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How are further government cuts going to affect you and your family?
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I work in a group home, and contrary to popular belief staff do not sit around with individual's drinking beverages all shift. We work very hard at our job's, and do not always get respect, or a fair wage for all our effort's. Our individual's as much as we love them are not always smiling and happy. They can be tough on staff. They yell at us, hit us, throw things at us, and refuse to co-operate with us. Still staff come back everyday to work with them, because we know their action's are a result of their disabilities. We care a great deal about our individual's, but our wages are very unfair for the service we provide. We are worked very hard, continously made to take course's, and very stressed by our job's. We are always understaffed. Very few people are willing to do what we do because they have no trouble finding job's with no stress. We deserve better pay for what we do!!!
Please help me, my family, and friends!
3 out of 5 adults have disabilities in my family. i have attention deficit disorder, nonverbal learning disability, and cerebral palsy. my dad is legally blind and hard of hearing. my grandma has severe dementia.
all of us need the government's help to survive. i currently don't qualify for direct PDD services even though i got a developmental delay because i am not "mentally retarded" enough according to the PDD staff. yet i do recieve some services from PDD to help me deal with my high frustration level, and lack of social skills. i receive counseling and other supports from an agency that is funded by PDD.
my grandma lives in a nursing home funded by the government. she only earns $17000/ year, $13000 goes towards her nursing home fees.
my dad is working full time trying to take care of me, my grandma, and the rest of my family. if my grandma, my dad, and me don't get the help we need from the government the following may start to happen.
my grandma may get kicked out of her nursing home because they can't take care of people who have low incomes. - i may end up dead because i get so frustrated that i smack my head when i lose control. counseling helps me release my frustration in a safe way. also through the other programs i am in that are funded by PDD
i have made friends who are my allies, and inspiration. if the program that we go to disappears i may not be able to make friends. i don't make friends easily so when i actually do end up having friends i cherish them. i like being able to see them every week in program.
my dad needs tools to read, and write, to see and to hear. he is not a rich man. if services are cut he may not be able to get those tools. he may end up losing his independence. that worries me and him along with the rest of my family a lot.
please don't cut $ from our services. we need them to help us live a better quality of life in alberta.
PDD cuts to services
As an employee in this field - supporting Adults with Developmental Disabilities for over 20 years, I have grave concerns for the quality and quantity of support available.
These cuts hinder what we have been hanging on to. Wages, beneifits and training took a hard hit over the past three years - affects hiring and retention of employees. Now the promised 5% increase that turned into a 2% bonus that no one has yet recieved is frustrated by a province wide demand to returned dollars or reduced contracts to agencies and families provided support.
We already have trimmed services to the bone and have little incentive to keep workers. In addition the people coming out of AB hospital will have no where to go (last I heard about 40% of folks designated for community support fall under PDD mandate as well). Families are already maxed, quality of workers in jeopary, more people needing services on the horizon AND little or no insight from government funders.
What will become of these people? What about those that don't have families to pick up some weekend support? Will thy neighbor help more?
Are we moving backwards to a more expensive and less rewarding style of support like institutional care?
What would you want if your child or grandchild had a disability that required some form of life long support? Would you be okay with this treatment by PDD or the Alberta Government?
