Part-time workers’ issue won’t work for home care

Part-time workers’ issue won’t work for home care

The Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice is very concerned about the Part-Time Workers “Bill of Rights” initiative on the Youngstown ballot Tuesday.

There are more than two dozen Medicare-certified home care and hospice providers in Mahoning County. These agencies employ hundreds of people who provide community-based care for thousands of elderly, sick and disabled individuals. Our members have three main concerns with this initiative.

First is the requirement to provide health insurance, vacation and sick leave for part-time employees similar to full-time employees. While we want to provide higher pay and benefits to our employees, the low reimbursement rates paid by the Ohio Department of Medicaid makes this impossible. The financial burden this proposal imposes would put many of our members out of business, forcing many individuals to be institutionalized rather than receiving care in their home where they most often wish to be.

Secondly, the requirement to limit on-call hours and posting of employee schedules two weeks in advance doesn’t work in the home-health care setting. The needs of our patients come first and may vary from day to day, meaning we need the flexibility in scheduling our employee’s hours.

Lastly, many of our part-time employees choose to work at several agencies to realize full-time hours. That potentially means that they would have overlapping and possibly conflicting benefits that could be confusing.

While the goal of the ballot proposal may be to help workers, across-the-board, rules such as these tend to do more harm than good. .

Garry Moon, Columbus

Garry Moon is executive director of the Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice

Is help for Briarfield facility truly in the public interest?

Why is the Western Reserve Port Authority financing $13 million to build the Briarfield Health Care Center in Poland Township? They say the intent is to avoid sales tax on building materials (my question is doesn’t the county need sales-tax revenue?).

Mahoning County will pay up to the estimated cost of $355,000 for the roadway for the facility. This includes pavement, curbing, storm and sanitary sewers, signage, striping and waterlines for the project. The owner of this facility is a former Mahoning County commissioner.

With the existing cloud of political corruption in Mahoning County still persisting, this seems suspect to me and fellow residents of the area. If the county has these extra funds, why not build the roundabout at Five Points (Western Reserve Road) or help secure a traffic light at South Avenue and Walker Mill Road? I am sure there are other needs.

The bill for this project will benefit one individual and create only 50 jobs. The Five Points project would benefit many residents and save lives. One life saved from a traffic fatality on these busy intersections is worth more than $13 million.

Frank Gene McCullough, Poland

Tighten restrictions on buyers, not on firearms

Many people today are pushing for stricter laws on guns, and the banning of certain firearms, due to the recent mass shootings and the seemingly ridiculously easy way for criminals and terrorists to obtain these weapons.

Many citizens and lawmakers are calling for stricter laws and regulations on guns. This is made very difficult due to the Second Amendment, which states it is a citizen’s right to bear arms. This right, along with the lobbying of gun manufacturers, makes it near impossible to further restrict gun laws.

I believe there should not be more restrictions on the types of firearms to be purchased, but rather more thorough background checks on the buyer.

I have been investigating gun control, and the proposed methods for controlling firearms in this country. The leaders of this country can only restrict gun buying and selling so far, before they have a full riot on their hands.

Therefore, the solution is to make who can buy a gun stricter, not what they can buy. If the buyers of firearms are responsible law-abiding people, you will have armed the correct people in a correct fashion.

Justin Asente, Girard

Advertising won’t rescue US from opiate epidemic

I beg to offer qualifi- cation regarding the primary strategy measured in The Vindicator’s recent editorial on opiate abuse.

The editorial urged schools to “maximize public education” about narcotic consequences. As a teacher, I certainly don’t want to diminish the essential role of education in promoting healthy behavior. However, it is essential to keep foremost in mind that any educational goal requires a specific classroom teaching approach.

One of the least effective teaching approaches to shape youth outlook and behavior is advertising. Although there is a proper role for commentary against opiate usage in print media, I am seeing a larger and less effective approach to the problem by advertising against drug abuse in youth-oriented public facilities and schools.

I do not believe that advertising against drug abuse reduces usage. Also an organizer and promoter, I make use of advertising in my career pursuits. The results I admit are mixed. I find advertising least effective when promoting ideas. A favored approach in schools and facilities is the print method, handouts and posters. Because of the reading deficiency, handouts are mostly set aside, even trashed. Posters are generally ignored. Education against drugs, to be effective, must be directed in the classroom, not on the walls of hallways, dormitories, or public facilities.

The problem with the advertising approach is that it invites as much as discourages. Youth, impressionable and not fully developed in their reasoning capacity, view any advertisement as an invitation, and a fair percentage of viewers are just as likely to say “maybe I should try this” instead of saying “no, never.”

Those flights of feeble thinking can be neutralized in the classroom by a teacher in a way unavailable to the advertisement on the wall. Although I applaud The Vindicator’s concern and call to action, I suggest a measured approach, one that emphasizes education, not advertisement.

Jim Villani, Boardman

Sadly, presidential choices are very pathetic this year

On Tuesday we vote for the president of the United States of America. Like many other voters, I wish we had other options to consider in this race. We don’t. Donald Trump is a loose cannon. That’s a given. Hillary Clinton is as corrupt a politician as I think we’ve ever seen. Our realistic choices are pretty pathetic.

I don’t love Donald Trump. There is much about his character that is suspect. He lacks tact in his delivery, and this certainly is worrisome to many voters. This is of particular concern with regard to our dealings with foreign governments. How well will someone as stubborn as him be able to negotiate and have some give and take with foreign leaders? Then, there are a myriad of women who have also come forward claiming there were unwanted sexual advances. At least one has claimed rape. Obviously if he is truly guilty of any of these crimes, he should be in jail and not be running for any public office. It should also be pointed out, that if he is falsely accused of such horrendous crimes, his accusers should be severely punished. It is no laughing matter to falsely accuse someone of a crime such as rape. Such a false accusation is as horrendous as the act he is being accused of.

I must say that there is more convincing evidence that Hillary Clinton abused her power in her position as secretary of State than there is that Donald Trump did anything to any of these women. It is also convenient that these accusations come out during the race.

There are two possibilities. She is either lying through her teeth that she didn’t know, or she is incompetent. Either one is unacceptable.

Kurt Blackburn, Youngstown