Fifteen adults with developmental disabilities in Jefferson County and 45 employees of Creative Living Services who care for them are waiting this week to learn whether a Clallam County company can be approved to serve the adults and potentially hire some of the employees.

Creative Living Services, based in Tukwila, announced in June that it is pulling out of serving clients in Jefferson County effective Aug. 15 because of what it called “extreme staffing shortages” and pay rates that it also says are “not sustainable or competitive” in the area.

“Jefferson County is the grayest county in Washington with 65 percent of the population not in the labor pool. That leaves 35 percent of the population available in the global workforce and within that number there's only a small number of people interested in doing this work,” said Les Parker, executive director of Creative Living Services.

Creative Living Services is the only company currently approved by the state to serve adults with disabilities and assist them to live as independently as possible, often with each other.

Parker said entry-level caregivers get paid $10.60 an hour to care for clients who receive Medicaid. Caregivers provide the clients with a variety of help with household chores, medication management and transportation to and from jobs and appointments.

Luisa Prada-Estrada, communications and performance unit manager for the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA), which is under the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), said July 1 that social workers are working closely with clients. She said there still is time before Creative Living Services closes its operations in Jefferson County for the state to sign a contract with another agency.

But until a contract is signed, she said she could not comment on talks the agency is having with another provider.

Clallam County Hostelries, based in Port Angeles, is that other potential provider, Parker said. The director of that agency was not immediately available for comment before the holiday.

“We're telling people there's going to be a change and there may possibly be some moves. We're trying to assess it individually,” Prada-Estrada said. She said DDA does not want to make promises it can't keep.

“We don't want this to become a major disruption in people's lives,” she added.

THIRD COMPANY

Tobias Clawson, a manager for DDA, said earlier last week that two other agencies that served Jefferson County before Creative Living Services came in several years ago also left because they had difficulty finding and retaining staff.

“And we know statewide that there are challenges to find staff to do the work for the rates they are paid,” he said.

The programs started in the 1980s and 1990s as institutions housing adults with disabilities closed. The programs were started to help adults with disabilities live in their own communities.

Clawson said he does see a silver lining in the announcement.

“DDA services are voluntary and they do have a choice of providers. Some of the families were hearing that again,” Clawson said. “We've got to get it right. I think sometimes people can talk around our clients,” he said.

Clawson said he is making changes to work loads of social workers so that helping clients affected by Creative Living's departure is a priority.

BACK HOME

Patty Crutcher of Port Townsend said she may bring her 49-year-old son Michael home if things don't work out with a new agency, though she is hopeful the Port Angeles agency will take over.

She said her son is currently living with two other men who have disabilities and are supported by Creative Living Services. He has two part-time jobs, she said, both of which he loves.

“He started living at Benton Street in October. He was living with me. But he took to that like a duck takes to water,” she said of Michael moving out and on his own.

Crutcher, who is 80, said it would be a hardship for both Michael and for her to have him move back home with her.

“I'd get more money coming in but I'd rather be broke and for him to have his own place. He really likes it. He has his own thing,” she said.

A single mother for all those years of raising Michael, Crutcher said Michael loves Port Townsend. He comes to visit her when he wants to and she visits him.

Because Creative Living Services didn't have enough staff on Monday, Crutcher was planning to take her son to and from work.

RES CARE PAY

Parker said that when he told the 45 employees who work with adults with disabilities that the company was pulling out of serving Jefferson County and they would lose their jobs, they seemed more worried about the clients they care for than themselves.

“It's a sad situation,” Parker said. “It was my impression they were more concerned about the clients' health and safety than they were about their own jobs.”

Creative Living Services offered the only supportive-living program in Port Townsend for people with disabilities. It served that population 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The ages of the population range from the late 30s to the late 80s, he said.

To be competitive with another agency that provides care to seniors in their homes, Parker said he would need to offer $15 an hour “to get them to a competitive starting wage and give them enough to pay for insurance.”

Parker said he did ask the state for more money to pay employees, but was told DDA did not have the authority to pay more. That, he was told, would take legislative action.

“I do want to make it clear that it's not their [DDA's] fault,” Parker told parents, caregivers and others who attended a June 25 meeting in Port Townsend to learn more.

Parker said he is required to give 60 days' notice to the state and did give the state 75 days' notice and the families 70 days' notice.

“This is the most difficult decision I've had to make in my career. I'm in the business of keeping people out of institutions and helping people be part of their community and supporting their independence. It just the worse decision I've ever had to make,” Parker said after the meeting.

Overall, Creative Living Services has 145 clients and 375 employees and serves people in Tukwila, north Seattle and has a branch in Puyallup.

Parker said the resources in King and Pierce counties were greater than in Jefferson County for those with disabilities. Parker said some people might be able to move to other areas of the state, possibly closer to where they family members have since moved.

“This is a tough and challenging thing and I apologize. We couldn't make it work. I really apologize,” Parker told the families June 25.