Ohio would be required to evaluate results of closing centers housing disabled residents

COLUMBUS

The state would be required to evaluate the results, to date, of the closing of centers housing disabled residents in Mahoning and Montgomery counties, under legislation passed by the Ohio Senate Wednesday.

House Bill 483 includes language requiring the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities to compile a report on the relocation of disabled residents from facilities slated for closure in the next year. The latter includes the Youngstown Developmental Center and another location near Dayton.

The report, which would be due by the end of June, would have to include the “availability and appropriateness of care,” “the current living conditions of each relocated resident” and “reports of death, significant bodily injury, hospital and nursing homes stays” and other information about residents who have been moved, according to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Service Commission.

The legislation passed the Ohio Senate and would head to Gov. John Kasich for his signature, pending concurrence by the Ohio House on amendments.

HB 483 includes an appropriation, opening the door to potential line-item vetoes from the governor.

Kasich last year used that authority to strike language from the biennial budget that would have created a commission to review facility closures.

Sen. Capri Cafaro of Hubbard, D-32nd, who attempted unsuccessfully this week to add language to HB 483 to postpone the closings, said in testimony before a Senate panel that nearly 60 Youngstown patients have been moved to group homes. Five, who previously were “described to be in good health prior to their move, have died within months of being removed from their home at YDC,” she said.

Thirty-four residents remain at the Youngstown center, Cafaro said.

“I think that we have seen the unfortunate consequences of what happens when we don’t fully research, review and understand changes made to policies that directly affect this incredibly vulnerable population,” she said. “The results of the changes made to the Youngstown Developmental Center should show us that we cannot take risks with their lives.”