Rebecca Schiff outlines plan to address major issues facing Rhode Island seniors

Rhode Island’s “representatives” have failed to address the real needs of seniors for far too long, says Rebecca Schiff, the Republican candidate for the District 74 House seat representing Jamestown and Middletown. Rhode Island’s elected officials continue to tax Social Security income and military pensions. They look the other way when there are $400 million in pension system losses and unadjusted COLA's (cost of living adjustments) for teachers and state workers. They fail to plan for new senior centers and innovative programs. Instead, they oversee cuts to senior programs, and remain aloof to the real issues.

Rhode Island’s 85+ year-old per capita population is on par with Florida, second by only 1/10,000th of a percent. One key to more cost-effective senior care is increasing the availability of quality home health care, creating conditions where more licensed care providers can offer aging residents the assistance they might need.

Schiff calls for the creation of innovative programs, like those in Massachusetts, that compensate family members for their care of elderly residents as a means of keeping seniors out of nursing homes for as long as possible. This would take a financial burden off of family caregivers who are forced to sacrifice time that they could be working to care for a loved one. It would also create an incentive for family members to provide assistance and spend more time with their aging loved ones, putting less of a strain on a skilled nursing facilities that are already stretched thin.

Another measure supported by Schiff is an increase in Medicare reimbursement to home health care and skilled nursing facilities that would be passed on in the form of much-needed wage increases to CNAs and other ‘front line’ health care workers, so they have an incentive to stay in this important field and our seniors can get the best quality care possible.

“I have heard horror stories from seniors and their loved ones about the poor level of care that they have received from underpaid and sometimes uncaring health care workers,” Schiff said. “This is completely unacceptable and a moral travesty. It is time we fairly compensate and provide proper training to health care workers so that we can get compassionate, skilled people to do this important work. Nursing homes, assisted living centers and home health care agencies are having difficulty attracting and retaining qualified health care workers because they are woefully underpaid for this very difficult, but crucial work. All health care workers deserve fair wages.”

Schiff also proposes a multi-prong approach to benefit both youth and seniors. "I will work to create mentoring programs where youth entering the workplace can learn from seniors who are leaving the field or have retired,” Schiff said. “This multi-generational learning will be a benefit to both youth and seniors. I will hold Town Hall-style forums to address senior issues and take action. I will use my expertise in nonprofit and foundation fundraising to identify funding sources outside of the state budget to create much-needed improvements and funding streams for our senior services that always seem to get the short end of the budgetary stick.”

As Baby Boomers continue to age, Rhode Island is woefully unprepared to address the needs of the very large and growing population of seniors in Rhode Island. “Just as we had to build schools to accommodate the influx of Baby Boomers back in the ‘50s, we now need to focus on building the necessary infrastructure to meet the needs of aging Boomers. We need to plan, identify public and private funding mechanisms and make this a top priority. It is time to give the needs of seniors more than just lip service at election time. Seeing a state rep bringing the ‘big check’ around election time with a $1,000 legislative grant does not cut it. Our senior services are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding at the very time they can least afford it. It’s time to elect a representative who will make our seniors a top priority – in word and deed.”