I am a 20 year old RI resident hoping to make my future in the area of
social work, particularly with the elderly. I am currently doing an
internship in a hospice here and I have become aware that I am going to
face many problems. A few weeks ago, our governor proposed his budget
plan for the next fiscal year. It includes an increase in spending for
education and a big multi-million dollar decrease in spending for health
care--more importantly nursing homes. Now, since this came out every
health care center has rallied against it. They've held town meeting,
written letters, made phone calls, etc. Everyone has been involved to
stop this, including the residents of these places. Yet, the state still
insists that this budget plan is needed. It has already passed in the
House, what will happen if it passes the Senate? One nursing home has
already closed because of this and another is announcing it's plan to
close as well. This means that 400 people will need to be relocated to
the 90 or so beds that are left in the state.
I understand that Connecticut went through this same thing
recently. However, they were able to reverse the proposal and even ended
up getting more money from the state. What I really asking is, How can we
stop this? If anyone has been through a similar situation, I'd really be
interested in hearing about how you delt with it and any possible
suggestions you might have. Thank-you for your time.
Jennifer Whiteside
Bryant College
jwhitesi at acad.bryant.edu
