Walk a Mile in My Shoes

I heard about Maine Personal Assistance Services Association (Maine PASA) through my company.  In PASA I learned that I am a direct care worker and I liked the idea that they wanted to make the State understand how important home care and direct care workers are.  It’s important for people to understand just how important this job is, and how much money we’re saving the State by keeping people at home and out of nursing homes. 

It’s important for people to see the circumstances that some of these individuals live in. Many of these folks, unlike those in a nursing home, are not set up with handicapped accessories because of cost and accessibility.   I’d like people to see how much trouble it is for my two clients in wheelchairs to get out of one chair and into another, or to get in or out of bed without the right equipment to help

What do you say to someone who tells you, “I’ve been trying for three years to get in to see this doctor, but Medicare won’t pay for me to go there,” or when they talk about the problems with physical therapy services being terminated before they feel ready  . Eventually, when they get discouraged enough because they feel no one’s listening or caring, they’ll stop doing their exercises.   It’s because they’ve lost hope.  So, when I go in, even though I’m very busy I’ll say, “Okay, we have this physical therapy and it’s very important, so let’s get up and go do it.”  And usually they will.  I’m not getting paid to be a physical therapist and I’m not really trained, but I do it anyway. 

Maybe if a legislator was to come and actually see how we work, they would realize how important we are to the people.  We could tell them that the reason there are not enough of us is because we don’t have insurance, we don’t get paid sick days, we don’t have vacation pay and we don’t have good money coming in.  We all work hard, and we all do extra work for our clients and it’s not because we’re getting paid to do it. It’s because we care about the people; because they are our friends and neighbors.  I’m sure if a representative would understand that, they would know that direct care workers are indeed a very vital part of our society and we should have more of them.  Then they would work harder to support us.