Close adult centers for intellectually disabled

Connecticut’s five regional centers for intellectually disabled adults should be closed.

Southbury Training School and Connecticut’s five regional centers for intellectually disabled adults should be closed. The Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities, The Arc CT, the Office of Protection and Advocacy and the UConn Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, have called on the governor and the Legislature to close staterun institutions because they segregate over 500 of our citizens solely because of their disability.

If there was any doubt that these unnecessarily expensive relics of a past era must be closed, the governor’s latest budget rescissions should dispel that doubt. The governor once again disproportionately cut Department of Developmental Services (DDS) funding — funding for Connecticut’s citizens with the greatest needs — while stubbornly continuing Connecticut’s reliance on exorbitantly expensive institutions. And make no mistake, these facilities are budget busters, costing far more than community-based options. They not only greatly exceed the cost of comparable care in the community, Connecticut’s institutions are among the most expensive facilities in the nation.

States have been closing institutions for the intellectually disabled for over 30 years. As the institutions have closed, the populations have been studied to determine the impact on independent functioning and family satisfaction. These were rigorous, scientific studies conducted in 18 states, based on evidence and sound research instead of speculation and fear. One such study was conducted when Mansfield Training School closed.

The results of these studies are consistent and uncontroverted. They refute all arguments advanced by opponents of closure. And here’s what they show:

• Residents are better off in the community, with large improvements in self-care and independence. The largest improvements proportionately are among those with the most profound challenges.

• Individuals show greater productivity in day programs and better earnings at jobs, as well as more opportunities for participation in activities in their communities.

• Even older residents benefit. In the Mansfield study, for example, those aged 60 and older showed greater improvements in independent functioning than those under age 60.

• People with extraordinary medical challenges are living in small community-based settings and getting proper support in many states.

• In Connecticut, 67 of the Mansfield residents who moved into the community were described, prior to the move, as “would not survive without 24hour medical personnel” or “has life threatening condition that requires rapid access to medical care,” yet these individuals were successfully transitioned to a community setting.

• Families of institutionalized residents, who often opposed the closure of institutions by large majorities (60-75 percent), strongly support community living by the same margin — with 60-75 percent support once their family member has been moved and settled. And the former residents are happy in their new homes.

This research provides the policy rationale for closing Connecticut’s institutions and conclusively refutes the arguments opponents have advanced for years. But if good public policy is not enough, then their astronomical cost should convince our public officials that it is time to close them.

At over $350,000 per person per year at Southbury Training School and over $440,000 at the five regional centers — vs. $130,000 per person per year at private group homes — they are bad policy that we cannot afford. So much money is tied up in this inefficient, antiquated system, that we now have thousands of people on a waiting list for services, services that they will never receive unless their primary caregiver dies or is incapacitated.

And while the state, at huge cost, maintains its grossly inefficient institutions, it is systematically starving the far more efficient private sector organizations that provide the same services in the community. It is terrible public policy with terrible consequences for the thousands languishing on the waiting list, and for the thousands of private sector workers who are struggling to make ends meet on substandard pay.

Governor Malloy recently asked new DDS Commissioner Morna Murray for a recommendation on closing Southbury. It is not a close question. This is one of those rare times when innovative public policy is also cost effective. Closing Connecticut’s institutions would integrate hundreds of our fellow citizens into the community, and provide resources to ensure high quality services for people who now wait, with little hope, for their home in the community.