DSPs celebrated at bFair2DirectCare Rally

OGDENSBURG – More than 100 employees, residents, people who receive services through United Helpers and their family members attended the organization’s first bFair2Direct Care Rally where nearly one dozen speakers spent more than an hour detailing how their lives and the lives of their loved ones have been impacted by Direct Support Professionals.

Sitting in the front row at the event were representatives from Senator Patricia Ritchie’s and Assemblyman Mark Walczyk’s offices. Neither Senator Ritchie nor Assemblyman Walczyk could attend due to obligations in Albany, but both James Reagan, who represents Senator Ritchie and Nick Friot, who represents Assemblyman Walczyk said they would report back on the day’s events.

Michael Sarkin, an Ogdensburg business owner, whose brother Charlie lives in one of the 13 IRAs operated by United Helpers said his brother wasn’t always lucky enough be a member of the United Helpers family. 

Mr. Sarkin said he could recall visits to his brother at another facility. “We would go and visit him and they would always bring him out to us. Then we would play and walk around the grounds,” he said. “I was happy, because I got to see my brother.”

However one day, when he was a little older, Mr. Sarkin said his father asked him if would like to go back to Charlies’ room with him. What he saw there, is an image that now, even more than 30 years later continues to haunt him.

“We walked down a long hallway then we went into this really big room. In that room there was probably 16 beds and one aide sitting in the corner reading the newspaper. Those people weren’t doing anything. They were just there in their beds. As soon as we left that room I began to cry,” he recalled.

In the 1990s though, Charlie was fortunate enough to come to United Helpers, and Mr. Sarkin said it didn’t take long for him to notice positive changes with his brother’s demeanor and even some of his skills.

“When Charlie came to United Helpers, he got the home that he deserved. The people who work in those houses become their family members and they deserve to be paid a living wage for the amazing work that they do,” he said.

IRAs are staffed largely by direct support professionals, who in many instances are making just a little bit more than minimum wage.

Victoria Dewey has been a DSP with United Helpers for more than 12 years, and while she loves her job and the people she cares for, she noted she is paid only slightly more than a worker at a big box store or fast food restaurant.

Ed Fisher has been a DSP for even longer, close to 30 years and he too voiced frustrations with the pay, which sometimes makes putting food on the table and paying bills difficult. “I’ve been here for 30 years, but only make a little but more than new people just starting,” he said.

Several people who receive services through United Helpers, including, Esther Ransom Amanda Thompson, Grace Mancini, Timothy Victory and Emily Peters also spoke at the rally, noting how DSPs essentially become their family. 

Ms. Ransom, who is in a wheel chair said she’s fearful of the quality of life she would have if it wasn’t for the staff at Rensselaer Falls IRA, where she lives. “The quality of life they’re able to give me is amazing. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to do anything,” she said.

Ms. Thompson noted she just recently celebrated a birthday, which included a birthday party for her thrown by the staff at the IRA in Ogdensburg, where she lives.

The rally concluded with a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace sung by Ms. Mancini.

United Helpers CEO Stephen E. Knight also spoke at the event, and said he feels like all workers do deserve a living wage, but without an increase in what the state pays in Medicaid reimbursements in more than a decade, the type of raise and benefits direct support professionals and other health care workers deserve is impossible.

“The chasm between reimbursement for state and public workers and those doing the same job for private, not-for-profit community based organizations is an injustice that can no longer be tolerated,” Mr. Knight said. “I believe there is enough money in the health and human services continuum, but only if it is allocated properly and spent wisely.”