Department of Health Care Services dismantles ADHC program for California seniors

The State of California is facing a budget crisis and, as usual, the most vulnerable and needy face the biggest cuts. The Department of Health Care Services is dismantling a vital program for our state's seniors, and Governor Jerry Brown has reneged on a deal to replace the program with some kind of viable alternative. The Adult Day Health Care program allows over 35,000 seniors to stay out of nursing homes and remain in their communities.

Since the 1980s, ADHC centers across the state have saved California taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. They have also provided seniors with a wonderful alternative to life in a nursing home, allowing seniors to live at home with their families, while offering a place for them to go and be a part of an extended family during the day. This gives their caregivers at home a much-needed reprieve – especially important in this tough economic climate where many people are working multiple jobs in addition to helping out their parents and grandparents.

Governor Brown has slashed the ADHC program from the 2011-2012 state budget and reneged on a deal to provide a replacement program (budgeted at $85 million, or roughly half the $170 million allocated to the ADHC program). With the program set to end in December, seniors face the frightening prospect of no long-term plan to extend the services on which they have come to rely. Many of these seniors joined with leading advocates in Reseda today, to protest the elimination of the program and highlight the calamity that awaits them and the state should this program lapse. The end of the program will also mean the loss of jobs for the over 7,000 healthcare workers, along with more 911 calls, emergency room visits, the shuffling of the frail and infirmed into nursing homes that are already overcrowded, more cases of abuse and neglect, and a $51 million additional burden on taxpayers.

At the October 19 rally, Dr. Silvia Karchikian highlighted the human tragedy at the heart of this issue: "People are not afraid of death; they are afraid of being confined to an institution." And that is the simple reality here: thousands of seniors have spent their lives contributing to society, and all they are asking for now is the basic right to spend the twilight of their lives with dignity – at home, and with the people they love.

Right now the elimination of the program is being challenged in court. Additional rallies are scheduled for October 25 and October 31.