The state system that offers home- and community-based services has a 13,000-person waiting list, leaving many families unable to work or take breaks from caregiving.
Families, providers, and people with disabilities gather inside the Capitol steps in Harrisburg last June to push for state funding for programs that provide care to people with disabilities.Jennings, a 60-year-old Lancaster County resident, has spent 30 years advocating on behalf of her son, Matthew, who has multiple intellectual and physical disabilities that require around-the-clock care.last fall, she didn’t have high expectations.
Jennings is one of many aging parents across the state who serve as the main caretaker to their adult children with intellectual disabilities or autism. The more than $2 billion state system that offers home- and community-based services has a 13,000-person waiting list, leaving many families on their own — unable to work or take breaks from the physically and emotionally demanding caregiving work.
Jennings was surprised when Shapiro invited her back to the Capitol months later for his budget address, and even more so when he gave her family a shout-out as part of his speech. Her story resonated with him. Jennings told the governor about being an aging mom caring for her adult son who can’t verbally communicate. She struggles so much to find quality caregivers that she often has to rely on her own 87-year-old mother to pitch in.
“I gotta tell you, that feels really good to stand here with a smile on our face,” said Sherri Landis, the executive director of the Arc of Pennsylvania, at the rally.
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