3 years later, area nursing home resident still refuses to shave

April 28--Herman Friske, 91, does not like the state budget.

The resident of the Katherine Luther Residential Health Care & Rehabilitation Center in Clinton has spent the past three years advocating for a measure that didn't make the fiscal cut. Friske wants the state to raise the $50 personal needs allowance for nursing home residents on Medicaid for the first time since 1981.

"I don't need it like the others," Friske said. "I have a good family and they send me money every now and again. There are times I get a little short."

Friske hasn't shaved his beard for three years -- although the staff in the home keep it trimmed for hygiene -- as a protest. He sends a photo of himself with a different quote on the issue to state legislators every month.

If the raise does come through someday, how would Friske spend it?

"My closet is full of shirts that are a little bit small. I gained a little weight," he said.

He insisted the allowance is harder on women.

"I see women with their heads down because they can't present themselves in new clothing," Friske said.

The allowance must be used to buy anything a nursing home doesn't supply that isn't covered by Medicare: new clothing, haircuts and perms, reading material, writing supplies, stamps, snacks, meals out, presents for the grandchildren and, in some cases, dentures and orthotics, which can eat up the allowance for several months.

Peggy Kelly, a resident of Presbyterian Home in New Hartford, agreed that the allowance just doesn't cover all residents' needs.

"It goes for personal needs and clothing, normal things that you have to buy all the time -- toothpaste and deodorant and the whole nine yards," she said. "Shoes and everything. It's just getting by, period. And $50 a month is not never much, not to live on."

Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, D-Utica, sympathizes and has been pushing for an increase. But the budget this year was particularly tight, he noted, but adding that the state should invest to let seniors live in comfort.

"To me, investment in veterans or seniors or children are worthy investments that we should always consider," he said.

Friske, who enlisted in the navy at age 17, said he and his peers got the country through World War II, whether by serving in the military or, in the case of many women, working in the factories. "They don't want to pay back?" he asked. "I think they deserve a payback."

"Maybe," he added, "by the time I'm 100 years old."

Contact reporter Amy Neff Roth at 315-792-5166 or follow her on Twitter (@OD_Roth).

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