Wilmington mom pushes for disability funding
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington mother is traveling to Raleigh on Wednesday to push lawmakers for more funding for disability services, saying her child and many others are still waiting for care.
“She is a definite little sister, so she has an older sister, and she has all the classic signs of that, she’s mischievous, she’s a little bit crazy, she’s a lot of fun to be around,” said Meredith Mulford.
Meredith Mulford’s 11-year-old daughter, Eloise, has a rare chromosome 6p deletion that has led to significant developmental and physical disabilities.
“In general, it’s a chromosome abnormality. She’s missing 42 genes,” said Mulford.
Eloise is non-verbal, has epilepsy, and a condition that limits her arm movement, requiring constant care and supervision. Despite those challenges, Mulford said her daughter brings joy to those around her.
“She wants to shake everybody’s hand, and we have a song from preschool called ‘Hello, how are you?’ and when she wants me to sing it, she gets my hand too and brings me over to the person,” Mulford said.
Mulford said her family has been on North Carolina’s Innovations Waiver waitlist for seven years. The program provides in-home care services for people with developmental disabilities, but she said it is severely underfunded and understaffed.
Even when service hours are approved, Mulford said there are not enough care workers to fill them, leaving many of her daughter’s needs unmet and forcing her to take on the role of full-time caregiver.
“So, we are not paying that workforce enough in order to get those folks into the jobs that are needed for people like us that are on the waiver wait list, and this is the only thing that we qualify for,” said Mulford.
As Medicaid funding remains a key issue in the North Carolina General Assembly, Mulford plans to share her family’s story with lawmakers, urging them to invest in the program.
Mulford said she hopes her advocacy — along with others facing similar challenges — will encourage leaders to address both the backlog of families waiting for services and the workforce shortages preventing approved care from being delivered.
