Guest:  Kara Bieniak

Topic:  New weather alert line for personal assistants in CDPAS in 12 counties

Host:  Welcome to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living (WNYIL). Our guest today is Kara Bieniak, Taking Control Customer Service Coordinator at the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Services (CDPAS) and your host is yours truly Ernie Churchwell. Welcome to the program, Kara.

Guest:  Thanks for having me, Ernie.

Host:  It's our pleasure. What brings you here is a new development in wintertime emergency communications to the homecare attendance. But before we get into that, I'm willing to bet that there are probably some people listening that are not even familiar was Taking Control or the umbrella topic CDPAS. I believe you have a prepared statement that sums it all up.

Guest:  Yes, well, our Taking Control program is a member directed personal assistance service and it's available for members here at the agency who are eligible for sponsored in home personal assistance services. And it assists with the individual to remain living in their home and within their community. And this program provides a fiscal intermediate service. The member can hire assistants who help with their hygiene, their cleaning, their attending appointments and many more daily care needs. And they are able also to hire family and friends of their community that they're comfortable with having in their home as well which is a great benefit to have to

Host:  To clear up something when they talk about fiscal intermediary services that means that although the consumer does the day to day control of their home care aide about hiring, scheduling, evaluating, and terminating, the agency provides the service of getting all the legal stuff done, taking care of payroll, and so forth and so on. But something I bet even some of the best-informed people probably don't know is that the Buffalo office actually coordinates homecare aides in 12 different counties. Could you mention what those are?

Guest:  Yes, we are not only with Erie County, but we're also with Niagara County, Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties. We're also located in St. Lawrence County, Franklin County, Jefferson and Lewis counties. Cattaraugus, Chautauqua counties and Allegheny counties as well.

Host:  Wow, that's all eight western New York counties, plus four in Northern New York State, I guess, when you are truly the experts, the word gets around. Something that we didn't really stress is that this is consumer controlled, how does that differ from the way that home care aides used to be provided by traditional agencies?

Guest:  Well, we don't have to assign or we're not chosen to assign any consumer personal aide to have in their home, which means that they can bring them in in the comfort of their own level, whether it be a family member, in some cases it could be a spouse or a parent. And they also have the ability to hire and fire as well, and that gives them some direction in being comforted into their own home and not having to go to a long-term care facility.

Host:  That's wonderful. And I bet that degree of consumer control is a refreshing change from the traditional county social services talks to nursing organizations talks to home care aide. And, oh, maybe if we think about it, we'll ask the consumer what they really want, but that's not really important, whereas in this case, the consumer is in the driver's seat from A to Z. And I think that's a wonderful development and it fits right in with Independent Livings aim of helping people take control of their own lives. All right, but the topic of the day, you now have an emergency phone call number, could you tell us about that?

Guest:  Yes, our hours of operation are normally Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but obviously living in the northern area, and even the southern tier area, we do have emergency alerts. And we do have a number that we can provide locally for the Erie County Western New York Department and that phone number is 716-836-0822 with extension 345. And this information would be able to give the consumer or the PA, who is the personal care assistant. If there's any closings of any kind for the agencies.

Host:  And so, the counties affected would be mentioned in the recording that people hear when they call that number.

Guest:  Correct and also in addition to the other counties that are not covered with Western New York, the toll-free number is 1-800-348-8399 extension 345.

Host:  If people have questions, how can they get ahold of you?

Guest:  They can give me a call at area code 716-836-0822 my extension is 194.

Host:  Thanks for being with us, Kara.

Guest:  Thanks for having me.

Host:  You've been listening to Independent Perspective, a Public Affairs presentation of WNYIL. Our guest today was Kara Bieniak, Taking Control Customer Service Coordinator at CDPAS and your host was yours truly Ernie Churchwell.