Terry Walker, a homecare provider from Stanislaus County is face-to-face everyday with clients that will suffer terrible consequences if the cuts go through.  She also works in an institution for Alzheimer patients and knows what it is like when people are placed in these facilities.  She wants to let legislators know they are making a big mistake if they allow the proposed cuts to be implemented: 

I presently have 3 IHSS clients that I look after in their homes.  I would love to ONLY care for people through In Home Supportive Services, because my IHSS clients lives are so much safer and happier than the people I care for in the institution.  I see this first hand.  Many people just don’t survive when they are placed outside their homes – away from everything that is familiar and everything they love.

I am forced to work additional hours in the care facility for Alzheimer’s patients because with IHSS hours are being cut so terribly I no longer have any job security.

I work the night-shift at the Alzheimer’s long-term care facility and we have to adhere to a schedule that is very uncomfortable for the clients.  It doesn’t give them the care they really need. In order to get our work done we have to wake some of them up at 4 or 5 in the morning to shower and clean them.  Well, they don’t want to wake up at that time.  It throws their whole system out of balance.  Many patients die within 3-6 months of entering that place.

With my IHSS clients I am often the only person they see – one of my clients said he felt I was a godsend; he thought he would die if he went in to an institution.  Another one of my IHSS clients became blind at only 37 yrs old.  She can live alone with my help but needs me for really essential services; I help her with her medications and pre-arrange things so she can find them and so she can deal with being blind.

Every one of my IHSS clients is in danger of being institutionalized if the proposed cuts go through.  They tell me they can’t cut down on the help they get; it is already minimal – just barely enough to get by.  But they don’t know how they can pay for it.  These people do not have family.  They are alone in the world.  And they are terrified.

I do my job with dignity and respect – I would rather keep someone safe and secure – I work day and night, it means so much to me.  But what is being proposed –  this is just plain inhumane.  I will not give up!  I will keep fighting until the end.  I walked precincts to help get Jerry Brown elected.  But you know what — God has the last say.  I truly believe that.  Bless all of you, and keep writing those letters and calling your legislators, because lives are at stake here.