intellectual disabilities Archives - Page 3 of 3

Woods Winter Wonderland Welcomes Langhorne Community

December 23, 2019

Together with our community, Woods celebrated the holidays during our third-annual Winter Wonderland on Dec. 6 and 7. Hundreds joined our Woods family as we shared holiday fun from free visits and photos with Santa to checking off wish lists, thanks to our 15 merchants.

Our Tree Lighting Made Winter Wonderland, Langhorne, and the Season Bright

As the clock struck 6 p.m. on Friday, we sang the songs of the season with choirs from Woods and our community. Speaking of community, Julie Bartl of our Presenting Gold Sponsor, Johnson, Kendall, & Johnson, helped begin our tree lighting ceremony. She stood beside our CEO Tine Hansen-Turton, State Representative Eugene DiGirolamo, and Woods resident Nathali J. They all spoke to the value of Winter Wonderland and inclusively supporting those with challenges and disabilities.

The tree was ready to be lit. Hansen-Turton gathered every person who was on the stage to flip the switch.

Then, silence fell as the tree lights flickered. Help was needed.

Sirens sounded from a distance as Langhorne-Middletown Fire Company firetrucks carried a special guest. Santa was arriving.

He pulled up to much fanfare as he exchanged greetings with the crowd. Now with Saint Nick’s assistance, the tree sparkled, and the crowd clapped and cheered.

Baby, It Was Cold Outside, But Common Grounds Café Was Delightful

Following the lighting, families, and residents explored the site that spanned outdoors and indoors.

In the warmth of Common Grounds Café, there were treats and food. Artwork by Woods residents was available as gifts. We’d be remiss not to mention Jeremiah J.’s calendar, crafted with the help of his occupational therapists. His work was among our social enterprises, including Yellow Daffodil, Woods Wear, and BeechTree, which were well-received by our community in Langhorne.

The halls were decked with handmade snowflakes and creative decor, leading to free events, including writing letters to Santa, decorating Santa hats, and painting ornaments. These festive family activities and giveaways were made possible by our generous sponsors.

Our Sponsors, Donors, and Volunteers Lit Winter Wonderland

Presenting – Gold: Johnson, Kendall & Johnson, Inc.
Silver: Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller
Bronze: Delcrest Medical Services, PFM, Barry & Michelle Sharer
Friendship: Allied World, A & K Industrial Corp., Dilworth Paxson, LLP, Elliot’s Vending Company, Epstein, Becker & Green, P.C., Fenningham, Dempster & Coval LLP, Mindy, and Richard Goldstein, Roscommon International
Activity Sponsors: RFP Solutions, JR Michalski Heating and Air Conditioning, Patient First, Harry Lawall & Sons, Rotary Club of Langhorne, Rob’s Automotive.
We received other donations from American Kitchen, Blockhouse, Huggins Actuarial, and Lilly Silberstein
We also give special thanks to the Rotary Club of Langhorne & Neshaminy High School Interact Club for volunteering to run Santa’s Workshop for Woods residents.

Winter Wonderland was Stuffed, Thanks to the Food Trucks at Woods

Chickie’s and Pete’s and Have A Ball, crowd favorites, were dishing out food. When lines got long, Winter Wonderland goers could help themselves to free soft pretzels and hot chocolate. Common Grounds Café baked scrumptious cookies.

These served as fitting appetizers while waiting for free photos with Santa.

Meeting the Clauses

Heading into Winter Wonderland, our community expressed a desire to have free photos with Santa. Not only was every family able to grab selfies with Santa, but they also received a gift from Kris Kringle. Local shoppers at PetSmart of Newtown donated stuffed animals to this effort.

Winter Wonderland goers snapped hundreds of photos with Santa and the Mrs.

The Season of Appreciation

Woods is deeply grateful. This thankfulness reaches to all parts of our community: volunteers, visitors, merchants, sponsors, staff, families. Without your support, Winter Wonderland would not be possible. We sincerely hope you enjoyed our time together as much as we did.

Volunteers were also busy at our Secret Santa drop-off. You overwhelmingly ensured every person enjoying the holidays at Woods would receive presents this season, nearly 1,000 in all.

Now, you can be a part of Winter Wonderland 2020. Please take our survey, regardless of whether you attended or not. We would love to hear from you.

We wish you and your family well in the new year!

Intellectual and developmental disabilities services are dangerously underfunded

November 18, 2016

*This blog originally appeared on philly.com

By: Tine Hansen-Turton, President and CEO of Woods Services, and Scott Spreat, President and Chief of Research, Woods Services, guest blogger

People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD), an umbrella term that includes severe chronic disabilities that can be physical, cognitive, or both, consume half of all Medicaid spending in the U.S. Yet this fact is rarely brought up in debates over health care costs and ways to innovate within the health and human services system.

Government agencies have grown comfortable with a systematic underfunding of human services. This may be because they do not understand the true costs of providing care to people with complex medical and social service needs. Supplemental funding from foundations and other private sources on which they have relied to meet some of their needs is drying up, and state budget are barely growing. A recent study of funding trends in Pennsylvania found that between FY1993-1994 and FY2013-2014, the general state budget increased by about 90%, but funding for intellectual disability services increased by only 23-24% (study available by request made to www.par.net).

A group of I/DD private provider agencies recently reported that for the years 2012, 2013, and 2014, roughly one-third of them had expenses that exceeded revenues. An agency that experiences such losses must subsidize the inadequate funding in some manner. Some agencies have dipped into their reserves. This is not a sustainable way of conducting business, and it puts needy people — the I/DD population–at risk.

The I/DD industry is not a healthy one for providers. It operates with a 1.6% margin on an annual basis, and it has no control over its prices. It can’t raise taxes like a school district, and it can’t increase prices like a hospital. It has to rely on the kindness of governmental entities, which has been notably lacking over the past 20 years.

A free market approach and an alignment of the I/DD sector with health and human services programs that permit providers set their own prices may be the only innovation that will sustain the field. Unless providers are able to gain some control over the pricing of their services and unless governmental funders recognize the health issues that affect individuals with intellectual disability, providers will not succeed, and individuals with intellectual disability will lose supports and services. While the industry is not yet dead, it may be in the throes of a terminal condition, which could put thousands of the most vulnerable people at risk in the U.S.