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Show Committee Formed On Long Term Care By TOM BL'SSELBERG FARMINGTON Faced with government funding cutbacks cut-backs that could affect much of the county's population, the Davis County Coordinating Council has organized a committee com-mittee to find ways of helping those who may be left in the cold and is seeking members from throughout the county. SPEAKING specifically of already well-publicized Medicaid Medi-caid cutbacks that could release re-lease 219 from nursing home care, the group said the private sector, including business, churches and civic groups, could be involved along with government officials in determining deter-mining what can be done to assist those affected. It will be co-chaired by Larry Lar-ry Burdett, United Way executive execu-tive director and Alice Johnson, John-son, Council on Aging director, direc-tor, but will include input from housing, mental health, health and other agencies. THE COMMITTEE will provide input for local as well as state use, Ms. Johnson explained, ex-plained, noting similar groups will be formed statewide with information to be used in formulating for-mulating future action. Stressing Stres-sing the need for decisiveness she said, "I think it's going to be increasingly difficult to put people into (government program prog-ram assistance) so I believe it's very important. "In Utah we've always used the (federal) Social Security Act to get all the money we could and virtually ignored the private sector. I think it's about ab-out time we worked harder with the private sector." FURTHER emphasizing the problem Mental Health Director Direc-tor Russell Williams said, "We've always approached the individual that it was his responsibility first (for care), the church, neighbors and then who? The pressure is being put on because of this Medicaid change. Where can they (219 people! go? What happens with those people? "We've had one death as a result of the Medicaid cuts. IX) we do that as a society, allow them to fend for themselves? Righ now, it still remains that we (the people! have a choice (about care I." STRESSING the need to involve in-volve voluntary help County Com. Chairman F. rnest Eberhard said of the federal changes, "It's a brutal thing (impact) but it has to be revealed." re-vealed." adding it could have an affect on things for years to come. "We need to involve interested in-terested people tin the committee)," commit-tee)," Ms. Johnson said, indicating in-dicating the cuts will affect a magnitude of programs from foster care to housing. Those wanting to get involved should conteact the county commission commis-sion at 4M-3200 or 773-7800, et. 320. |