ANNOUNCER: Lance Hegland, on the PCA shortage.
LANCE HEGLAND: Senators and representatives, thank you for hearing our voices. My name is Lance Hegland. I’m a middle aged, white male with very short, gray speckled brown hair, sitting in my motorized wheelchair in my bedroom at a group home in Brooklyn Park.
For over 15 years, I lived independently, recruiting and managing personal care assistants while working and earning an MBA degree focused on disability and aging services. However, due to a severe shortage of support workers, I was forced to move into a group home, losing my autonomy, privacy, and access to the accommodations I depend on for a healthy, safe, and dignified life. What would you do, if after years of independence, you were forced into a broken system that stripped you of your dignity and safety?
I had built a life where I controlled my care, my environment, and my future. But in November 2021, I had no choice but to leave my accessible apartment and enter a group home where I became a number, not a person. Instead of safety, I encountered neglect.
Instead of respect, I faced prejudice and discrimination. Instead of care, I endure trauma, not always, but enough to be alarming. One morning, there were no staff members in the group home for nearly 90 minutes. I was left stranded, unable to move, in excruciating pain.
Medication errors. Twice, I was given a roommate’s ibuprofen instead of my prescribed potassium, an error I only caught afterwards because I and my girlfriend looked into the situation. In November 2023, a staff member misunderstood my instructions, causing a serious knee injury.
Just months later, I was dropped into my bed, leading to painful back and hip injuries. These are not isolated incidents. They are a pattern of symptoms of a failing system long overdue for reform.
I have a long list of neglect and abuse examples from other Minnesotans– Christine Mulcahy’s sister, Dennis Prothero, Randy Whitaker, among many more. I have a long list of fraud examples, too. Why is this happening?
Underfunding has led to severe workforce shortages, forcing providers to lower hiring and training standards. My funding was slashed 41% over three years. Now, many people without proper training or genuine commitment are responsible for our vulnerable lives.
Dedicated workers are exhausted, burned out. Safety nets are overwhelmed and tattered. Case managers, 911, emergency rooms, hospitals, adult protection, licensing and enrollment are only responding to the most severe cases, leaving many vulnerable Minnesotans in dangerous situations unprotected.
Oversight is weak. When I reported medication errors and injuries, the responses were dismissive. Law enforcement has refused to intervene in dangerous situations, leaving my roommates and I unprotected even when facing immediate jeopardy to our health and safety.
How many other Minnesotans are at risk? How many more lives will be lost before action is taken? We must confront this reality with transparency and urgency. If resources are limited, we must provide those suffering with compassion and dignity.
Increased funding to ensure sustainable care and fair compensation for workers. Strengthen oversight by mandating independent investigations of provider complaints. We have decent staffing and training standards, but we can’t afford to implement them, and we certainly are not enforcing them. We could be preventing harmful errors and injuries. We must also fairly compensate emergency responders so that law enforcement, emergency rooms, and hospitals are able to adequately intervene in dangerous situations.
Again, this is not just my story. It’s the reality for thousands across Minnesota. We have the power to fix this. We must fund real care, enforce real oversight, protect real lives.
As Franklin D Roosevelt once said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, but whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Minnesota prides itself on wisdom, interdependence, and compassion. It’s time we prove it. We must act now. Thank you.