DAC struggles magnified during COVID-19 pandemic
Facilities like the Wabasha County Developmental Achievement Center (DAC) have been hit hard of late.
The state’s inability to, or desire not to, pay good, living wages to employees at these facilities for people with special needs, has left many of them short of staff, often dangerously low. Wabasha’s facility serving the county’s clients since the mid-1970s is no exception.
In fact, in recent years they’ve diligently lobbied the state legislature, writing letters, visiting the State Capitol, talking on the phone, doing whatever they could, to promote their cause. The Herald has run articles in the past couple of years detailing this serious dilemma.
So far, though, to no avail.
But that’s not the most recent of DAC Director Ryan Buhler’s problems.
Now, along with the state legislature, he, and other DAC and group home directors, are having to deal with another challenge: COVID-19.
As Buhler, who took over 16 months ago from longtime director Steve Kohls, explains,
“Governor Walz’s Stay At Home order went into effect on Friday, March 27. However, we serve an extremely vulnerable population and after Governor Walz issued his order to close the schools on Sunday, March 15, many of the individuals we serve made the decision to self-quarantine before the official stay at home order was in place.
“The DAC stayed open with full operations through Wednesday, March 18. However, with an 80 percent absence rate on Monday turning into a 93 percent absence rate by Wednesday, it didn’t make much sense for us to stay open. The DAC temporarily closed our in-center facility on Wednesday, March 18. We were able to complete staff training on Thursday and Friday of that week, but were forced to temporarily lay off staff.
“We kept a crew of two individuals and two staff on through Wednesday, March 25, in order to complete some obligations in our work program. We work with a few local business completing assembly and packaging work and perform some cleaning at local establishments. These activities are all on hold as we await more information from our local health officials before moving forward.”
He then added, “The DAC being closed affects 14 of my full-time staff and four part-time staff. It also affects the 52 individuals who also attend the day facility, many of whom participate in our work program working part time hours at local businesses and completing assembly and production work for area businesses. With the DAC being closed it affects all 70 individuals related to the Wabasha DAC.”
Along with temporarily putting employees out of work, Buhler went on to detail the critical part of the problem: no revenue.
“In the meantime we are treading water until we can re-open. We can certainly get by being closed for a few weeks, but how long this thing might last is really a guessing game at this point. We, of course, are funded by daily per diems and without the individuals we serve here we aren’t bringing in any revenue. We still have monthly bills to pay and if we run too far into savings during this I worry about a cash flow problem when we do start back up again. We would owe payroll and have monthly bills still due, but wouldn’t see the reimbursement of funds through the daily per diems until weeks later.
“I’m afraid for day centers all across Minnesota if this pandemic requires them to stay closed for too long. Most day facilities are already struggling financially and this stoppage of service for weeks is going to cripple many facilities across the state.
“We are currently writing our local representatives begging them to keep day facilities and individuals with developmental disabilities in their plans when writing COVID-19 relief bills. With a prolonged period of closures we are going to need statewide assistance for day facilities to stay open post COVID-19. I think it’s vital that our local representatives hear from the community and that we tell them what is important to us and what needs funding. The human services field, especially individuals with developmental disabilities, often end up on the bottom of the priority list when funding is handed out and I feel if this happens again, you’re going to see a major change in the landscape of day facilities serving individuals with developmental disabilities across the state and even country.”
How can people help? As Buhler suggests, “Please write and call your local representatives and ask them to make supporting day centers and individuals with developmental disabilities a priority. Help them understand how much trouble individuals with developmental disabilities would be in if day facilities across the state were to disappear post COVID-19.”
Here is the contact information for local legislators:
Wabasha County Representatives:
• Rep. Barb Haley - rep.barb.haley@house.mn - 651-296-8635
•Rep. Steve Drazkowski - rep.steve.drazkowski@house.mn 651-296-2273
•Senator Mike Goggin - sen.mike.goggin@senate.mn - 651-296-5612