Families caring for loved ones with disabilities may see financial aid cut

About 4,000 Tennessee families depend on a resource that is likely to disappear; 250 of those families live in East Tennessee.

Syble Hester and her 20-year-old son, Jeffrey, are Morgan County residents.

Their family is one of the many to receive financial aid from the statewide Family Support program.

"He has a feeding tube. He has oxygen at night. He's 24-hour care," Hester explained.

Hester spends her days beside Jeffrey, and when he ends up in the hospital, she's there too.

"In 20 years, I've never been away from him. I don't choose to be," she said.

However, that comes with a price tag.

"There's been times he's been in the hospital 5, 10, 15, even up to 30 days. That leaves no income for that month," Hester said.

The money to pay her electricity bill when money gets particularly tight is supplemented by Family Support.

They're the same funds that equipped Bob Johnson's van with a wheel-chair ramp so he could drive himself around town.

"If I didn't have a lift, couldn't drive, I couldn't do any of that," Johnson said.

The program aids 10 counties in East Tennessee. In addition to the hundreds of families currently enrolled state-wide, more than 6,000 families are on a waiting list.

However, a yellow folder sitting atop a table in the Family Support program's Oak Ridge office signals caution for Hester, Johnson, and the other families who use the program's services.

It contains a letter from the Tennessee Intellectual Disabilities Services Division that spells out the program's future.

"[It says] that this year was paid with stimulus money and that next year the stimulus money would not be there," said Emory Valley Center Director of Special Services Nancy Vanderlan.

In a memo dated March 27, 2009, the Tennessee Intellectual Disabilities Services Division Deputy Director Stephen Norris says, "I am very aware of the effectiveness of the Family Support program...but the state's economic status is not good."

Because of that, more than $7.3 million will likely be sliced to just $200,000 in the next fiscal year, which is comprised solely of state funds.

Program officials say that's not enough to keep rendering their services, which seek to keep family members at home rather than in some kind of institution. Officials add that their aid is less expensive in the long run than the alternatives.

According to Family Support, the average cost of a nursing home would be about $137 a day per client. They calculate their services to run $4.58 a day per client.

"I've heard so many of them say, 'Nancy, what are we going to do now?'"

About 400 more families are on the program's waiting list in East Tennessee.