David P. Rundle, a freelance journalist who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, had a column our Opinion pages last Sunday about how disability issues should be part of evaluating candidates. He argues that services to the disabled are important both financially (it’s cheaper to provide in-home care than put people in nursing homes or state hospitals) and morally (it says who we are as a society).
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is also trying to draw attention to the disabled. Its new initiative promotes the hiring of persons with disabilities into civil service jobs. The number of federal employees with severe disabilities has declined from a high of 31,337 workers in 1994 to 24,086 in 2005.
The 1973 Rehabilitation Act banned discrimination against people with disabilities in federal hiring. EEOC Commissioner Christine Griffin challenged federal agencies, “Congress directed the federal government to set the example for all other employers. Our example needs improvement.”
Posted by Angie Holladay
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18 Comments
I guess you have to be severely disable to get hired? Lord knows Kansas and Wichita has completely ignored my VA disability for job preference since leaving the military. Guess there is not much of a market for an old, cripple guy with degrees.
Stop whining, force yourself for a better life by creating you own job.I hear a lot of people say that they can’t find a job but did they ever stop and think that if they can’t find work that they should try creating their own work?The physical disabilities are a very real thing going on but are you mentally disabled too?
If you do not want be self-employed then you will have to be employed by an employer.I work with the disabled at place that specifically employs the disabled, 75 % disabled, 25 % able-body; the federal government does a pretty good job of providing some work for the disabled, have you ever heard of JWOD, Skillcraft?
The real problem is that some departments of government do not hire people to fill in those positions that a disabled could be working; whenever a position comes up, the disabled should be given first consideration, that is can this position be filled in by the disable?The same problem also applies to the private sector, the private sector do not have any patient for the disabled.People in the private sector also have no imagination and act like they are scare and have no abilities to face the challenges of employing the disabled.There are plenty of jobs out there in the private sector that the disabled could be working if only the private sectors are promoted to do so.This is what the government could be improving on.By the way Angie Holladay, what is the percentage of the disabled working at the Wichita Eagle?
Wiseman,
A man of compassion I see. :)
And who said I wasn’t employed currently?
BTW, the Wichita Eagle was one of the places I applied for employment three times. Never heard back from them.
Actually, I wanted a job where the Veteran Administration tries to get disabled Vets employed.
Here’s their technique:
(1) Fill out multiple copies of paperwork, that ask the same questions over and over. 2 hours time to complete.
(2) Wait two weeks for them to review your appication and for them to schedule you for an interview.
(3) Once at the interview, you are pointed to a computer where you you have access to job databases exactly like any other computer in the world, including my own.
(4) While you are there, the VA guy disappears for several hours, then shows back up in time to go to lunch.
That was the description of VA help in three different cities.
JM, I am sorry, I do not mean to say that you are unemployed, I did made an assumption.But I do see that some of the problems with employment of the disabled are because of the human resource industries failures to assure that the disabled are given first consideration when opening positions come up.By what you have described in your description of Veterans Administration, that is positively is one job that should be given to a disabled veteran.
I have a minor disability, only the inability to stand for long periods of time and lift heavy weights, and it was next to impossible for me to find a job, took two years! As long as I could do labor, I worked 2 and 3 jobs, then that just wasn’t possible. There were plenty of jobs I COULD have been hired for, but they put ridiculous requirements on the essential job requirements. To get the job I have now, I had to lift 75 lbs repetitively 8 times. I did it and I suffered for it for days. I shouldn’t have had to since it’s really not part of my job- i’m a secretary. I applied for jobs as checkers but they won’t allow you to sit down (which SHOULD be covered under the ADA laws, reasonable accomodations)…but apparently providing a chair is unreasonable. And since I did labor jobs, I didn’t have the experience in some of the other jobs I applied for, even though I could have done it.
What I’ve been told is that more and more companies are worried about paying insurance for you, so if you have any disability, smoker or overweight, they won’t hire you. And since jobs are hard to find right now anyway, they can afford to be choosy.
To wiseman who says everyone should just go into business for themselves…oh please. I haven’t thought of one good money making idea or I’d be doing that instead. And most of the time you have to have MONEY to start up a business in the first place.
PMom,
I thought about going back to school to become a teacher. However, lack of funds and etc.
The thought came to me when I was a substitute teacher and monitored several Chemistry and Math classes. I was shocked that most of the students didn’t have a clue what they were doing or how to go about solving the problems.
In one General Chemistry class, the students relayed to me that about 70 percent of the class was failing or near-failing and it was towards the end of the semester. Their main problem was figuring out the word problems on tests. After about 30 minutes, with some pointers on Factor/Label method, about 80 percent of the students were doing the problems correctly.
My question in my mind was, what the heck was the Chemistry teacher doing all semester. I had similar experiences in Math classes, where after a few minutes, the light bulb came on in the children’s mind and they successfully solved the problems.
The assignment administrator for the School District kept assigning me to sub for Behavioral Disorder classes which eventually turned me off to the whole school scene.
I was very disappointed with the quality of teaching in Math and Sciences in the schools I sub’d. It was mostly ‘here’s the theory, there’s the problem,do your homework, hand it in’ and if you ask the teacher a question, they will respond with “Why are you not understanding this?”
Very sad in my opinion.
I think more disabled need to be employed by SRS, Comcare, and Medicaid. There is one blind man at Medicaid that I talk to on a regular basis, but most there don’t seem to care much about the disabled. If the disabled were taking care of their own, things might get done. It’s like pulling teeth to keep some people with severe and persistant mental illness in the system, they are allowed to fall through the cracks on a regular basis, only to end up on the streets or in the hospital. It’s really a shame, the ones that are hired to help those in need are often the ones that make it so difficult for the disabled to get the what they need just to live a halfway normal life. If the disabled have no one to advocate for them, they’re really screwed when it comes to getting help from the system that’s set up for them.
My gosh Mary something we’re both passionate about. I worked in nursing and EMS for many years, and I was always a huge advocate for care because I always figured someday it might be me being the one in need. Unfortunately it just seems to keep getting worse.
I just recently advocated on another blog about this very issue, especially mental health. It’s like people seem to think that mental illness isn’t as debilitating as a physical illness. A mental illness IS just as biological as diabetes.
We could have a whole more productive society if we did better caring for our own, giving those with the ability to thrive a way to do so instead of shutting them out of society.
Political mom, have you ever consider the US Small Business Administration, they can get you a loan upwards of $250,000. and they have a online tutorial for business planning.All you have to do is learn how to apply for the money to start your own business. http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html
The only idea I ever came up for a business would be a QA type for nursing homes and group home administrators to hire to find where the problems were in their facilities BEFORE the state got involved. A group of nurses, aides, mental health workers, workers in group developmentally disabled homes…who would be hired to work for a few months to identify problems in the facility from safety to patient care abuse.
Because from some of the things I’ve seen out there, maybe administration would rather police their own than have fines imposed for bad care. Then I figured out that administration usually already knows where their problems lie- they just don’t want to do anything about it.
All care facilities have quality review people to make sure things are kept up to state standards, they’d be crazy not to. When the reviewers come through, they’re the ones who are resposible if the facility doesn’t pass, and whatever problems the state finds, it’s their responsibility to correct it.PM, I wish people like you would get involved in advocating for the disabled, you can do this in many capacities. The Center for Independant Living is a good start. Without that organization, all my clients would be in nursing homes.
I have tried to get involved, but found that many of these groups really aren’t that interested in actually helping. The quality review people either aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, or administration isn’t listening to them.
Want me to give examples?
In an MR facility, drug use by the employees was found, reported and destroyed by administration. Covered up and the reporter was fired for not being a team player.This same facility at one time began enacting a drug testing policy, then stopped after half the employees failed.
In one home I worked at, the neglect was so rampant that I quit and reported it to the state. What irked me the most about this facility, is that it was the same kind of thing that happened in other facilities, except this place was well staffed and there was NO excuse for this behavior. Most of the time in other places it’s not an intentional neglect, it’s a lack of people to do the work. Some things that I saw…residents scheduled for two showers a week, the aides would say ‘well they had one x days ago’, then go watch soap operas in the lounge. Teeth not brushed for so long the slime on the dentures was disgusting, and when I pulled out the dentures, I could see sores in their mouths. There were so many things, my final straw was a resident soaked in urine in the bed. The aides threw down another turn sheet over the wet spot, I went to the bathroom to get something to wash them off with, and when I came back, they had her back in the urine-soaked bed with no pericare at all, putting a new diaper on. When I reported this to the department head, I was accused of lying. The state found nothing wrong with this facility.
In another one I worked at, I actually saw 3 incidents of abuse, hitting or shoving residents. State was involved with one (and not by my doing). I went to the administration and that person STILL works in healthcare to this day. The nurse’s notes where I recorded the incident mysteriously disappeared. Again the report by the state was unsubstantiated.
And understaffing at most of them is the main reason why quality care isn’t good. MOST of the people I’ve worked with are very good people who want to do the right thing, and they leave because they get sick of being overworked and underpaid and having to deal with the 5% who don’t care.
Administration is too busy trying to keep warm bodies for the little pay, and covering up their problems rather than addressing them.
And come on Mary, we know how the state inspection game is played. Everyone does. We usually know in advance when they’re coming, we get all the safety issues in place, staffing is padded, nurses who NEVER work on the floor are suddenly doing all kinds of extra things. We keep one inspector busy showing them how we do it ‘right’ while the 3 other workers go and throw everyone in bed really fast.
What’s worse, is that the inspectors HAVE GOT to know this is going on…it isn’t hard to figure out that when they walk into a room and 20 people are in the hall waiting to go to bed, they’re in a room with 2 people that it takes 20 minutes to care for, and they come out and all 20 people are all in bed..come on.
Mom, here in PK we have a state hospital & training center.They house everything from the most profoundly retarded all the way up to sex offenders who may or may not be retarded.I can tell you that over the last 40 yrs, things have improved 200%.However, stories like yours are much too common even today.IMHO, it all boils down to the personal integrity of each and every caregiver. One bad apple CAN spoil the whole bunch.You TRIED to do the right thing, and should be commended for that.
I did have an idea as to how to remedy this problem. Instead of fining the facilities for 25 thousand dollars, make them put that money towards something that will remedy the problem that got the fine in the first place. 25k would pay for staffing or new equipment nicely. The inspectors also need to just lay off the silly stuff and concentrate more on actual physical care and safety. Spending all that time on documentation and whether or not a box is off the floor is necessary, but it shouldn’t be the main focus, and that directs care away from the patients.
I always say, the more a facility tries to LOOK nice on the outside, that means SOMEONE is being used for that resource rather than for the patients.
One place I worked at actually forced beds and rooms to be cleaned before breakfast (by the aides)- they were more worried about the pericare bottles locked up and beds being made than if the patient got taken to the bathroom or was laying in a wet diaper for 2 hours. It’s what you CAN’T see on the outside that matters the most.
I thought this appropriate to post here..
———-
Willing, Able — and Unemployable
By Ann BauerMonday, October 30, 2006; A17
My 18-year-old son shambles. There’s no other word for it. He walkslike an old man: scraping the soles of his feet on the floor, tiltinghis head to one side and tucking it into the space between his neck andshoulder.
What’s more, he’s mammoth. At 6-foot-3, with at least two inches ofmoppy hair, he towers over nearly everyone he meets. Because of apenchant for sugary coffee drinks and Qdoba’s 3-Cheese Nachos withgrilled sirloin, which he buys with the money his grandparents sendhim, he weighs around 250 pounds. But these are the least of my worries.
Today, what I fret about most is the fact that after two years ofsubmitting applications, taking tests and going in for interviews, hecannot get a job.
Andrew has autism. He was nonverbal from age 4 until 6, and he speaksnow, but only with effort. He’s also one of the most acute, sensitiveyoung men I’ve ever known. He is superb at math and chess, weak in theliterary arts. Lost when it comes to anything social, from dinner-tableconversation to romance. Mostly, he just flashes a persistent, crookedsmile.
Above all, he’s eerily, compulsively responsible. I was a single motherfor five years, and when I left the house, I put him in charge. I wouldcome back to a spotless kitchen and a pile of laundered and foldedclothes on my bed.
When he was 16, I told him it was time to get a part-time job. I tookhim first to the coffeehouse where I wrote each morning, introduced himto the manager and took my usual table. But even from a distance, Icould see things weren’t going well. The “interview” took threeminutes, ending abruptly when the manager offered Andrew a cup ofcoffee and my son — ever conscious of the rules — insisted on payingfor it, fumbling with his wallet and spilling coins all over the floor.
I switched coffeehouses and tactics. Next, I took Andrew to Target, acompany known for its history of working with disabled people. Onlythere’s a catch: I was told when I called that their policy was toemploy “visibly handicapped” workers. People in wheelchairs qualify, asdo those with Down syndrome. My son, with his eccentricities andhalting speech, does not. What’s more, Target administers acomputerized psychological screening test designed to eliminate peopleon the outer edges of the bell curve. People like Andrew.
It turns out many companies that hire hourly workers now use thismethod to winnow the candidate pool. Questions such as “What do youthink is the most important quality in a friend?” flash on a screen. At17, my son had never made a friend. This was the source of hisdisability. He had no idea how to answer.
Perhaps, I decided, a “starter” job was in order, somewhere he couldgain experience and ease into working. So I called a local nursing homethat was only too happy to have him volunteer. Twice a week, Andrewspent his afternoons there, visiting elderly people and trundling alibrary cart from room to room. The residents grew to rely on him. Hewas unfailingly patient and kind. Yet, when a job came open in diningservices — for someone to take meals to bed-bound residents — he wasturned down, the volunteer coordinator told me, because the hiringmanager thought him odd.
Recently, I married a wonderful man whose belief in Andrew rivals mine.”But he’s so smart and responsible,” said the new stepfather when Iexplained our now two-year-old predicament. “Don’t worry. We’ll findhim a job.”
It turned out he had a friend — second-shift supervisor at a factory– who was willing to coach a very timid new hire. Everything had beenarranged: The high school Andrew attends scheduled him for morningclasses and work-study in the afternoon; I’d given Andrew a car andeven coaxed him into getting a haircut. The first order of business wasto go to the employment agency that handled the factory’s paperwork,take a simple math test and fill out a W-9. Andrew aced the test,completed the forms he was handed and was told he’d be on staff withina week.
Then my husband’s friend called, his voice breaking with frustration.He couldn’t hire Andrew, after all; the agency had refused to processthe application. One of the screeners there was uncomfortable with myson: She had called him — he apologized before saying the words — “apotential liability.”
Several people have told us that this, finally, is an actionableoffense. We could go after the agency for discrimination. But to whatend? Legal action wouldn’t get Andrew, now nearly 19, working. What itwould do is force him to defend himself and his abilities in court –this young man who’s still reluctant to speak at school.
My son is one of many: Some time in the next decade, the Autism Societyof America estimates, the number of people in this country who haveautism will hit 4 million. I wonder if, when these children reach theage of 18, they too will be unemployable. Or if, perhaps, the workwe’re doing with Andrew now will mean a different experience for thosewho follow.
Ann Bauer is the author of the novel “A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards.”
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
What a heatbreaking, sad, and all too true story.PM, I’ve only worked in the hospitals and then home health, The standards seem a little higher there than many nursing homes, I know it’s easier to attract quality staff because the pay is better. My friend has been the director of nursing at several long term facilities here in town, she has a horrible time trying to keep decent staff, it’s a real challenge when the aides don’t make much more than minimum wage. I took my mom out of a nursing home for the very reasons you mentioned above.We have her in a Home Plus facility we found through the Department of Ageing, and I couldn’t be happier. The care she receives there is wonderful, and there are two aides 24/7 for only 8 residents, plus 2 nurses that are on call around the clock. It’s a wonderful alternatiive to a nursing home, and it costs less also.
Sounds nice Mary. I always wanted to do home health, but I was going to do it as a nurse. I felt it was ridiculous to take a HHA class when I had spent all those years as a CNA. I thought at least in home health I KNEW the care I gave would be optimal and I wouldn’t have to deal with the people who didn’t have quite so high standards. I work in a hospital now, and I’m happy there, but I really miss the one on one time that I had with my residents- really becoming like family. I don’t get that now.
I love home health, I’ve been taking care of some of my patients for as long as 6 years. Most of the time I feel like I make a difference in their lives. It’s one of the more rewarding nursing jobs I’ve had.We need people like you, you ought to give home health a shot if you ever get tired of the hospital.