For Aging Parents, Help Just in Time

Va.'s Expanded Care to Mentally Disabled a Reprieve for Couple, Adult Son

Jerome McDermott has never considered the decades-long task of caring for his quadriplegic son, Andrew a burden. Even as McDermott has daily bathed and dressed Andrew, who has cerebral palsy and is now 42, he has seen it as part of his duty as a parent.

But for several years, McDermott, 69, has had difficulty doing some of the basics: from lifting his son in and out of his wheelchair several times a day, to bathing him in the mornings. The physical labor of caring for Andrew, who weighs about 115 pounds, led to a hernia several years ago and periodic muscle strains for McDermott, a former Marine who is retired.

That's why the news from Richmond earlier this month was a relief: Andrew McDermott is finally in line to receive long overdue services from the state, now that lawmakers have dramatically expanded a program that provides community care to the mentally disabled.

The program, which is part of Medicaid and is matched dollar for dollar by federal money, has been under-funded in Virginia for a decade, leading to hundreds of elderly Virginians having to care for their adult mentally disabled children.

"This is the most hope we've had in a long time," said McDermott, who lives in Herndon along with his wife, Roberta, 60, Andrew's stepmother.

Getting his son into a group home in the Herndon community "will not only help us because we're getting on in years, but will also allow Andy to have more independence," McDermott said.

One of the major issues the Virginia General Assembly struggled with as lawmakers crafted their two-year budget this spring was funding health care, in particular the future of the state program that transfers the mentally disabled out of institutions and into group homes.

As part of the $60 billion budget passed this month, lawmakers approved funding for 860 mentally disabled patients to live in group homes in their communities. The places will come available over a two-year span.

At $40 million, the funding is the most the program has ever gotten from the state, advocates said. The money covers not only group home care but also help for people who don't need as much supervision and can receive services in their homes.

The funding should help whittle down a waiting list of the neediest cases that had grown to 1,300 as of January. An additional 2,000 people remain on a second waiting list of somewhat less needy cases.

The first places will become available this summer, state officials said.

"It's been basically a little money here and a little money there," said Teja Stokes, executive director of the Arc of Virginia, an organization that advocates for the mentally disabled. With limited funding, the state had granted about 175 slots last year and about 150 the year before. "The standard has been a Band-Aid approach," Stokes said. "This year is much different"

The new places will mean that families such as the McDermotts will be able to move their children into group homes, close to or in their own communities. There are more than 120 such families in Fairfax and Falls Church for instance; several hundred more are scattered across Northern Virginia, according to state records.

Many families on the waiting list have not been receiving any state-funded services. In the McDermotts' case, a home health care worker visited the family eight hours a week -- not enough to really help Jerome McDermott take care of Andrew's daily needs.