The Real Problem with McDonalds
November 25, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
McDonalds. Burger King.
They’re the competition.
Not against Guardians of Healthy (and Happy) Meals.
They’re competition for staff—for workers—for disabled adults who need support in their living, work, and other arrangements.
And, if you cook burgers and fill drinks at a fast-food restaurant, you don’t need the sort of training—which can be extensive—that can be called for in assisting some disabled adults.
Emily Homer of VOCA of Maryland D.C. made this point at last week’s IACC meeting and it sobered the atmosphere in the room up. She noted that, if Americans won’t take these kinds of jobs for those wages, it’s likely that people will turn to immigrants to fill the positions—-and I thought about how at least half of the bus drivers that Charlie has had are (usually women) from Latin America, Pakistan, or Russia; about how both my 104-year-old grandmother and my in-laws have live-in workers who are from other countries. (My grandmother only speaks Cantonese and someone who can speak her dialect is essential; my in-laws, and the rotation of nurses who live full-time with them, have had more of an adjustment to make.)
Teaching, spending time with Charlie, sitting through unhappy moments, running really fast down a hill on a cold November afternoon together, standing beside him to practice using a calculator: How to spread the word that doing these are worth it, and then some?
That’s certainly one of the bigger problems that we face. We’re lucky in that my son lives in a town with two Universities and one college, so there’s an almost endless supply of part-time workers available for his group home who value their time there not only because of the kids, but because of what it adds to their academic life. Unfortunately that also means that there’s a constant turnover of staff, because very few of them can afford to work there after they’ve finished school. It’s so hard on the kids (and the workers), because as soon as they’ve developed a real relationship, people have to move on.
Aides in school, nurses, home care workers- I don’t know what we can do except to try to elect people who will vote for the recognition and compensation of all of these people that we need so desperately. I think that it’s a bit better in Ontario because I think that our minimum wage is higher, but it’s a constant problem.
That is so interesting. I love to expand my mind by reading your blog.