Living out east gave me a chance to support Allyson Scerri, thanks to my friend Donna Lanzetta’s invitation to a golf outing at the picturesque Westhampton Country Club supporting New Beginnings, a group that provides rehabilitation, management and recovery for community members with traumatic brain injury, physical disabilities, cognitive disabilities or dementia.
Allyson’s “mission” began after her dad had a devastating motorcycle accident and suffered brain damage, disabling him for the rest of his life. That struck a chord with me because of my daughter Lara, who suffered brain damage a few hours after her birth.
Lara propelled me and her father Murray to fight and win the right for people with disabilities to live lives of dignity in their communities near their loved ones, having won a class action lawsuit we had filed along with other parents from Willowbrook.
Now that right is being challenged.
As a 3-month-old, my lovely Lara was in need of total care, needing to be fed, diapered and “carried” by a wheelchair. So, Lara came to live in a group home with staff needed to assist her seven days a week. To me, it’s the people who care for all of those like Lara in hundreds of homes that are truly heroes.
They change the diapers, feed the residents and engage them in a therapeutic environment. It takes a quality, well-trained staff to do the job. I often call them “Angels on Earth.”
But every group home, like Life’s WORC, in our state is now facing a staffing crisis. The funds to pay a living wage are simply not there.
How, as a society, can we not protect the most vulnerable among us?
Who are we as a people?
Will it take another class action lawsuit to make a difference and effect change?
In the 1970s, we filed a successful federal class action lawsuit to protect the rights of my daughter Lara and all of those like her at the now infamous Willowbrook State School, where Geraldo Rivera reported an expose on the shocking conditions.
We won the right for Lara to live a life of dignity, but that dignity is now endangered because there will be “little” Willowbrooks in every neighborhood if we don’t get the funding to hire quality, qualified staff for the homes to offer the level of care that the residents need.
We are being tested. Will it only be through the courts that we can give our vulnerable children the care they need?
Governor Kathy Hochul, please find the funds and make that happen!
We are a great society. Let us be judged by how we care for the most vulnerable amongst us.
Call the governor’s office at 518-474-8390 and have your voice be heard.
