RICHMOND, Va. -- There are 3,340 Virginians considered to be in desperate need of what's called Developmental Disability Waiver, also known as a DD Waiver.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday a more than $300 million plan to open Medicaid Home and Community Based Development-Based Development Disability waiver for those 3,440 individuals who are on what's called a "priority one" waiting list. That means individuals need certain medical and behavioral services that can be covered by the waiver in a year or less.
It's part of a budget the governor will be announcing next week.
Earlier this year, Youngkin signed a budget funding 500 new waiver slots, on top of 600 new slots that were approved in the FY 2024 budget by the General Assembly.
"Having been advocating since my boys were born, 34 years, it's tremendous," said Kim Goodloe, a parent to two children with developmental disabilities.
She said one of her children waited 17 years to get a DD waiver.
"We were in critical despair before Matthew got his waiver, our family was on the brink of falling apart," Goodloe said.
Goodloe, who's worked with The Arc, an advocacy group for families with loved ones with special needs, said this acts as a first step.
"The waivers come with issues but they give families something to rely on, a means to find help and a means to plan. So these waiver are a life source for these families," Goodloe said.
Some of the issues, she explained, boil down to staffing shortages.
"The workforce issue is everywhere, right? So, it's not just a waiver issue," she said.
But some, like Cannon Jeter, are skeptical about what this could mean going forward.
"There isn't enough support. It's just not there," Jeter said.
In a CBS 6 investigation, reporter Melissa Hipolit interviewed Jeter about the struggles their family faced with getting appropriate care. Jeter's teenage son has autism, is nonverbal and can sometimes behave violently.
Local News
Henrico parent fights for services for their son with severe autism
"The people who are getting these waiver slots are your extreme. They're not your easy-to-deal with, every day, kind of mild cases. These are your kids that really do have a lot of severe needs. So, it would take a lot of work, and everything would have to be expanded, from funding, to where they would go, the programs. It would take a lot."
Though Jeter's child was able to receive a waiver around age 7, Jeter said the family has had to wait about 10 years to get the adequate care they needed.
“You can have the waiver all you want but if it doesn’t cover your needs, the waiver’s just there. We’ve had that umbrella over us for years now, but it didn’t actually provide the services and care that we needed. So that’s something that you can give the waiver, but without the appropriate support behind the waiver, it just falls flat," Jeter said. “I’m concerned with what that next step is going to look like for them. how many times they’ll get the waiver and think they have things in place that are going to help them, just be told there’s a waitlist, a two-year long waitlist, we don’t have enough staff."
"The supply of funds that that will put into the market with the demands for more services will foster the creation of more capacity," Youngkin said. "We're putting a real emphasis on healthcare workforce in our entire career path and multi-path trainings in Virginia. So we've got lots of work to do but the great thing is, I think we've got a lot of effort in not just trying to close the gaps in the priority one waitlist, but also the supply of work force and the need for more capacity."
Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for in-depth coverage of this important local story. Anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
