* It won’t be easy, both because of the subject matter and because it’s an amateur production, but whatever else you do today you must force yourself to watch this video…

* As we’ve discussed before, the Illinois Department of Human Services has clamped down on overtime by personal caregivers to avoid paying time and a half per federal rule…

Terri Harkin, vice president in charge of home health care for SEIU, said Rauner is using the policy as leverage to extract concessions in negotiations to replace the union’s contract with the state, which expired June 30. Human Services spokeswoman Marianne Manko chastised SEIU for trying to salvage a system that endorses what she said was “slave labor.”

A Jan. 1 federal rule decreed that home-care workers on the clock more than 40 hours a week be paid time-and-a-half for overtime. Rauner, managing a state with a multibillion-dollar deficit and no approved budget plan, ordered a limit to overtime. Human Services said additional workers would have to be brought into homes where the caretaker worked more than 40 hours.

“In unilaterally implementing the new cap and throwing the system of care in disarray, the Rauner administration has violated the law,” Harkin said in a statement. “But this is not just illegal policy — it hurts people with disabilities.”

Manko said the policy doesn’t ban or cap overtime, but rather it requires workers to justify the hours they report on the job. She said other state agencies and private-sector employers follow such policies.

* OK, back to the video. I’m told that Jordon’s mom Theresa has been his sole personal assistant up until recently and provided about 75 hours a week of service.

Jordon apparently has multiple disabilities, including an inability to absorb vitamin D, osteoporosis, an inability to swallow and a severe seizure disorder. He needs to be watched 24/7 and seizes multiple times a day. The complexity of his disabilities has made it extremely difficult to secure additional attendants, and his mom can’t leave him with his father because he has a history of heart attacks, so it wouldn’t be safe.

Theresa, I’m told, applied for an overtime exception for her son, but was denied and she had to cut back to 40 hours per week. But she also had to find a part-time job to make up for the lost income.

She managed to find someone to work with Jordon while she is at her new job, but that will end in 3 months and she is said to be very concerned that she won’t find another caregiver.

* A close family member of mine is going through a similar situation with her grandma, who just had a serious stroke. They had such a difficult experience finding a qualified, caring personal attendant for her now late grandpa that her mom will be quitting her job to provide the care this time around.

We need to help these people. And the state needs to realize that they may be causing more harm by trying to save a few bucks on overtime.

…Adding… From a friend of Theresa’s…

Before April 2008, Theresa worked at North American Lighting for nearly fifteen years. Jordon was able to walk and was a different person. Before December 2007 Jordon rarely had a seizure. In December of 2007, he was nearly dead on the table at Salem Township hospital post a non stopping grand mal seizure. He was sent to ICU at Barnes. He was put into a coma to stop the seizing. They lost half of Jordon’s abilities that day. After Jordon’s hospitalization in December 2007 Theresa found it too difficult to continue working, plus handle his medical appointments, plus be up at night. Jordon’s service plan has him at 300 hours of service per 31 day month, or about 67 hrs of Home Services Program support per week. He has another personal attendant who only works two to three days per week at 5-6 hours on those days. This person works approximately 15 hours a week, with Theresa handling the other 52. Even with the other personal attendant, Theresa is still leery of leaving but must at times. Theresa’s husband also has a history of multiple heart attacks. With the DHS overtime policy as it is, if Theresa’s husband were to pass (or leave for that matter) Theresa would only have the 40 hours a week of work, which is unsustainable financially for her to keep Jordon at home.

Also, Theresa says the 3 month job did not pan out and the attendant she found to cover those hours quit before starting.

…Adding… Related…

* Mothers, other women hurt more by budget impasse

* Report: Budget Impasse Creating Barriers For Women and Mothers