(From Stl Today (post-Dispatch-Journal web site 2/16/2005)
Editorial: Blunt's plan to close home leaves too many unanswered questions
Hazelwood-Bridgeton Journal
Initially, the plan held enormous promise. Government leaders had devised an initiative that would "rescue" hundreds of mentally retarded adults from the institution they lived in, one notorious for the poor treatment its residents received. The facility would close its doors for good, and its residents would move to privately run group homes. They would receive more individualized care, and they would finally be free of the abuse and neglect they'd suffered for decades.
It was the plan Washington, D.C., officials had in the 1990s to provide what they thought would be the best care for some of its most vulnerable residents. But years later, it proved to be a catastrophic failure.
A Washington Post investigation revealed hundreds of incidents of abuse and neglect to residents in some of the group homes, 80 percent of which operated on a for-profit basis. Some of the homes were owned and operated by people with dubious backgrounds, including a man with a criminal record.
In the end, many of the relocated residents were no better off than they had been before.
The D.C. plan bears alarming similarity to Gov. Matt Blunt's plan to close the state-run Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in Bellefontaine Neighbors on July 1. Blunt, citing allegations of abuse at the facility, believes its nearly 400 mentally retarded and disabled residents would receive better care in the private sector, in community-based group homes. The governor claims Bellefontaine's closure will save taxpayers $13.8 million.
*** ( LOOK at this article, THE 'Edison Plan from JUST last May,2004; it's half way down the page, marked #2 May 23rd, 2004 where
- MO Gov't reportedly paid LESS than $2.5 million anually of the Bellefontaine Hab Center Budget, and over 90% was federal or private money
- Of the $25.4 million a year it costs
- to operate the Bellefontaine center,the state kicks in $2.3 million. The rest comes from federal and private money.
- A study published last year in the Mental Retardation Journal on the cost
of state-run versus privately run centers and homes for the mentally
retarded found no savings for taxpayers by putting the residents in
community settings. - Persuaded in part by that report, U.S. District Judge Bernice Donald last
year stopped Tennessee from closing a center similar to Bellefontaine.
But Blunt's proposal has horrified many of the parents and siblings of Bellefontaine's residents. For them, the center is a godsend, its staff members like an extended family providing the specialized care that they cannot.
While they are concerned about reports of abuse, they note that many of the reports are unsubstantiated and that any employees who may have harmed residents in the past no longer work there. They are quick to point out that unlike Bellefontaine, abuse or neglect does not have to be reported in private facilities.
Blunt's plan scares the family of Timothy Brophy, a 49-year-old man with severe mental retardation who loves trips to Burger King and greeting everyone he knows with a hug. His brother Mike says the family has already checked into privately run alternatives to Bellefontaine, but none have the facilities to care for Timothy.
It's a plan that scares Betty Coll, whose 48-year-old son Patrick has lived at Bellefontaine for 40 years. Patrick too is severely retarded, but he also suffers from autism, cannot speak and has a tendency to ingest inedible objects. Betty Coll says her son will be lost without the home he has known all of his life.
It is a plan that scares Mary Vitale, whose brother Jim Dietrich has lived at Bellefontaine for 42 years. She likened news of Blunt's announcement to close the center to the day 17 years ago when she learned another brother of hers had been killed.
"My brother Jim will not survive but for a few months if he's moved," she said while speaking at a meeting of Bellefontaine's Parents Association on Sunday. "I'm trying to save my brother's life."
Blunt's plan raises many questions, ones which he and his staff have yet to answer.
What will his plan cost? Does the plan smooth the transition for residents from one home to another? Will they live in existing group homes or will more need to open? Who will make sure the residents are well cared for?
Blunt has yet to prove that yanking hundreds of vulnerable individuals from the home they've known for decades will be less expensive and more effective than keeping them where they are. The governor has yet to justify why the residents' parents, many of whom are getting on in years, must endure the frustrating and time-consuming process of finding another place for their children to live. He has yet to explain why taking the last-resort step of closing the home should precede an attempt to correct any problems.
In fact, it seems Blunt has yet to set foot on the property. How can he make such life-altering decisions without firsthand information?
Missouri should make Bellefontaine Habilitation Center the best choice possible for residents before taking the drastic step of closing it. Only after all other options have been exhausted — and after Blunt has done his homework — should he even consider the possibility of closing the center