Who Will Help?

Former caseworker Tande Rose worries every day about the elderly in Gallia County who may be hungry or without medications or even near death.

Laid off as the county's one-person Department of Adult Protective Services, she wonders who will take care of people like the woman in her 70s who Rose found naked and covered with feces on the floor of a locked bedroom.

Advocates for the county agencies across Ohio have not yet compiled the number of caseworkers like Rose who were handed pink slips in the wake of state budget cuts adopted in July. However, roughly 3,000 have lost their jobs since the state started slashing aid to the county agencies nearly two years ago.

Gallia County, along the Ohio River in the heart of the state's Appalachian region, has been among the hardest hit, losing 40 percent of its Job and Family Services' staff of 51.

Rose was the county's only caseworker assigned to investigate allegations of abuse, exploitation or neglect against the elderly. Since she left in August, adult protective services have been unavailable.

"I worry that people will go hungry or not get their medications," Rose said. "I worry that someone will die."

"These are sweet little people," Rose said of her former clients. "I may be in their shoes some day, and if I am, I'd want someone looking after me."

Rose helped about 150 seniors a year.

"Elderly people are so proud," she said. "They will go without medication before they wouldn't pay their utilities. I would try and help by talking to physicians to get samples or calling the utility company."

"Families are supposed to help out families," Rose said. "But a family can't do what they could do 20 years ago."