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Legislative Priorities 2009
Ms. C
Raleigh County
Age: 85 and 74
Project Cost: Saved $165,592
Ms. C is 85 years old and lives with her 74 year old sister, who is a double amputee, in a two story home in Raleigh County. Ms. C is blind, has lost a kidney and has circulatory and cardiac health issues. Ms. C's disabilities prevent her from walking and standing for extended periods of time and she is unable to climb the stairs to the bathroom and bedrooms in her home.
Since Ms. C and her sister were unable to climb the stairs, they received assistance from a local home health agency (6 hours a week) to go up and down the stairs for bed each day as well as to bathe. When there was no one available to assist them they would crawl or scoot up the two flights of stairs. As a result of their physical disabilities and their inability to access their bathroom and bedrooms independently, both were at risk of institutionalization.
Ms. C requested independent living services in 2005 through the Community Living Services Program and, due to funding limitations, her name was added to the waiting list. Ms. C requested a stair lift that would enable her to go up and down the stairs in her home independently.
After waiting three years, in 2008 Ms. C's name was at the top of the list and a stair lift was installed in her home at a cost of $11,980. Ms. C and her sister are now able to go up and down the stairs independently.
Note: The installation of the stair lift allows Ms. C and her sister to live independently in their own home thus saving the state the cost of placing them both in an institution, approximately $160,600 per year, and the cost to the local home health agency, a minimum of $4,992 per year.
