Plan to close developmental center frustrates families
By Bob Jackson
MINERAL RIDGE
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 loved ones elsewhere, whether that be in one of the eight remaining state-run facilities, or in a privately operated, community-based facility.
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.
The YDC, 4891 E. County Line Road, 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 on 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.
Before Sunday’s 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 the services he received at 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 it 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.”
Gloria and Vince Ferry attended Sunday’s meeting, and said they don’t want to have to relive their Apple Creek experience.
“They just kept cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting,” Vince said of the DODD’s actions leading up to the closing of Apple Creek. “We fought to keep it open, but we didn’t know [the DODD] already had a plan to give that facility to Ohio State University.” The facility was turned over to OSU and became a part of its agricultural school, he said.
The Ferrys said they were told as recently as December 2014 that the YDC was not going to close.
“We’re not being told the truth,” Gloria said just before Sunday’s meeting.
Mosco said she also had a family member — her sister, Alberta Segreto — who lived at the Apple Creek facility, but has been at YDC since 1985.
“This will be the third time I’ve had to move her,” a visibly upset Mosco said. “It’s not fair.”
She said her sister was abused in the past at other facilities, but that the care she’s gotten at YDC has been exemplary.
“When we got her in here, we felt like we’d found a little piece of heaven on Earth,” Mosco said. “I don’t want to see this facility closed.”
Mosco and Ferry said they’ll fight hard to persuade the state to keep YDC open, but they know it’s most likely a losing battle.
“They’re going to close it,” said Vince Ferry.
Before Sunday’s meeting, some staff members at YDC — who chose to not give their names — questioned why YDC is being closed while other facilities, which are older and in need of repair, are being retained.
Martin said the DODD has seen a drop in client population over the past eight years from 1,600 to about 900 at its 10 facilities statewide. That number is expected to fall to about 800 by June 2017. The “steady downsizing” is what caused the need to consolidate facilities, he said.
Several factors were considered in determining which facilities would be closed, including proximity to other state-run facilities, and whether the closed facilities were amenable to being “repurposed” for other uses. He said state officials thought that with YDC being a fairly modern campus, it potentially could be put to other use.
Also, he said the fact that the DODD’s mission is to provide care for people with severe disabilities and “really complex behaviors,” and who often have criminal backgrounds, would make it a tough sell to bring more potentially violent clients into the residential area where YDC is located, he said.
Also, Martin said there is a national and statewide trend of people moving their special-needs family members out of state-run facilities and into smaller, community-based facilities, such as Turning Point and Gateways to Better living. The availability of those facilities in this area was another factor in deciding to close YDC, he said.
“People are very upset about this decision, and we understand that,” Martin said. “We want to help support them through this transition.”
Haughawout said the fact that YDC isn’t scheduled to close for more than two years will give families plenty of time to find another facility “that works for them.”
The YDC serves 85 clients and has a staff of 272 people. The DODD has said that YDC staff members will receive assistance in finding employment at another state-run center, or in the public or private sector.