2-tiered System

Over the past two years it has been very difficult to hire staff to look after me and my roommates because the salary rate of the support workers are not funded adequately to match the current market rate. We have very few job applicants. My mom practically hires whoever applies, except one . . . . . My mom asked this applicant what she would do if any one of us hit her. We are not violent, but one of my roommates and I sometimes strike out when we get upset or frustrated. Her response was to tie us up and give us medications. The last few staff mom hired did not work out. One came to work with alcohol on her breath. She was really high and she was singing and dancing. I was the only one who enjoyed her presence due to my love for music.

I hear that some families are topping up the staff’s salary out of their own pockets. This means individuals whose families are well off can have staff and possibly better staff to look after them. Individuals from poor families become more disadvantaged. I am one of the lucky ones that my mom is willing to give up her job to manage our home with no pay (even when she works as a staff). She manages the home well so that my roommates and I get quality care. Thank God she has the resources to do this. Other families that wish to do the same may not be able to. However, I don’t think it is a good thing to have a 2-tiered system. It makes families lacking financial resources feel guilty about not being able to top up staff salary or do what my mom is doing. My mom is in a dilemma now - Her current earned income is $80 a week. Should she go back to work so that she has the money to top up my caregivers' wage? She will have to give up managing the Beraka Residence. The trouble is if the care I received previously under the management of an agency was safe and adequate, she would not have chosen to manage this home.

I am getting good care in the expense of my mom. She is often stressed out as a result of the demands and workload. She loves teaching and decided to pursue her master in nursing to better prepare herself in her role as an instructor. Through many years of hard work and juggling between studies, family responsibilities, serving God and earning an income she finally graduated in November 2004. Then she gave up teaching in 2006 because she was not able to cope with the workload of managing the administration of the Beraka Residence. She misses her friends at the Faculty of Nursing.