Frustrated families cope with closing of Youngstown Developmental Center

By BOB JACKSON

news@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN - Gloria Ferry and Rosalie Mosco have been down this road before. Neither of them is happy to be on it again.

Ferry, of Kent, and Mosco, of Struthers, each have family members who live at the Youngstown Developmental Center, but are faced - again - with having to find a new place for their loved ones with special needs to call home.

Officials with the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities announced recently that YDC is one of two state-run facilities scheduled to be closed in June 2017. The other is in Dayton. The closure will force families of YDC residents to seek services for their family members elsewhere, whether that be in one of the eight remaining state-run facilities, or in a privately operated, community-based facility.

The YDC, 4891 E. State Line Road, near Mineral Ridge in Trumbull County, serves clients from Lorain, Cuyahoga, Lake, Ashtabula, Geagua, Trumbull, Summit, Portage, Medina, Ashland, Wayne, Stark, Mahoning and Columbiana counties.

The majority of people who live at the YDC campus are diagnosed with severe and profound challenges and need extensive support in the areas of daily living, health care and social-skills development. The nearest of the eight remaining state-run facilities will be in Warrensville, near Cleveland.

John L. Martin, Ohio DODD director, and Zach Haughawout, DODD deputy director, met Sunday with family members of YDC clients to talk about the future. The meeting was closed to the press and public.

Prior to the meeting, Ferry said her 63-year-old son, Bobby, has been a resident and patient at YDC since the state closed its Apple Creek facility near Wooster some nine years ago. She said the care he's gotten at YDC is light years ahead of his previous home, and she's angry and heartsick that he'll be forced out when YDC closes.

She said Bobby has "episodes" that cause him to become comatose, and that the round-the-clock care he receives at YDC has saved him. She and another son, Vince, said Bobby wouldn't receive the same care at a group home, if that's where they're forced to send him.

"In the past two years, my son has had four episodes that were near-death for him," said Ferry. "If if hadn't been for the wonderful, astute care of the people here [at YDC], Bobby would not be alive today. Bobby would not make it in a group home."

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.