Some nice news....

Group Homes Get More Va. Funds

By Chris L. Jenkins

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 8, 2007; Page VA03

The General Assembly has dramatically expanded a program that provides community care to people with mental disabilities in Northern Virginia, approving funding that will add group home beds and pay more to agencies that offer services in the area.

During the 46-day legislative session that ended last month, lawmakers pumped enough money into the current $74 billion state budget so an additional 330 people with mental disabilities throughout Virginia will have access to community care, such as small group homes. Northern Virginia will likely receive about 60 of those slots, with the majority going to Fairfax County residents, said Alan Wooten, director of mental retardation services for the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board.

In addition, state officials increased funding by $5 million to agencies in Northern Virginia that provide services to people with mental disabilities to help the agencies manage the high costs of doing business in the region. State reports estimate that the cost of providing those services in Northern Virginia is at least 30 percent higher than elsewhere in the state. Currently, agencies in the region are paid the same rate for their services as those elsewhere in Virginia.

The additional money will boost funding to Northern Virginia agencies by 15 percent, which will largely go toward increasing salaries to direct-care workers.

Advocates and state officials said the extra $5 million from the state will go a long way toward helping organizations stay in the region.

"This will go directly to paying our workers better," said Nancy Mercer, executive director of the Arc of Northern Virginia, which organized a regional push to get the extra $5 million from the state. Combined with federal funding, the region's agencies will get an increase of $10 million annually starting in fiscal 2008.

"We're also hoping that this will help our agencies here in Northern Virginia to stay and not have to move someplace else, where the cost of doing business is cheaper," Mercer said.

Advocates and officials said the higher compensation might encourage other agencies to open in Northern Virginia.

In all, Virginia allocated about $15 million statewide for those services this year, an amount advocates and state officials called significant.

The new funding will help whittle the long waiting list for services in the area. Nearly 950 Northern Virginians with mental disabilities get a Medicaid-funded waiver to receive services, largely group-home beds, in the community instead of being placed in institutions. Because of long-standing funding shortages, hundreds are on years-long waiting lists to receive community care, which generally costs less than institutionalizing people in large facilities downstate.

State officials and lawmakers said the General Assembly was swayed to make the investment this year because of a focused effort by advocates.

For nearly a year, advocates in Northern Virginia have been pressing lawmakers to help increase funding for the area's providers. Every Northern Virginia lawmaker signed onto the legislation to do so. In addition, the budget amendments were sponsored by area lawmakers, including Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr. (R-Fairfax) and Sens. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) and Charles J. Colgan (D-Prince William).

"The Northern Virginia advocates really pushed statewide, and the legislature heard them," Howell said.