapted for them from funds we EARNED through caring for them as well as through outside jobs .. One of our sons died in 2013 and the other is now 31. With those funds we maintain not only the home, but two vehicles we bought for THEM.. to cut these funds will mean that we no longer have a way to continue to do this... to support these totally helpless individuals in an institution would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention horrendously detrimental to their health and well being.. with the exception of PPL, the state and local agencies in WV have continuously attempted to capture funds at the administrative level to prop themselves up while mostly doing nothing to enable our population to exist. We have never had an agency provide ONE worker. Except for PPL all other agencies we attempted to work with were unable to fulfill any of our needs aside from some access to funds for adaptations - funds which no longer seem to be available. We had sincere case managers who were powerless working for agencies that seemed only to want to capture the bulk of funds before they ever made their way to a client for actual services. PPL changed all that for us. To slash our funds to the extent this state is talking about doing would be tantamount to sentencing our loved ones to institutionalization .. just to support agencies that have mostly done nothing for them for years. It's criminal and makes no sense financially except to the state and local agencies that want to go BACK to the model we have fought so hard to improve upon. I am distraught and furious.

Have a child with a disability and need this to pass