Once upon a time in 2011, Republicans controlled both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature, and state representative Steve Drazkowski was all about budget cuts.
The Minnesota Nurses Association posted this message on Facebook on April 13, 2011:
Rep. Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, told our AFSCME brothers and sisters who care for vulnerable clients that they can be replaced by baby monitors overnight. (1:04 in the video.) You know, because patients sleep quietly all night, so there's no need for care providers. Right nurses?
The Youtube notes:
Uploaded on Apr 13, 2011
Minnesota State Representative Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) told AFSCME Council 5 members who care for vulnerable clients that they can be replaced by baby monitors. The budget bill he supports would slash 20,968 jobs in health and human services.
Here's the Youtube:
The Uptake reported in Would “baby monitors” eliminate home care jobs?:
TheUpTake spoke today with Rep. Drazkowski, who defended his words by emphasizing the need for “doing things more innovatively within all areas of government.” By “baby monitors” Drazkowski was referring to an innovative new tool being used by the Winona, Minn.-based support provider Home and Community Options, which uses videos, sensors and intercom systems to remotely monitor certain low-risk clients while they sleep at night, in order to cut back on operating costs. “I used the analogy of a baby monitor to help (AFSCME) understand how this technology would work,” said Drazkowski. “Obviously, they worked as hard as they could to take it out of context.”
Denny Theede, executive director of Home and Community Options, prefers the term “remote monitoring applications” to baby monitors. He says that they can be used in lieu of night staff in a residential home that provides 24-hour care. Theede described to TheUpTake how a movement sensor going off in the home, a fire alarm or an intruder would alert dispatchers, who would immediately send “boots by the bed” workers to the home within 10 minutes. Meanwhile, the dispatcher could communicate with clients through the intercom, and monitor them via video (to protect privacy, videos are not available in bedrooms and bathrooms). “Think of it in terms of smart homes,” Theede analogized. “People know the temperature of their home while they’re on vacation.”
Theede estimates that remote monitoring applications are saving about $20,000 per year in one home where four men live — 12.5 percent of that home’s annual operating costs. But of 18 homes that Home and Community Options runs in Winona County, he says the application would work only in two homes. Theede declined to estimate the savings in care homes statewide — or the numbers of jobs it may cost.
In other words, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Remote monitoring applications would work only “where there is cognitive ability and life-safety balance to provide quality of care,” said Theede. When the 10-minute dispatch time could prove the difference between life and death — such as for an autistic person who wakes up and continuously bangs their head against the wall — remote monitoring applications are not an option.
Drazkowski seems to have changed his mind since the Republicans lost control of the legislature, and now he's all for increased funding for care providers, according to tweets by from a forum tonight in Rochester.
Post Bulletin political reporter Heather Carlson tweeted:
Covering #rochmn forum where people with disabilities & advocates are asking for 5% funding increase for providers.
— Heather J. Carlson (@PBhcarlson) October 28, 2013
Drazkowski:"Why is it we cannot fund the needs of the people who take care of the most vulnerable?"
— Heather J. Carlson (@PBhcarlson) October 29, 2013
Let's hope Representative Drazkowski maintains his renewed commitment to those who care for the most vulnerable--rather than cutting staff. Bluestem will read Carlson's report with interest.
Video still: Steve Drazkowski meeting with in 2011.
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