MIDLAND, Texas — Spectrum of Solutions and PermiaCare worked together to host their first West Texas Intellectual/Developmental Disability Summit Wednesday, where three Texas legislators were in attendance.
The summit is meant to help bring awareness to the IDD community in the Permian Basin and where families can get help.
“More and more what you run into is individuals who might have a child or loved one who has these diagnoses, spina bifida or down syndrome, and they don’t know where to go," said Chris Barnhill, CEO of Permiacare. "We want them to know that PermiaCare’s the local authority for these matters, that if you call us we have government programs that can help you identify where you need to be.”
With state legislators like Tom Craddick, Brooks Landgraf and Kevin Sparks in attendance at the summit, PermiaCare and Spectrum of Solutions made sure to make it known what they were wanting out of the next legislative session. Specifically, an increase of the wages of group home direct care workers.
“Well, services for individuals with IDD are funded by Medicaid waiver programs. They're called home and community-based services, or Texas home living waiver. Those programs have an embedded rate of $10.60 an hour for the individuals that provide those services and that is the funding that us and spectrum of solutions received today. And one of the things that we're trying to do in the next legislative session is have that push to $15.17 an hour,” said Barnhill.
At the summit, all three legislators showed their support for the wage increases, as well as reminding all in the room that there is support for the cause of doing more for the IDD community at the Capitol.
“I think it’s a huge issue, I don’t know if you know, we just created two new hospitals in this area for behavioral health and they’re getting ready to break ground for the program in just a few minutes after this. They’re already under construction and it’s a huge need for all of Texas, but particularly in West Texas," said District 82 Representative Tom Craddick.
The next state legislative session will start on January 11, 2025.