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State's
Care Of Disabled Assailed
Panel hears critics of group homes
Edward W. Lempinen, Chronicle Staff
Writer
Wednesday, February 26, 1997
©2004 San Francisco
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URL: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1997/02/26/MN47550.DTL
Sacramento -- California's system of caring for the developmentally disabled came under intense attack yesterday as some critics charged that the state was pressuring patients out of large institutions into community homes that lack the money to provide consistently good care.
At a special hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health, family members of the disabled and workers in the sprawling $1.5 billion system said that while community services had served many patients well, dozens of others had died or suffered injury and neglect in the group homes.
Much of the testimony centered on the reports of researchers based at the University of California at Riverside who found that death rates over a 12-year period were 72 percent higher in group homes than in the state's centralized institutions.
Statistics professor David Strauss, head of the research team, testified yesterday that some advocates of community care believe that the higher number of casualties is a ``reasonable price'' for the freedom of living outside of institutions.
But, Strauss replied: ``Personally, I would not want to be in the position of explaining to hundreds of bereaved families that their loss was a reasonable price. Further, I do not believe that deaths due to poor supervision or medical care can be justified under any circumstances.''
Dennis G. Amundson, director of the state Department of Developmental Services, conceded in an interview with The Chronicle on Monday that the death rate is higher in group homes. And in testimony yesterday, department officials detailed a series of studies and policy initiatives designed to determine the cause of the higher death rate and to bring it down.
Others, however, offered a vigorous defense of the department, saying that Strauss' findings were exaggerated and that countless developmentally disabled people have flourished outside the institutions.
``It is time to acknowledge that the state's sole responsibility and obligation is to provide supports and services that help people with disabilities live as close as possible to the way people without disabilities live,'' said William Coffelt, a Pollock Pines resident, in written testimony.
Coffelt, whose son is severely retarded, was the lead plaintiff in a 1990 suit against the state demanding that parents like himself have more options outside of state institutions. In settling that suit in 1993, the state agreed to move 2,000 patients from huge, centralized ``developmental centers'' into smaller group homes.
Those homes are considerably less expensive than the centers. But a growing number of critics charge that the state is moving too quickly to transfer the patients, many of them severely retarded and many with extreme behavioral and medical problems.
``They are being moved in haste,'' said Barbara Turner, president of the California Association of State Hospital Parent Councils for the Retarded. ``This is the most rapid deinstitutionalization for developmentally disabled individuals that has occurred in the United States.''
Many ``family members and consumers believe they're being forced into inappropriate (group- home) settings,'' said Sibby McCullough, chair of the Organization of Area Boards, which monitors community-based services for the developmentally disabled.
Other critics have echoed that complaint, but Amundson denied that anyone is pressured to leave the centers against their will.
``I would hope that's the case,'' said state Senator Mike Thompson, the St. Helena Democrat who chairs the committee. ``I certainly trust that you are not going to be in the business of forcing people to move against their will.''
Even staunch advocates of the department's community care policy testified that the system is suffering from insufficient funding. And that, some said, leaves some community care facilities without the money to meet the needs of people with extreme disabilities.
``I think California could afford to think twice about the amount of money it spends,'' said James Conroy, an independent expert hired by Amundson to track patients who move from the institutions. ``California reimbursement rates (paid to group homes) are lower than other states. That's worrisome.
``Dollars don't automatically make quality,'' Conroy added, but with more money the homes could hire more qualified staff and the staffers would stay on the job longer.
Peggy Collins, a consultant to the committee, said after the hearing that Thompson and other legislators would study the testimony and may prepare legislation to address the problems. The deadline for introducing new legislation is Friday.
The state's Department of
Developmental Services provides services to some 140,000 clients.