Stillwater Center: A gem in the Gem City
If you venture up North Main Street in Clayton, and drive down Woolery Lane, at the end of a pristine field of lush grass you’ll find Stillwater Center. It is home to 98 adults and children with severe to profound developmental disabilities.
This 106,000 square-foot residential facility is owned and operated by the Montgomery County Board of County Commissioners. The lot where Stillwater sits was purchased in 1916 to build a facility to treat tuberculosis. At that time, the Stillwater Sanitorium consisted of an ambulatory building, an administrative building with residential quarters for nurses, a power plant with laundry room, a dining hall with an auditorium/ infirmary, and a children’s building.
The staff were required to live on the premises. By 1936, the citizens of Montgomery County approved a levy to construct a modern facility on the grounds and increase the capacity from 100 to 180 beds. That building was called the Iddings building, named after D.W. Iddings, one of the original founders of Stillwater and County Board Secretary for 26 years, until his death.
From 1900 to 1925, the number of tuberculosis patients across the nation increased from 4,500 to almost 675,000, so Stillwater increased its occupancy to 208 beds. With the advent of therapies to successfully combat the disease, the need for those beds declined and by 1972, Stillwater Center would cease admitting residents with tuberculosis.
The Center temporarily closed for renovations and reopened in 1974, welcoming adults and children with intellectual disabilities. Stillwater continued to utilize the Iddings building until May 2003, when it moved into the ultra-modern facility that now sits on the Main Street campus.
Today, Stillwater Center is one of the few remaining large Intermediate Care Facilities (ICF) in the State of Ohio. Most new facilities typically have 16 beds and are community, not campus-based. Because of the specialized care offered at Stillwater, it has become known as a regional center of excellence for the care of individuals with developmental disabilities.
The Center accepts referrals from local and regional Children’s hospitals, the Montgomery County Board of Developmental Disabilities, the Cleveland Clinic and private citizens. Additionally, because of their regulatory reputation, families have relocated from out-ofstate to secure placement for their loved ones.
As a state-of-the-art facility, Stillwater provides residential and respite services. To reside at Stillwater Center, you must be diagnosed with a developmental or intellectual disability. The shortterm respite program offers supports to families in need of temporary skilled supervision for family members with developmental disabilities who typically don’t fare well in traditional adult daycare settings due to accompanying medical conditions.
Stillwater Center accepts residential clients from birth to the end of life with the current age range of the residents from two to 77 years of age. The percentage of children at this facility has reached 25% over the past few years, with the ventilator program being one of the major catalysts for this population growth. Stillwater is one of a few select ICF’s across the state that has ventilator certification.
So, what happens at Stillwater Center? While most people understand rehabilitation, few understand the goal of habilitation. Rehabilitation means you are re-mastering skills lost due to trauma. Habilitation is the process of teaching skills that were never acquired.
The staff at Stillwater covers every need of the individuals they serve. From shopping to escorting residents to their regular doctor’s appointments and recreational activities, the team of professionals at Stillwater provide holistic care not only to the residents but to their families.
Stillwater also operates two in-house school programs. One classroom is operated by the Northmont School District and another classroom is operated by the Dayton Public School District. These in-house classrooms accommodate children who are too medically fragile to attend traditional classroom settings.
Stillwater prides itself on being one of the best facilities in the State of Ohio. Customer satisfaction is high, and staff engagement is higher than the community standards in terms of retention of healthcare workers. While many long-term care facilities report turnover rates as high as 60-70%, Stillwater has maintained a 13% turnover rate.
I believe the employees of Stillwater Center make it unique and are our “secret weapon.” You can duplicate technology, replicate a facility, and even borrow slogans, but you can’t clone the spirit of people. The dedication and hard work of the Stillwater staff is unmatched.
When you see an employee stand vigil until their resident takes their last breath, you know you’ve got something magical. You see, at Stillwater our mantra is that no resident dies alone. When residents of Stillwater are admitted to the hospital, Stillwater staff are still there, around the clock, providing end-oflife care.
Like many organizations and businesses, we have staffing challenges, but we all understand the importance of what we do. We also realize many of our residents do not have family members available to advocate for them.
The success of Stillwater Center is also attributed to the talented clinicians who support the operations.
The professional staff consists of a medical doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, occupational and speech therapist, respiratory therapists, and nurses. Plus, we have Habilitation Providers, support service employees and administrative personnel who work hand-in-hand with the professional and leadership staff to create the teamwork that is necessary in order to provide exceptional services.
So, what’s next for Stillwater Center? We are currently working with the Brown and Bills architecture group to build a specialized playground for the children who live here.
Brown and Bills is also renovating one of the cottages to be specifically designed for pediatric clients. We are doing this because we understand that we are not just serving children, we are raising them, and we want them to be in an environment that reflects the creativity and fantasy that children enjoy.