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Guardians react to ISL idea with mixture of concerns for Hab Center clients
The closing of the Nevada Habilitation Center is a complex and often emotional issue that has some of those involved adamantly opposed and others all for the change. Some have a mix of both sentiments toward the bureaucratic decision to shut the facility down.
As an issue that has been ongoing for some time, the closing has prompted the involvement and reaction of advocacy groups, parents, guardians and administrators. The reasons for opposing the change or embracing it are varied.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health has said that closing the center is necessary to balance the state's budget. Governor Jay Nixon has slashed the state budget in a number of areas and the announcement in early April 2010 that the Hab Center would be cut from the budget, brought immediate reaction from parents, guardians and advocates of those clients living in the center.
Initially, the plan was to build a cluster of group homes on the property adjacent to the Hab Center, so the residents would have access to the same facilities and services now available. Not only would that have kept the residents near their families and in familiar surroundings, but it would have saved many of the jobs that would be lost by a complete closing.
That idea has been discarded and the plan for now is to close the center entirely and move the clients into Individual Supported Living facilities in the community. Proponents of this plan say there are enough and adequate services in the city to make this option viable. Those who oppose that option say operating ISLs and relying on the resources in the community to provide the often specialized care required by many clients isn't enough.
President of the Nevada Hab Center Family Support Association Natalie Woods has mixed feelings about the changes.
Last week, Woods told the Daily Mail, "The community right now does not have the resources they need to support these people ... It's a dream for my sister to be able to live in a home of her own and to make her own choices, but it's not possible in the real world.
"She falls continuously.
"What if she decides she's not gonna use her walker or helmet? Well, she didn't want to, that's her decision. How is that OK? That's what's so infuriating about that.
"Would you let your third-grader eat sugar all day for two weeks because thats what they felt like doing?
"I love my sister, and I want her to make as many of her own decisions as possible," but she'll need a great deal of support.
Woods says she thinks the ISLs themselves might be adequate and wouldn't have a problem putting her sister Cindy in one of them. She did express concern for "the individuals who need more" care than her sister. But, she asked, "what happens during the next round of budget cuts and they privatize all of the ISLs?"
Susan Pritchard-Green, director of the Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities says moving the clients into the ISLs "provides clients a higher quality of life," but that the move can be difficult. She said that a lot needs to be done to prepare the individuals and family, and that it works better if they feel like they have some control" over the situation. Pritchard-Green also said that even though ISLs are very successful, "there are people who struggle, there are problems."
That sentiment was echoed by the Vernon County Public Administrator Tammy Bond. "I'm 100 percent for ISLs," Bond said, but she thought the group homes idea was better and that they "should be used as a stepping stone or transition into an ISL." Bond currently has eight clients in the Hab Center and she didn't "know how they're going to adjust" to living in ISLs. She, too, has some concerns over some of the medical issues faced by some of her clients.
Many of Bond's clients have behavioral problems that she is concerned with. "Many behavioral episodes often take more than one person to handle," she said.
"Until the physical behaviors are under control, it scares me to put them into the community... I am making decisions about someone's life."