Abandoning Elderly to Unskilled Employees Is Increasing in Massachusetts

Also Causing Bloat in State Budget and Increased Taxes

Geraldine A. Hawkins
November 15, 2002

The prospect of leaving one's elderly parents (or children) in the care of unskilled, unconcerned employees is not a thought to warm the heart, but this is precisely what is happening with increasing frequency in the state of Massachusetts, according to a report from the Pioneer Institute.

It's also causing our bloated budget and is driving up our taxes, according to the report.

"'Human services' means paying people to have a relationship with someone who is vulnerable," according to James Stergios, co-author of the Pioneer Institute study "Innovation Out of Crisis: Making Human Services More Humane."

He tells MassNews that "human services" funded by the state includes mental health, mental retardation, public health, social services, welfare, child care, youth services, health care for the needy, programs for the sight- and hearing-impaired, services for immigrants and refugees, and help for people who have been abused, battered, neglected, or are indigent.

All this is expected in a state with a noble tradition of leading the way in caring for the less fortunate, but the quality of services is often poor and is getting worse, according to Stergios and co-author Michael Weekes.
The rate of turnover among workers in these fields is as high as forty percent, with vacancy rates nearing thirty percent. Dependence on a workforce so transient and unskilled translates into low-quality care for those who need it most.

Nonprofit groups such as the Massachusetts Council of Human Services Providers and the Road to Responsibility are attempting to address the situation with constructive solutions that require no government assistance.

"There's been a lack of vision as to what human service systems ought to look like," says Weekes of Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, the largest human services trade organization in the state. "There has been an overburdening of policies and procedures, and we have a huge cadre of people who are not paid decent salaries or provided with health insurance."

The state has increased its spending but has not increased remuneration for the providers of human services. Instead, "the additional money has gone to instituting new programs and increasing the complexity of the state's regulatory edifice," according to Stergios and Weekes.

The system is burdened by government edicts involving minimum wages, Adults with Disabilities Act rules, and Office for Safety and Health Administration vaccinations. All of this requires training, back-up staff while employees are being trained, overtime compensation, purchase of new equipment, extra record-keeping and people to keep the records. Those in need of human services see no evidence of additional government spending that they believe is on their behalf.

The Institute for the Study of Economic Culture at Boston University, the Massachusetts Council of Human Services Providers and the Pioneer Instutute have put their heads together to see what can be done about this problem by moving to a government-free perspective. In addition, Road to Responsibility (R2R), under the direction of founder and president Rick Walker, has developed small businesses, including two motels, to employ and help disabled people.

"This is as much a social and community issue as an economics issue," Walker told MassNews. "It is about community-based responsibility."

Walker feels that in recent years, many people have moved from the desire to serve in "helping professions" to a primary concern about personal financial security. "The first questions [when considering a job] are: 'Do they have a 401-K? Are you getting stock options?' We have to look at where and how do we go for people."

Volunteerism is a further resource in human services. R2R has brought in over seventy people from abroad, in particular the Czech Republic, where English is taught as a second language and education is a cultural value, both of which Walker feels are important factors when working with the vulnerable, and which are conspicuous by their absence in state-funded agencies. "There are many countries that meet this criteria," says Walker. "Chile is one, but I don't have any contacts in Chile."

Czech workers come to Massachusetts on a "J Visa" and stay for eighteen months.

"It is almost like a 'work study' program," says Walker. "Anyone who works with the disabled has got to want to serve and want to give..These are people who want to come to America because that is where we all want to be. These people are enormously motivated." This has a positive impact upon clients, who can see that "if someone wants to come 4000 miles to do this work, there must be something good about this work."

Walker explains that this has an entirely different effect upon clients than the sort of transience found in state-run agencies. "Even in the best of economic times, most people who come to work in human services do it as a stop in their lives," he says. "It is tremendously demanding emotionally. You commit yourself to the people we serve for a period of time, but it is a planned transition. The clients know that this group is going to come and they are going to stay for eighteen months."

Stergios told MassNews that according to a recent survey of workers in state-funded human services agencies, "Sixty percent of the people on the job should never have been hired." Weekes reiterates the danger of this situation in light of the importance of the job.

"Human services are for protecting those who need protection and for helping people to reach their potential. Human services are an important part of a civil society," he says. "No amount of technology can replace human beings."

A copy of the report, "Innovation Out Of Crisis I: Making Human Services More Humane" is available from Pioneer Instiute, 85 Devonshire Street, Boston, MA 02109, tel: 617-723-2277.

James Stergios is Pioneer's Research Director. Formerly a research associate, he assumed his current position in 2000. Prior to coming to Pioneer, he taught Economics at the Rome campus of European University, and later at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. His experience in the private sector includes consulting and work in food exports while in Italy, and journalism while in Japan. He graduated from Boston University summa cum laude in philosophy and economics, with distinction in economics. After studying in France for one year, he did graduate work in economics at the University of Rome, "La Sapienza." He is currently finishing his doctoral dissertation in political sociology at Boston University's University Professors Program.

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