There are 400 infants and toddlers in New Jersey with developmental delays waiting months for treatment that could prepare them for school — down time their developing brains do not have to spare.
That backlog could be eliminated by including $4.4 million to the proposed state budget to hire more speech, occupational and physical therapists at more competitive wages through the state’s Early Intervention program, which served 17,000 last year, said Cathy Chin, executive director for the Alliance for the Betterment of Citizens with Disabilities.
“You can all agree infants and toddlers literally cannot wait for life altering care.” she told reporters during a virtual press conference. “When children have had early intervention, they are much less likely to need special education services.”
Nonprofit leaders who rely on state contracts to serve people with developmental disabilities, addictions and mental illness on Thursday pleaded their case for more funding in Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed $55.9 billion state budget. The state Legislature is holding hearings throughout the month to help decide whether to revise the budget before voting on it and sending it to the governor by no later than June 30, a day before the new fiscal year starts.
Leaders stressed that Murphy and the Democratic-controlled Legislature have been generous in previous budgets. But this year they are falling short in some critical areas, they said.
“We are all facing a workforce crisis,” said Tom Baffuto, executive director for the Arc of New Jersey. There is no new wage increase planned for the thousands of people who staff group homes and other programs for people with developmental disabilities. He thanked state leaders for previous $1.25-an-hour increases, but added, “it was really short-sighted to stop.”
Direct care workers in day programs and group homes earn on average $20 an hour, Baffuto said. Adding $42 million would add another $1.25 to the hourly wage for “the staff who provide the everyday care our community needs,” he said.
Less-strenuous jobs — whether they are in school districts or fast-food shops like Chick Filet may pay more than that, said Valerie Sellers, CEO for the New Jersey Association of Community Providers.
“We can’t compete,” Sellers said.
There are about 400 children and teens with serious mental illness who need inpatient psychiatric treatment but are either are home with families struggling to take care of them or in hospital emergency rooms until a bed opens up, said Megann Anderson Fischer, executive director, New Jersey Alliance for Children, Youth and Families.
“Because wait lists are well over three months for some levels of care, most tragically some will die by suicide or some other means because they couldn’t get the care that they deserve,” Anderson Fischer said. Some wait longer than a year, she added.
James Parauda, chief executive officer for the Tri-County Care Management Organization serving families in Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren counties, said he and the 14 other peer organizations in the state cannot pay competitive salaries because state funding has eroded over the last decade. With more funding — $16 million from the state that would be matched by an equal amount from the federal government — would help them keep more children with juvenile justice backgrounds, mental health issues and developmental disabilities at home and help avert a crisis.
Their mission and request “falls well within the goals outlined by the governor’s playbook” for addressing the youth mental health crisis, which he made a national priority when Murphy chaired the National Governors Association two years ago.
“He stated that our kids deserve better and we can do better. We 100% agree with that statement,” Parauda said.
Debra Wentz, president and CEO for the New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies, said if the low wages in the nonprofit sector persist, these “largely disenfranchised and marginalized communities — many who cannot speak for themselves” will suffer.
“New Jerseyans cannot wait any longer for life-saving care because it does result in deterioration... fatalities and loss of life,” Wentz said, “That cannot be the way we operate. We have to put lives first.”
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Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on X @SusanKLivio.