56 Hour Personal Care Soft Cap

I am a 26 year old nonspeaking autistic/epileptic who uses a letter board and/or typing to communicate. My words have been transcribed here by a trained Communiciation Partner.  

For my own personal safety and well being (elopement, reckless behaviors, seizures) I need 1-1 support during my awake hours.  Since I - and many of my nonspeaking peers, generally only sleep 3-6 hrs a night, this means I need considerably more Waiver Attendant "Personal Care" hours than the very low and insuffient, unsafe "56 hour Cap" being proposed.  

My parents work hard to support me and to find qualified staff on the low pay (as compared to the majority of states in the US) offered via the state waiver.  They are also senior citizens and need more staffing hours to support me as needed. 

I work hard to contribute to society in the world around me - I have gotten honors from Congressman Walkinshow and Gerry Connolly.  I am an award winning artist and poet.  There is NO WAY I would have been able to participate in and/or achieve all this without the number of support hours needed for me to be a successful and involved member of my local community and society at large.  

For these reasons - which are also relevant to so many of my Disabled Peers, I STRONGLY OPPOSED the proposed changes of a 56 hr Personal Care soft cap.  

Also the state of VA and DMAS needs to do a MUCH better job of actually formally notifying those who are affected by proposed changes. We can't have a VOICE if we are not told about all this and that is wrong for so many reasons.  

Service Coordinators vs Support Brokers 

I - and family members and Attendants who support me via the DD Waiver - have personal relationships with our Service Coordinators. THEY KNOW ME!  I am not just a random person somewhere in the state that has been assigned to a randon Support Broker somewhere in the state.  THEY KNOW my community, they know the challenges I face on the daily to navigate in the immediate world around me and know what to do to assist me in doing so.  There are many reasons why I oppose the change to Support Brokers and this is a few of them.