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Join Us! VOR will host its Annual Meeting and Washington Initiative beginning June 13, 2008 in Washington, D.C. Visit http://vor.net/2008AnnualMeetingandInitiative.htm for more information, or contact Tamie at Tamie327@hotmail.com or 605-399-1624.
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Have you contacted your U.S. Representative and asked him/her to cosponsor H.R. 3995? If yes, have you followed-up? Contact Tamie with any questions and to receive H.R. 3995 advocacy materials (605-399-1624; tamie327@hotmail.com)
--------------------------------------- VOR Weekly E-Mail Update January 25, 2008 ---------------------------------------- ================================================================================REACHING THE MEDIA
“Letters to the editor can be powerful vehicles for influencing or inspiring public debate, making the case for your issue, or responding to related events. In addition, elected officials always read the opinion pages of their local paper, because it gives them an idea of what their constituents think.” – VOR Grassroots Organization and Advocacy Toolkit, rev. June 2006.
1. Intention is good, but is the policy? – An editorial regarding the Maryland Governor’s announcement that Rosewood ICF/MR will close:
“Deinstitutionalization is a wonderful concept of noble intention, endorsed by the Supreme Court, and it has been liberating for many, but it has also left a trail of homeless and neglected adults across the fruited plain.” ~ Dan Rodricks, Baltimore Sun Columnist, January 20, 2008
2. Liberty or loss in closing Rosewood? Readers respond to Rodricks’ editorial and news of the plan to close Rosewood
3. The Wrong Solution: A 2006 Opinion Editorial from a father of a Rosewood Resident
“With documented tragedy, dire predictions and more than 13,000 Marylanders needing services, citizens ought to be crying foul. Families of people living in residential centers and those who have been forcibly moved are crying, but we haven't stopped fighting. Maryland's most vulnerable citizens with mental retardation and developmental disabilities deserve safe and adequate services.” ~ Harry Yost, November 6, 2006.
Coming Up: Texas News: House Speaker Tom Craddick creates a special committee to monitor Texas facilities for people with disabilities. ================================================================================ ------------------------------------------------------- 1. Intention is good, but is the policy?------------------------------------------------------ To post a comment, visit http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.rodricks20jan20,0,1438444.column#comment-form.
In addition, The Baltimore Sun welcomes letters from readers. All letters become the property of The Sun, which reserves the right to edit them. Letters should include your name and address, along with day and evening telephone numbers. E-mail: letters@baltsun.com; Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Baltimore Sun, P.O. Box 1377, Baltimore 21278-0001; fax: 410-332-6977.
Dan Rodricks – Columnist (dan.rodricks@baltsun.com) The Baltimore Sun January 20, 2008
We could not humanely care for even the last 150 residents at Rosewood Center - so say various reports of neglect, abuse and patient-on-patient violence - so the governor of Maryland, after one year in office, decided he should close it. This was "after a lot of consideration," Martin O'Malley said from the steps of the center's administration building, deferring to experts who believe Rosewood's severely disabled adults, some of whom were sent there by judges, will live better away from the institution and "in the community."
I say good - and good luck - but mark the date of O'Malley's bold announcement, Jan. 15, 2008, and track the results in two years. Deinstitutionalization is a wonderful concept of noble intention, endorsed by the Supreme Court, and it has been liberating for many, but it has also left a trail of homeless and neglected adults across the fruited plain.
Every time I touch on the subject of drug addiction, mental illness or adults with developmental disabilities, I get letters and phone calls from doctors, nurses, cops and social workers saying that, even in the relatively progressive and wealthy state of Maryland, this is a huge and largely ignored problem. Demand for services far exceeds funding. For those who are disabled and poor, we've set only a flimsy safety net - not enough affordable housing, not enough community supervision, limited employment opportunities - and if not for the nonprofits and charities the resulting homelessness would be even worse.
"While Maryland is the wealthiest state in the nation, it ranks near the bottom in spending for developmental disability services," Michelle Hart, co-director for public policy initiatives of the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council, wrote to this newspaper last fall. She cited a 2005 report from the University of Colorado that ranked Maryland 44th in the percentage of statewide personal income devoted to funding services for the disabled.
The MDDC says there are more than 16,000 people in Maryland with developmental disabilities stuck on the state's waiting list for services - half in a "crisis category." (Nonetheless, the council supports O'Malley's closure of Rosewood.)
So here we are, on the path of good intentions through a maze of contradictions. Instead of fixing the institutions - hiring better staff and paying salaries that match the enormous challenges of caring for the severely disabled - we close the institutions down, even as places of last resort, even without adequate funding of community resources. We've been doing this for four decades now, and the intent was noble but the follow-up by our society, through our government, pretty lousy. We have aircraft carriers and M1 tanks to buy; we have a political class that caters to a corporate class, while many in need, through no fault of their own, go begging.
His mother called me the other day to report that Howard Fry, a 35-year-old man of limited intellect who has profound disabilities resulting from a severe beating and frostbite - he's a quadruple amputee - is still living on the edge of homelessness. What he needs is a place of his own. That's been the case for more than a year now. He's one of those on the waiting list.
The hard sweat of caring for poor or severely disabled adults would not happen without the support of the charities and nonprofits, the doctors, nurses, social workers and cops. Ten days ago, a homeless man named David hobbled into the outpatient mental health clinic at the North Baltimore Center in the 2200 block of N. Charles St. He appeared to be in his 70s. Thin and wobbly on his feet, he walked with a cane. He carried clothing in two plastic bags. He wore large corduroy pants gathered with a belt, an oversized plaid shirt and a baseball cap. He wore a hospital tag but carried no other identification.
His steps into the clinic constituted the final steps on a long journey.
This man, who looked to the clinic staff nearly 20 years older than his actual age of 57, appeared to be lost. He'd left his home in Kansas City, Mo., five or six years ago and traveled to Indiana and Pennsylvania to visit relatives, and he'd ended up in a boarding house in Philadelphia - at least, that is what Karen Allen, outpatient clinical supervisor at the NBC, and the staff were able to piece together.
It was clear to Allen that David had dementia, probably brought on by a stroke. He also had diabetes, and he appeared not to have eaten a steady, healthy diet for some time. David's sister in Missouri told me she'd get a call from him now and then, but she wasn't in constant contact. He wandered away from the boarding house in Philly about three months ago, and that was the last she'd heard of him - when the people at the boarding house called two weeks later to say David had disappeared.
When Allen interviewed David in Baltimore last week, he could not say where he had been, or how or why he'd ended up here. It's miraculous that he survived the journey.
"He was able to tell me the name of his pastor and his church in Kansas City," Allen says, "and that his brother owns a barbershop there." Through her work, and that of staffers Dawn Pollard and Angie Cooper, the NBC was able to track down David's sister in Kansas City. She and another brother bought a plane ticket, and Wednesday Pollard took him to BWI for the flight home.
Meanwhile, David's sister, who spoke with me Friday night but asked that her family's name not be mentioned in this column, arranged to have her younger brother placed in an assisted-living center in Missouri. That's where he is already.
So here we have a happy ending - a man with severe disabilities, and lost, finding a way home through the help of angels. With a little luck, he's back in his community, in a place where he belongs. So many others should be so lucky.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Liberty or loss in closing Rosewood? Readers respond to Rodricks’ editorial and news of the plan to close Rosewood ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following Letters to the Editor all appeared in the January 25, 2008 edition of the Baltimore Sun. We are including letters from readers who support the Governor’s decision to close Rosewood, as well as the letters from those who oppose the planned closure.
It’s not too late to submit your comments: The Baltimore Sun welcomes letters from readers. All letters become the property of The Sun, which reserves the right to edit them. Letters should include your name and address, along with day and evening telephone numbers. E-mail: letters@baltsun.com; Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Baltimore Sun, P.O. Box 1377, Baltimore 21278-0001; fax: 410-332-6977.
Liberty or loss in closing Rosewood? January 25, 2008 Letters to the Editor Baltimore Sun
By: James L. Spies of Hampstead. The writer is a member of the Rosewood Auxiliary, a group that represents parents and guardians of patients at the Rosewood Center.
I applaud Dan Rodricks for his column "Intention is good, but is the policy?" (Jan. 20). Mr. Rodricks correctly points out that Maryland currently has a 16,000-person waiting list for services for the disabled.
So where do the advocates for the disabled think that the residents of Rosewood will go when the center closes in 18 months? Maryland has a dismal record when it comes to funding for the disabled. As Mr. Rodricks points out, it ranks 44th among U.S. states in the percentage of personal income devoted to funding for the disabled.
I fear that well-intentioned advocates for community-based housing for the disabled have brought about the abandonment of the residents of Rosewood to an overburdened system that is unable to care for our most vulnerable citizens.
By: Liz Weintraub and Brian Cox. The writers are, respectively, the chairwoman and the executive director of the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council.
Dan Rodricks' column about the closure of the Rosewood Center is titled "Intention is good, but is the policy?" The simple and unequivocal answer to this question is "yes."
Closing Rosewood Center is sound public policy for innumerable reasons, not least of which are the serious problems with the center's care and treatment of its residents that have been well-documented in The Sun.
People with disabilities deserve to be supported in the community, and taxpayers' dollars should not be wasted on an archaic model that has repeatedly failed the very people it was intended to serve.
Why does the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council support closing Rosewood when so many people with developmental disabilities are in need of services?
The answer lies in one critical fact: People with developmental disabilities and their families on the state's waiting list want community-based services, not institutional services.
Many of these families have spent their lives and personal funds raising their children at home and in their communities. And no matter how desperate they may be, they would never institutionalize their loved ones.
Addressing the state's developmental disabilities waiting list requires investment in community-based services, not the preservation of costly, failed facilities such as Rosewood Center.
By: Robert Stephens. The writer is executive director of the Maryland Classified Employees Association, which represents some of the Rosewood Center's state employees.
The governor's announcement that he will close the Rosewood Center was very distressing.
The Maryland Classified Employees Association is very concerned for the center's residents, many of whom will not be comfortable leaving the only home and family they've known.
And we are also concerned for the state workers.
Contrary to what many state reports suggest, the overwhelming majority of patients' family members will tell you that, overall, the Rosewood staff has provided quality care and compassion, even with chronic staffing shortages, insensitive management and inadequate training and resources.
However, the move from a Development Disabilities Administration facility such as Rosewood to a mental health facility such as Spring Grove or Springfield will not be a smooth and familiar transition for many employees because the skills necessary to care for the developmentally disabled and psychiatric and forensic patients are different.
I hope that the state works diligently to find appropriate homes for the Rosewood residents, as well as for the dedicated Rosewood staff.
The direct care workers and other employees should not be kicked to the curb or laid off now that the state has finally decided Rosewood's fate.
By: Lynne Pattison, Parent
As the parent of a child with a developmental disability, I have for several years been following the many issues surrounding the Rosewood Center. And I was deeply shocked and saddened by each story published in The Sun about the horrible conditions its residents have had to endure.
When I finally read that Gov. Martin O'Malley had issued an executive order to close Rosewood, in my home there was a collective sigh of relief.
Closing Rosewood is the right decision, no matter how hard the choice was or how much resistance some employees and families may exhibit.
Mr. O'Malley should be very proud of his decision. It will open up amazing opportunities for people with disabilities who will now experience life in the community.
By Aimee Darrow, sibling.
I have followed this issue closely, as my oldest brother is a former resident of Rosewood.
My brother is profoundly mentally retarded and needs 24-hour care. He is severely disabled.
As an adolescent living at home with a younger brother and sister, he was very self-destructive, putting his hands and head through windows. I recall my parents rushing him to the hospital at night. Finally, my parents decided to place him in Rosewood, hoping that it could provide better care for him. We visited Rosewood every two weeks to spend the afternoon with him. My recollection of that time is an overwhelming sense of lack of freedom, sadness and institutionalization.
When the Baltimore Association of Retired Citizens contacted my parents about the opportunity to place my brother in a group home, they jumped at the chance.
After being placed in the community, my brother thrived. He learned to do things as an adult that no one had ever taken the time to teach him.
He is still unable to care for himself in the most basic ways. He can't communicate his needs. But the group home placement allowed him to get one-on-one attention that isn't possible in a big institution such as Rosewood.
And the one-on-one attention allowed my brother to be treated behaviorally for problems for which he was previously receiving medication.
His lifestyle is now much healthier, with daily productive activities that couldn't be afforded to him in an institutional setting.
My parents and I are grateful for the lifestyle a group home setting has given him. And I hope all of Rosewood's current residents find the same life-changing experience that comes from the personal attention small settings can provide.
3. The Wrong Solution: A 2006 Opinion Editorial from a father of a Rosewood Resident
About the author: Harry Yost, the father of a Rosewood resident, is treasurer of Rosewood Center Auxiliary and was appointed to the Rosewood Citizens Advisory Board by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
By Harry Yost
The Baltimore
Sun
If history is any guide, the state's intention with regard to the future of Maryland's four residential centers for people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities is crystal clear. Closed admissions, a steady stream of transfers, aging residents and understaffing have led to ever-decreasing populations at the residential centers. Even S. Anthony McCann, the secretary of the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said at a recent political forum that Maryland law and the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision require the closing of all such institutions.
On the legal side of this issue, however, families know better, and apparently so does Mr. McCann's boss. In September, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said that Olmstead "did not dictate the closing of institutions. ... For a relatively few, the institution may be the appropriate place and the least-restrictive setting." Families of residential center residents feel hopeful that the governor's remarks were sincere (they certainly were informed) and not campaign banter.
The issue of where to best provide residential supports for people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities is one of life or death for many residents. Experiences in other states that have embraced a "one size fits all" (community placement-only) philosophy to providing care should give Maryland policymakers pause. In 30 states and Washington, D.C. - and in federal reviews - there have been reports of abuse, neglect and death in community settings. The Sun's April investigative series on group home problems in Maryland followed reports dating back to at least 2001 by The Sun and other Maryland newspapers.
Ron Coleman, a former social worker and incident data analyst with the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration, who oversaw some community placements during the closure of Great Oaks in Silver Springs, has dire predictions if Maryland is intent on additional closures. Upon studying the state's internal data, he recently predicted, "If Rosewood is closed in the fashion of the Great Oaks experience, medically fragile residents, and those individuals who are dangerous to themselves, will die in the community at a rate of 400 percent greater than if they stay at Rosewood; 13.5 percent will die within the first 18 month."
Behind the push for "community for all" is a coalition of advocates who support closure of institutions despite objections from families and regardless, it seems, of the end result. The community-only coalition has bought into the social policy of full inclusion (literally, in some cases, as some community-only advocates also provide community-based care and profit from the transfer of residents to their community homes).
Many families favor facility improvement, not closure. Recent state inspections at Rosewood revealed serious problems involving resident safety. Facility administrators and staff quickly addressed these problems to the satisfaction of state inspectors. "Rosewood's mixed population, about 150 long-term residents who are developmentally disabled living with some 50 mentally incompetent defendants who have been committed to the center by the courts, is the heart of the problem," a state surveyor recently said. It should be obvious to anyone that serious problems will arise when residents who are dependent on their caregivers for every need are forced to live with individuals capable of armed robbery, assault or rape.
Maryland anticipated problems with mixed populations yet neglected to address them. Original plans were to limit court-ordered placements to a manageable 25 people; they now number 50 at Rosewood. Plans to move all such residents to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup have been scrapped, with costs given as the reason. The state has also ignored Rosewood's anemic staffing levels, with current staff regularly clocking double shifts - a situation that contributed directly to the recent "immediate jeopardy" finding.
In addition to utilizing psychiatric hospitals, such as the Jessup facility, other states, including California and New York, have addressed the concern of mixed populations by serving court-ordered mentally disabled and developmentally disabled residents at specialized facilities dedicated to meeting their unique needs. Other states, such as Idaho and Tennessee, tackled the challenge by splitting their campuses in two, allowing for different licensed programs to accommodate two distinct populations, with dedicated staff, training, licensing and funding for each.
With documented tragedy, dire predictions and more than 13,000 Marylanders needing services, citizens ought to be crying foul. Families of people living in residential centers and those who have been forcibly moved are crying, but we haven't stopped fighting. Maryland's most vulnerable citizens with mental retardation and developmental disabilities deserve safe and adequate services. For now, for most of these vulnerable people, those services are best delivered in Maryland's four residential centers.
Tamie Hopp
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