Budget Alert from the Michigan Assisted Living Association (MALA)

This is from the Michigan Assisted Living Association (MALA) on increasing wages for direct care workers who provide services to people with developmental disabilities as well as those who are aging or have mental illness or physical disabilities. 

The only thing I would change about this appeal is to make sure it applies to direct care workers regardless of where the individual served lives. Workers in group homes, nursing homes, and other settings are as vital to the care of people with disabilities as those who are hired to work in the individual's own home.

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MALA Budget Alert - Your Action is Needed Now!

Your advocacy is urgently needed as the Michigan Legislature works on the state budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2022. Please see the message and link below for you to communicate with your state legislators.

The behavioral health coalition, of which MALA is a member, is urging the Michigan Legislature to appropriate an additional $127.0 million in General Fund dollars. This funding equates to an approximate $4.00 per hour wage increase which would be in addition to the $2.35 per hour wage increase.

We expect the $2.35 per hour wage increase to be funded in the next fiscal year’s state budget. However, the potential exists for an additional wage increase particularly if the state revenue estimates released later this month are positive.

Please take a few minutes to contact your state legislators to urge their support for the additional funding referenced in the message below. An additional $4.00 per hour wage increase would result in an estimated average starting wage rate state-wide of $18.00 per hour for direct support staff. 

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions related to this MALA Budget Alert.

ROBERT L. STEIN

General Counsel
, 734-525-2400, 
rstein@miassistedliving.org
 

KATHLEEN M. MURPHY


General Counsel
, 734-525-2401, 
kmurphy@miassistedliving.org

BRENDA L. ROBERTS


Director of Quality Assurance and Education, 
734-525-2407, 
broberts@miassistedliving.org

Please Support Michigan’s Direct Care Workers

When a Michigan resident experiences a mental illness or developmental disability, they should be able to hire the help they need to ensure their safety and wellbeing. But right now, they can’t.

In today’s tight labor market, it is difficult to find a Direct Care Worker, whether you are looking for care for yourself, a loved one, or hiring an employee for your agency. This leaves our state’s most vulnerable residents at risk.

Our coalition proposes a General Fund appropriation of $127.0 million in FY 23 which would increase the average starting wage rate in the behavioral health system to approximately $18.00 per hour. That’s what many entry-level jobs pay across the state right now and is the least we can do to compensate our Direct Care workforce.

With significant amounts of GF dollars and pandemic-related federal funding available to the state right now, Michigan has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address the long-standing direct care workforce crisis in a meaningful and sustained manner.

Let’s reach out and make it happen.
 

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Michigan's Direct Care Worker Staffing Crisis

Michigan’s Community Mental Health system serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, mental illness and substance use disorders. Crain's Detroit Business featured an article on 10/21/18 on the "Staffing Crisis of direct care mental health workers faces clients, families" by Jay Greene. The article covers a Crain’s health summit panel that was chaired by Robert Stein, the general counsel for the Michigan Assisted Living Association (MALA). MALA represents providers of assisted living and similar services including mental health services to people with developmental and other disabilities. [note: direct care workers are also known as Direct Support Professional or DSPs.]

According to Stein, “We have a real crisis with support services to people with disabilities…Wage levels are not competitive with retail companies, fast food restaurants and others. The funding levels have been constrained for many years.”

A MALA survey found “the average turnover rate for agencies providing staff is 37 percent, the starting wage is $10.46 per hour and the average number of open positions for full-time staff is 12 percent, 20 percent for part-time staff.”

Although the legislature “approved $64 million in additional funding in the fiscal 2018 budget to increase the average hourly rate by 50 cents..”, the panel characterized this as a “drop in the bucket”.

The article quotes Robert White, a parent advocate who has two adult sons with autism, as commenting that "Paying [direct service professional] $2 above the minimum wage (of $10 per hour) prevents more people from leaving the system. …We also need a supplemental budget in the lame duck session and future budgets to come [that] must have non-negotiated budget items. We can't kick the can down the road. It is an infrastructure requirement, a civil and constitutional right to have these services like good roads, good education and clean water to drink." [emphasis added]

Here is a quote from State Rep. Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills, the Michigan House Democratic Floor Leader:

"I get really frustrated by state government and how we fund things,…We talk about integration. We should be talking about great quality care, not about money. You start from an outcomes standpoint. What does the provider, patient need in services. The money flows from that."

[I agree, and I wish more legislators and advocates would support this approach to funding services, rather than promoting the idea that full inclusion in the “community” is the highest and only worthwhile goal of our our system of services.]

The panel also discussed the kinds of things that direct care givers do:

Robert White says in response: ”My older son has high medical needs, 24-7 supervision, in taking the meds he needs, bathing ... nutrition, safety, socialization in the community…The home he is in is currently understaffed. Managers are actively taking shifts. Many caregivers work many shifts. There is mental and physical fatigue, possible errors. It is not their fault. They are truly their lifeline."

John Williams, executive director of Progressive Lifestyles Inc., pointed out that "A lot of staff work two and three jobs. It is unattractive to get involved. …in many cases, it is a very physical job with wide spectrum of disabilities. One day you will lift somebody from a wheelchair to a bed. (The next day) help people move in, repair a stove, fix a washing machine. It's a very demanding job."

According to the article, Stein said MALA and others are “starting a grass roots effort to lobby state legislators to add a line item in the Medicaid supplemental budget that would amount to an increase of 75 cents per hour.”