Group Home in Lincoln Slated for Closure
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| Also listed in: Lincoln Democratic Town Committee | Rhode Island Bloggers |
From today's Projo story by Kia Hall Hayes..
Advocates for four adults with severe retardation who have lived together for 25 years in the same group home in Lincoln are fighting an effort to move them to another home in Smithfield.
It’s the same battle that was fought �" and won �" 12 years ago.
Beth Keeling, the home supervisor, says closing the home would devastate the men and women who live there.
“They know home, they want home, they sign for home,” she said.
The state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals first closed the adults’ Southwick Drive home, in Lincoln, in 1995 and moved the group to a home on Rogler Farm Drive in Smithfield to save $100,000.
Then, William L. Brennan, the father of resident Patrick Brennan, filed suit on behalf of the four adults, claiming that the move was traumatic and had a negative impact on their development. Superior Court Judge Patricia A. Hurst agreed, ordered the home reopened and stated that the residents’ guardians should be given the opportunity to appeal or consent to any future effort to close the home.
Citing another budget crisis, the state has again decided to close the Southwick Drive home and transfer the four �" who range in age from 47 to 51 �" to the Smithfield home. Providence lawyer John J. McConnell Jr., who represents the residents, said their families were notified of the state’s decision in April.
“That decision was made without any consultation, without written notice, without any participation, and without their informed consent or any opportunity to appeal the decision,” said McConnell, who argued for a temporary restraining order last week to halt the move. A hearing on the merits of the state’s decision to close the home is scheduled for Monday. Superior Court Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia, who disclosed before the hearing that he has a mentally disabled daughter, granted the motion for a restraining order, saying that the state violated the patients’ rights by not allowing their guardians to give their informed consent to the closing.
State officials told the parents in April that closing the Southwick home would save about $355,000.
To prepare the adults for the move to the Smithfield home, the state hired a group-home consultant and formed a transition team, which included the residents’ families.
For the past two months, the four residents had been visiting the Smithfield home for a few hours each day. McConnell said the disruption has resulted in regressive behavior among the adults, whose IQ’s are all lower than 25 and have limited speech ability.
“One of them signs “home” every time they go,” McConnell said.
Susan LaValle, a caretaker at the Lincoln home, agrees that the four residents are resisting the change in the only ways they can. She said one resident, Lisa Steele, asks to go back to Southwick when the group is taken to Smithfield, and another, Patrick Brennan, yells during visits to the Smithfield home.
LaValle said moving the four into the Rogler Farm home, where they would live with three other severely retarded adults, would be “chaos.” The Southwick staff members would move with them, but introducing the group to a new home and additional residents after 25 years in one place would be too traumatic, she said.
“I think the quality of life will absolutely not be the same as it is here,” LaValle said.
But Paul Pisano, legal counsel for the Department of Mental Health, told Indeglia that the group would receive the same standard of care. He said the state was following Judge Hurst’s l995 decision by involving the adults’ guardians in the transition. It was the families, he said, who interviewed the group-home consultant and recommended that the state hire him.
“We have followed Judge Hurst’s decision right to the letter of the law,” he said.
Pisano also argued that allowing the home to remain open would result in a reduction of services to other patients and that abruptly stopping the transition would have a negative impact on the four if the Lincoln home ultimately closes.
McConnell said the families were on the transitional team because they were not given another option.
“The state made the decision to change it all on its own,” he said of their service plan, which said that the four should remain in Southwick for the next three to five years.
Indeglia, who placed “significant merit” on that plan, said it was in the best interest of the adults to maintain the status quo.
“Their rights have been deprived and they are not being given due process,” he said.
khayes@projo.com
Advocates for four adults with severe retardation who have lived together for 25 years in the same group home in Lincoln are fighting an effort to move them to another home in Smithfield.
It’s the same battle that was fought �" and won �" 12 years ago.
Beth Keeling, the home supervisor, says closing the home would devastate the men and women who live there.
“They know home, they want home, they sign for home,” she said.
The state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals first closed the adults’ Southwick Drive home, in Lincoln, in 1995 and moved the group to a home on Rogler Farm Drive in Smithfield to save $100,000.
Then, William L. Brennan, the father of resident Patrick Brennan, filed suit on behalf of the four adults, claiming that the move was traumatic and had a negative impact on their development. Superior Court Judge Patricia A. Hurst agreed, ordered the home reopened and stated that the residents’ guardians should be given the opportunity to appeal or consent to any future effort to close the home.
Citing another budget crisis, the state has again decided to close the Southwick Drive home and transfer the four �" who range in age from 47 to 51 �" to the Smithfield home. Providence lawyer John J. McConnell Jr., who represents the residents, said their families were notified of the state’s decision in April.
“That decision was made without any consultation, without written notice, without any participation, and without their informed consent or any opportunity to appeal the decision,” said McConnell, who argued for a temporary restraining order last week to halt the move. A hearing on the merits of the state’s decision to close the home is scheduled for Monday. Superior Court Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia, who disclosed before the hearing that he has a mentally disabled daughter, granted the motion for a restraining order, saying that the state violated the patients’ rights by not allowing their guardians to give their informed consent to the closing.
State officials told the parents in April that closing the Southwick home would save about $355,000.
To prepare the adults for the move to the Smithfield home, the state hired a group-home consultant and formed a transition team, which included the residents’ families.
For the past two months, the four residents had been visiting the Smithfield home for a few hours each day. McConnell said the disruption has resulted in regressive behavior among the adults, whose IQ’s are all lower than 25 and have limited speech ability.
“One of them signs “home” every time they go,” McConnell said.
Susan LaValle, a caretaker at the Lincoln home, agrees that the four residents are resisting the change in the only ways they can. She said one resident, Lisa Steele, asks to go back to Southwick when the group is taken to Smithfield, and another, Patrick Brennan, yells during visits to the Smithfield home.
LaValle said moving the four into the Rogler Farm home, where they would live with three other severely retarded adults, would be “chaos.” The Southwick staff members would move with them, but introducing the group to a new home and additional residents after 25 years in one place would be too traumatic, she said.
“I think the quality of life will absolutely not be the same as it is here,” LaValle said.
But Paul Pisano, legal counsel for the Department of Mental Health, told Indeglia that the group would receive the same standard of care. He said the state was following Judge Hurst’s l995 decision by involving the adults’ guardians in the transition. It was the families, he said, who interviewed the group-home consultant and recommended that the state hire him.
“We have followed Judge Hurst’s decision right to the letter of the law,” he said.
Pisano also argued that allowing the home to remain open would result in a reduction of services to other patients and that abruptly stopping the transition would have a negative impact on the four if the Lincoln home ultimately closes.
McConnell said the families were on the transitional team because they were not given another option.
“The state made the decision to change it all on its own,” he said of their service plan, which said that the four should remain in Southwick for the next three to five years.
Indeglia, who placed “significant merit” on that plan, said it was in the best interest of the adults to maintain the status quo.
“Their rights have been deprived and they are not being given due process,” he said.
khayes@projo.com
