Healthy Living: Program offers lift for disabled
A free program is working to make sure more disabled New Yorkers are truly experiencing all the comforts of home, especially when it comes to moving around. Kafi Drexel filed the following report.
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Glenn Pantofel, 49, no longer has the use of his legs due to multiple sclerosis. And for years, moving around his own home was a complete nightmare.
"It was like total hell. It was like a simple thing like going to the bathroom. If I had a bad day with the MS physically I couldn't lift myself up to get transferred from the bathroom to the wheelchair," Pantofel said.
In stepped "Access to Home," a free program for lower-income households run by United Cerebal Palsy of New York City Inc. Through the program, a remote controlled lift and tracking system was installed in Pantofel's home. Tasks that were sometimes impossible, or took the better part of an hour are now taking him minutes.
In addition to the overhead tracking system they also widened all the doorways and passageways in the home by half a foot. So it was just a matter of inches really that was keeping Glenn from moving freely around his home.
"A huge factor is that the cost to put somebody in an annually, and take care of one person institutionalized in a nursing home is $150,000 a year. To make a home or apartment accessible $15,000," said United Cerebal Palsy of New York City Inc. Board of Trustees member Loreen Arbus.
The savings are also felt on the state level because it cuts down on Medicaid spending. The New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal is a primary funder of the program, but massive funding cuts are leading UCP to rely on private dollars to keep it going and help more clients like Pantofel -- clients who finally feel more at ease and have more independence in the place where they are supposed to feel the most comfort, at home.
"It makes a world of difference when you can just go from one room to another room. You wouldn't think so, but just to stay here between four walls and then the other eight walls going into the kitchen, into the bathroom and going into the bedroom at your leisure not someone else's leisure," Pantofel said.
To find out more about "Access to Home" or how you can help, visit dhcr.state.ny.us or ucpnyc.org.