SLS 17RS-3134 ORIGINAL
2017 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 217
BY SENATOR MILKOVICH
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Jackie and Bruce Blaney on their work as advocates for
seniors and those with disabilities, with a focus on in-home supports for these Louisiana
citizens.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To commend Jackie and Bruce Blaney on their work as advocates for seniors and those with
3 disabilities, with a focus on in-home supports for these Louisiana citizens.
4 WHEREAS, the Blaneys have coordinated the Louisiana Supported Living Network
5 for the past eighteen years and advocated for seniors and the disabled; and
6 WHEREAS, this network represents more than three hundred in-home support
7 agencies, serving fourteen thousand seniors and the disabled in Louisiana; and
8 WHEREAS, the couple's support of independent living for seniors and the disabled
9 has been a journey of more than thirty years; and
10 WHEREAS, the mission of the network is preventing placement in nursing facilities
11 and supporting a quality of life comparable to the life that is available to the average citizen
12 to both seniors and those with disabilities; and
13 WHEREAS, while this mission of preventing placement in nursing homes has often
14 brought the Blaneys into conflict with the powerful nursing home association in Louisiana,
15 the Blaneys have remained focused on their conviction that most people are happiest
16 remaining in their own homes; and
17 WHEREAS, many laws have been passed over the years that have safeguarded the
18 nursing home industry, despite studies that document that nursing homes are generally less
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SLS 17RS-3134 ORIGINAL
1 preferred and more expensive than in-home supports, which the Blaneys have tirelessly
2 endorsed; and
3 WHEREAS, Bruce Blaney served a six-year term as director of the Office for
4 Citizens with Disabilities working to shape policy and provide more satisfactory outcomes
5 for these Louisianians; and
6 WHEREAS, Jackie Blaney has worked in the private sector for thirty years as an
7 advocate for providing in-home services for this fragile population and has served as the
8 director of Independent Living, Inc. of Baton Rouge, which is a nationally recognized
9 in-home support agency; and
10 WHEREAS, advocates for in-home supports for seniors and the disabled have
11 consistently stressed the gap between the cost of nursing home care and the cost of in-home
12 supports, which can run as high as twenty thousand dollars per recipient per year, a
13 considerable savings for a state struggling to balance its budget year after year; and
14 WHEREAS, currently, elderly and disabled Louisiana residents who cannot afford
15 private care are much more likely to end up in a nursing home than to receive less expensive
16 aid that would allow them to remain in their own homes; and
17 WHEREAS, as the debate between nursing home care and the preference of
18 recipients to remain in their homes continues, Bruce and Jackie Blaney have devoted their
19 lives and careers to advocating for seniors and the disabled and speaking out for this
20 vulnerable population; and
21 WHEREAS, Bruce and Jackie Blaney, through their work with the Louisiana
22 Supportive Living Network for the past eighteen years, have taken seriously their role as
23 advocates for seniors and the disabled who prefer to remain in their homes and have brought
24 attention to the plight of this vulnerable segment of Louisiana citizens through their ongoing
25 efforts of advocacy and providing services.
26 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
27 does hereby commend Jackie and Bruce Blaney on their work as advocates, through the
28 Louisiana Supported Living Network, for seniors and the disabled, with a focus on in-home
29 supports for these Louisiana citizens.
30 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
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SLS 17RS-3134 ORIGINAL
1 Jackie and Bruce Blaney at the Louisiana Supported Living Network.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Mary Dozier O'Brien.
DIGEST
SR 217 Original 2017 Regular Session Milkovich
Commends Jackie and Bruce Blaney on their work as advocates, through the Louisiana
Supported Living Network, seniors and those with disabilities, with a focus on in-home
supports for these Louisiana citizens.
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