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(published in Fort Worth
Star-Telegram April, 9, 2003)
Social
Services Scraps
(The
following OpEd was written by Dr. Kurt Senske.)
Chicken necks.
Those are the bones that our state and national
leaders are tossing to public and private providers
of health and human services.
We've listened to politicians complain about "bloated
government budgets" from which the fat needed to
be trimmed. The reality is that until now, funding
for health and human services has been more like
a scrawny chicken than a well-marbled steak.
For years, we who are in the business of helping
the most vulnerable in our society have barely gotten
by on those tough old birds.
At Lutheran Social Services of the South, reimbursements
for caring for nursing home patients and child abuse
victims fall short of covering our actual costs.
Two-thirds of our programs lose money. Until the
downturn in the economy, we have been able to make
up the difference with generous contributions from
folks who want to help those in need.
But now, those in charge of government budgets have
decided the chicken has been, well, too substantial.
They've lopped off the wings and drumsticks, torn
off the thighs and carved away the breast. Then they
boiled off all the meat and nutrients before presenting
us with the neck.
Unfortunately, those scraps are inadequate to sustain
those who care for frail, elderly residents of nursing
homes, troubled and abused children, poor children
with inadequate health care, and homeless, mentally
ill people.
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