Facility closures move forward

Facility closures move forward
(February 2009 Issue)

By Ami Albernaz

Following Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's announcement in December that the Fernald Development Center in Waltham and three other state-run institutions would close by 2013, some advocates for the developmentally disabled are praising the decision as a step forward, while family members of some residents say the state is taking away the only home the residents have known.

Following years of limbo for the facilities' fate, which received a 2007 closure reprieve, the Patrick administration announced on Dec. 12 that closure plans would go forward. The Glavin Regional Center in Shrewsbury, the Monson Development Center in Palmer and the Templeton Developmental Center in Baldwinville are also slated to close.

Residents of the four facilities will be transferred to community-based group homes or to the state's two other institutions, the Wrentham Developmental Center and the Hogan Regional Center in Hawthorne.

The closure "will create real choice for many people with developmental disabilities for whom the community has never been an option - all while providing equal or better care for the residents in a community setting," Health and Human Services Secretary Judy Ann Bigby, M.D., said in a press statement. "As we have seen many times, individuals previously living in facilities have benefited from a community setting with the services and supports they need to live in dignity and independence."

In New England, six of the seven remaining institutions for the developmentally disabled are in Massachusetts; the other is in Connecticut. Massachusetts estimates it costs $239,000 per person annually to care for residents at Fernald, compared with about $102,000 per person annually in the community.

Leo Sarkissian, executive director of the ARC of Massachusetts, an advocacy group, says community placements allow residents more flexibility and more social interaction than they would have in an institution. "There are a lot of routinized things [in a large facility]," he says. "You have more flexibility over the rhythm of life in a community setting. We also think people need more people. All things being equal, people socialize more in community settings� In an institution, you have to bring people in."

Sarkissian points to a survey involving 49 residents transferred from Fernald to community settings between 2003 and 2006. Ninety-two percent of guardians rated the moves as "most favorable" or favorable," while two percent rated the moves as "unfavorable" or "most unfavorable."

For family members of some Fernald residents, however, leaving the facility seems unthinkable. Marilyn Meagher, president of the Fernald League, has a sister in her late 50s who has been living at Fernald since she was five. She has Down Syndrome and was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

"Surroundings are very important to her," Meagher says. "Her family is located minutes from Fernald� If she's in the community or in Wrentham, which I've heard is an hour away from Fernald, she's not going to be in a better situation, as far as I'm concerned."

At Fernald, Meagher says, her sister has access to 24-hour emergency care and a familiar routine that includes weekly restaurant trips and Mass at an on-campus chapel on Sunday. "Everything [residents] need is right on the grounds. It's a community within itself," Meagher says. "At this point in my sister's life, I feel it's wrong to make people make these changes. If it were 35 years ago, it would be different."

Staff turnover has been cited as a concern at some group homes. Sarkissian says closing the facilities will allow for more personnel and higher salaries in community settings.

"People have rights to a certain level of services and supports," he says. "When [funding] is reallocated to community services, it increases what's available."

Sarkissian says he understands anxieties about moving, and is trying to connect Fernald families with other families who have been through a transition to a community setting. "I'd also ask, 'What are you unsure about? Could you visit some homes? Could we look at different options?'" he says.

Meanwhile, Meagher says the fight to keep Fernald open is not over.

"We have not given up and we don't intend to, and that's what they need to know," she says.