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A poster in the Bronx advertising one element of CDPAP, a program that could see significant change under the state budget.
The more than 600 fiscal intermediaries statewide allows elderly and disabled people to hire and manage personal assistants. Critics say the governor’s executive budget would cut that number by at least 90 percent by changing eligibility requirements.
Provider after provider, several with tears in their eyes, expressed dismay at the city’s inadequate reimbursement rate for meals.
Advocates predict that changes proposed by the governor could reduce the number of ‘fiscal intermediaries,’ who help administer the Medicaid program that pays for home-health aides, by 90 percent.
While the poverty rate among older New Yorkers declined slightly, a massive surge in the over-65 population meant more people were living in poverty. In some areas, the poverty problem grew more serious.
The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program or CDPAP pays for home-health aides and family caregivers. The state recently has subjected the program to major changes and more might be coming.
The state’s paid-leave law is helpful, experts say, but cannot fully close the gap between what family caregivers can provide and what older New Yorkers need. But, unlike most states, at least New York is trying.
The city offers a menu of mental-health services for seniors. But funding and services are uneven at the city’s senior centers and neighborhood resources can determine what mental-health care seniors receive.
With plenty of money in the bank, Keith Wofford is well-equipped to sell voters on his vision for an attorney general who eschews policing corporations in favor of claiming unprecedented power to chase corruption.
The upstate congressman and attorney general hopeful has supported justice reform and new protections for cops, fought the Muslim ban but voted for increasing screenings of some Mideast nationals and railed against deportations but opposed the abolition of ICE
The NYPD is reaching out to activists and young people to attend the Build the Block meetings meant to inform the Neighborhood Policing program. But that’s not the crowd who’s showing up.