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VOR is the only national organization advocating for a full range of
residential and support options for people with mental retardation,
including Medicaid-certified Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally
Retarded (ICFs/MR) and home and community-based care. VOR supports choice. 
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VOR Weekly E-Mail Update

June 1, 2007
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CALIFORNIA UPDATE

1. Care site closure causes concern - Plan calls for patients to be moved
from San Jose facility to smaller group homes

2. Sonoma Developmental Center staff could see salary hike

3. Sonoma Valley park to gain key parcel - Open Space District purchasing
41 acres along Highway 12
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1. Care site closure causes concern - Plan calls for patients to be moved
from San Jose facility to smaller group homes

By Steven Harmon
Inside Bay Area
04/12/2007

" A group of parents on Wednesday told an Assembly committee that the
medical and social needs of the developmentally disabled residents at
Agnews Developmental Center must not be given short shrift when the San
Jose center closes next year and patients are scattered around the state
and placed into smaller private group homes.

Parents said they worry that the state's plan to move Agnews' 243 remaining
residents into group homes will diminish their children's medical care" and
their quality of life.

They urged legislators to consider their plan to build mixed-use community
homes " a more compact residential area near homes for the general public "
anchored by a medical center serving all developmentally disabled
residents.

The key, said San Jose resident Joannie Pepper, is to retain Agnews'
current medical staff and to create centrally located medical centers to
which families can easily travel. The state Department of Developmental
Services' plan is to allow each private group home operator to contract
with its own medical providers.

"Agnews' medical staff are the ones who know how to best care for disabled
citizens," said Pepper, vice president of, the Association of Mentally
Retarded at Agnews. Pepper's 49-year-old son, Bruce Rosenfeld, has lived at
Agnews for 30 years and requires around-the-clock care. "What good is it
for people in Santa Clara County to contract with doctors at UCSF? It's too
far away."

Closing doors

The state plans to close Agnews, located on the north edge of San Jose, in
July 2008. The center, which has 37 buildings on its 81-acre campus,
provides skill training, specialized health-care, recreational and other
therapies. Since 1994, Agnews' population has dwindled from 821 to 244. The
seven remaining state facilities house more than 2,800 developmentally
disabled residents, about half of the population served in 1995.

The state is well on its way to putting its own plan into place, said Terri
Delgadillo, director of the Department of Developmental Services. The state
has already bought 32 homes, with 62 others in line for purchase within a
few months, paid for out of a $120 million bond.

The department, Delgadillo said, is working closely with three Bay Area
health providers " the Santa Clara County Health Plan, the Alameda Alliance
and the San Mateo Health Plan " to work with the group home 
operators.

"This closure is unlike any other done before," Delgadillo said. "In the
last closure of a center 10 years ago, all residents were just moved from
one developmental center to another. This time the focus is on the
developing community, allowing consumers to live in areas near their
families."

The faceoff underscored competing approaches on how to best provide living
conditions for the developmentally disabled. Families say the state is
overlooking the benefits of mixed-use communities.

There may even be a split among South Bay legislators on the issue. 

Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, supports the administration's proposal "
though he urged Delgadillo to make sure requirements for quality in-patient
services are in place before adopting a plan.

"We must be clear about what kind of care is going to be provided," said
Beall, a former co-founder of the Santa Clara Family Health Plan whose
stepson is developmentally disabled and whose wife works with Housing
Choices for the Disabled. "I want the best standard of care. I was
impressed with the details on the housing component. But health care needs
need more work."

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, was more skeptical about the
state's ability to deliver health care.

"It seems like we're in a 'believe-me' situation," Lieber said. "I have
concerns over how managed care works out for these kinds of clients. These
(group) homes have their merits, but there's a lot of concern about crisis
and behavioral situations that aren't addressed" in the state's plan.

Brian Boxall, president of the Association for the Mentally Retarded at
Agnews, worried that patients could be placed in mortal jeopardy if there
is no central medical center.

"To simply dismantle Agnews without building new services to take its place
would put lives at risk," he said.

Others worried that taking Agnews residents away from friends and their
peers would create psychological crises. Though, not everyone.

Joan Schmidt opted against putting her son into Agnews 16 years ago,
instead creating a pilot program that allowed her son to live
independently. She said parents' fears are legitimate, but urged them to
take a bold step into what she said is a bright future for supportive
living services.

"We have many people living in communities that have had these medical
issues with exactly these severe needs," said Schmidt, the chief executive
officer for West Sacramento-based Creative Living Options. "I'm convinced
that through teaming up with the Department of Developmental Services and
with regional centers, we can replicate these positive situations."

Budget subcommittees in both the Senate and the Assembly will revisit the
issue later this month with further hearings."

2. Sonoma Developmental Center staff could see salary hike

Summary: Clinical staff leaving for better-paying jobs at prisons, causing
legislators to call for a solution. 

By Emily Charrier
Index-Tribune
 
California legislators are calling for a solution to the large amount of
clinical staff leaving state hospitals and developmental centers for higher
paying prison jobs. Although the exact details aren't clear, staff members 
at the Sonoma Developmental Center could see a pay boost from the efforts.

"We support it strongly," said Jim Rogers, executive director of SDC. He
said the developmental center has had to resort to short-term fixes to
cover staffing shortages.

Local lawmakers Sen. Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, and Assemblymember
Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, were among the five legislatures to sign a
letter asking members of the Senate and Assembly Budget Committees to
augment to the Department of Mental Health's budget to increase the
salaries of clinical staff within state hospitals, veterans care facilities
and developmental centers such as SDC.

A federal ruling last year significantly raised the salaries of various
clinical staff such as psychiatrists, registered nurses and psychiatric
technicians working for California's Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, in an effort to bring qualified staff to care for
prisoners, an estimated 20 percent of whom suffer from mental illness.

Across the state, clinical staff left their jobs at developmental centers,
state hospitals and veterans hospitals to pursue the higher-paying prison
jobs - sometimes leaving dangerously low staffing capacities. 

"The rampant surge in civil service vacancies among clinical staff must
cease," the letter stated. "Even if immediate action is taken to reverse
the brain drain to prisons, it is conservatively estimated that it will
take two to three years for treatment conditions to normalize to resemble
adequate care."

Earlier this year, Stephen Mayberg, director of the California Department
of Mental Health, announced intention to reshuffle the department's budget
in an effort to produce $9.4 million for salary increases statewide for the
current fiscal year (which ends June 30). Additionally, Mayberg is seeking
approximately $34 million to augment the department's budget in the
governor's May Budget Revise for the 2007-08 fiscal year. The boost would
bring the salaries of psychiatrists and senior psychologists to within 5
percent of salaries offered by prisons. Psychologists, rehab therapists,
psych technicians and social workers would get salary increase within 18
percent of what prisons offer.

Many fear the pay increases may not be enough to keep clinical staff from
transferring to correctional facilities.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton, who originally ordered the
increase of prison staff salaries, said he was "unimpressed" with the DMH's
plan. He gave the department until May 21 to provide more details about the
budget.

"I want something concrete when you show up next time," the Los Angeles
Times reported Karlton said to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Tillman at a
hearing on Monday, April 23.

The exact figures regarding how much each hospital will get are not
available yet. Kristen Deichert, spokeswomen for the DMH, said of the $9.4
million added to this year's budget, $7.4 million is earmarked for state
hospitals and the remaining $2 million would be divided between the
Department of Developmental Services and veterans hospitals.

The impact of the prison brain drain has been felt at SDC, where Rogers
said many staff members work overtime to fill the gaps. 

"We're certainly challenged in how we can deliver staffing," Rogers said.

Karen Litzenberg, spokeswoman for SDC said since May 2005, the center has
lost 24 nurses for various reasons, including transfers to other
health-care facilities. A source within SDC said four years ago the center
had 140 registered nurses, which has fallen to 90, largely due to the
"prison brain drain."

"We've had, like almost every other health-care facility in California, to
do extraordinary things to keep our clinical staff," Rogers said. "This is
a long-standing issue." 

3. Sonoma Valley park to gain key parcel - Open Space District purchasing
41 acres along Highway 12 

By BLEYS W. ROSE 
Santa Rosa Press Democrat (4/29/07)

About 41 acres of open meadows and oak-dotted woodlands on Highway 12 next
to Sonoma Valley Regional Park are being purchased by the Agricultural
Preservation and Open Space District for $600,000.

As district directors, county supervisors have approved plans to buy the
land that fronts on Highway 12 between Glen Ellen and Boyes Hot Springs and
add the parcel to the regional parks system.

The transaction, scheduled for completion in late June, ends negotiations
with the state that date back to 1993, when state government began
identifying surplus property that it could sell or lease in order to earn 
revenue.

In 2002, 600 acres of Sonoma Mountain, with woodlands, redwood groves and
rare fruit trees, were added to nearby Jack London State Park when efforts
failed to develop them into vineyards.

Like that transaction, this one also involved property held by the Sonoma
Developmental Center.

Elizabeth Tyree, analyst with the county Regional Parks Department, said
negotiations involved a long and complicated process to prevent the 41-acre
site from being sold off as surplus state property.

Although small in comparison with the Open Space District's recent
acquisitions that total hundreds of acres, the parcel is in a critical
location, officials said.

"It's a great opportunity whenever we can purchase a property next to
publicly owned land," said Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Valerie Brown,
who represents Sonoma Valley. "These gentle hills now will remain forever
an open vista along Highway 12."

Stuart Martin, a land acquisition specialist with the Open Space District,
said the property was valued at $675,000 and had been used for cattle
grazing.

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Tamie Hopp

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