A Quad City adult daycare that serves more than 200 seniors and the disabled is shutting its doors in February, a victim of the budget impasse in Illinois.
InTouch Adult Day Services in Moline offers caregivers, especially those who work full-time, a way to keep their loved ones busy, safe, and out of a nursing home.
Seventy people will lose their jobs.
"I'm devastated for them. Not for me. For them. What are they going to do, who's going to take care of them, who's going to make them eat a meal everyday," said employee Brandy Andrews.
"I have four children and I'm losing my job. I blame Illinois. I don't understand why they can't do their job. Their job is to budget," she said.
"Would the governor do this to his mother?" she asked.
The closing of InTouch is part of a massive string of statewide cuts announced Friday by Lutheran Social Services.
"Most of them are going to have to be medicated, they're going to be put in a nursing home, they're going to go where people don't care," said Nancy Paschal, a staffer at InTouch.
"I am angry because this is happening to them," she said, through tears.
The agency, the largest social service agency in the state, says Illinois hasn't paid their bills for seven months and is $6 million in arrears.
The agency is cutting 43 percent of their programs, 750 workers, and 4,700 clients.
The Center for Active Seniors Inc. (CASI) agency issued this statement about the closing late Friday afternoon, January 22, 2016:
We are saddened to hear the news about the forced closing of InTouch Adult Day Services. Caring for a dependent loved one is no easy task. Research shows that individuals enrolled in Adult Day Services are able to remain in their home 18-24 months longer than those not enrolled. Maintaining this independence is often a key defining factor in the resilience of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Programs such as In Touch Adult Day Services and Jane’s Place at CASI impact not only individuals and families but the community as a whole through decreased long term care costs over the lifetime of these loved ones. Our staff at Jane’s Place Adult Day Services Center is here to help those displaced by the sudden closing of this Quad Cities long-time social service organization. We urge our partners in the Illinois government to overcome any barriers standing in the way of passing a budget which will allow for the care and support of its most vulnerable populations.
Laura Kopp
CASI President/CEO