Bad idea, or long overdue?

Reaction divided to closing centre that once sterilized residents

The closing Monday of a notorious institution for Albertans with developmental disabilities prompted some to proclaim “the end of an era,” while others decried the latest loss of crucial services for Alberta’s most vulnerable citizens.

The province announced Monday it will close the Michener Centre in Red Deer, moving 125 residents into community homes and cutting 400 jobs for unionized caregivers.

Critics say there is no space for Albertans with disabilities in the already strained group-home system, but advocates say shuttering such legacy institutions is long overdue.

For those Albertans who were sterilized at the facility as part of Alberta’s mid-century eugenics program, the news marks the end of a dark chapter in Alberta’s history — and their own.

Leilani Muir, 68, was 14 when doctors at the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives told her she needed her appendix removed. A decade later, she learned her Fallopian tubes had been cut.

“Last time I went, I stood in front of the clinical building and I just broke, because of what they did to me, what they took away from me as a woman,” Muir said through tears Monday.

“It took too long, but it’s done,” she said, adding the buildings should be bulldozed. “Once they’re all gone, I’d like to go and just see how I would feel. ... There would be a lot of ghosts in those grounds.”

Shame, hurt and anger kept Muir quiet until her 40s; then she spoke up, sued the province, and won.

The north and south buildings she lived in as a child will be closed, but group homes on the grounds — which house an additional 105 people — will remain open.

Bruce Uditsky of the Alberta Association for Community Living said Alberta is “nearing the end of an era.

“Just as we closed residential schools for aboriginal children, the time has come to end the institutionalization of people with intellectual disabilities,” Uditsky said.

Uditsky said he is confident the province will provide sufficient community supports for residents who leave the facility, but opposition parties were united in their attack on government. NDP human services critic Rachel Notley said the decision will throw residents and their families into chaos as they scramble to find new homes for their loved ones, some of whom have lived at Michener Centre for decades. The oldest resident is 97.

“There are no additional spaces being created in the community, and moreover, (group homes) are not equipped to deal with people as medically fragile and challenged as the folks who are in Michener Centre right now,” Notley said, adding the residents will suffer reduced quality of care.

“They are moving … to places where people are paid less, where they have less training, where there are fewer standards and less oversight.”

Wildrose critic Kerry Towle called the closure a “shameful act.”

“They say they’re going to put them into seniors’ care beds, but in reality, we know the continuing-care wait list is huge,” Towle said.

Liberal Leader Raj Sherman said Premier Alison Redford “has clearly decided to sell the most vulnerable Albertans to for-profit privateers.

“The care is worse … and the cost is downloaded onto the vulnerable individuals. … This is a bad policy direction,” Sherman said.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees said 400 people will lose their jobs. “The professional services vulnerable Albertans have received at the site for decades by caring and dedicated staff have now been ripped away in a cruel and merciless way,” AUPE president Guy Smith said. “The loss of these front-line professionals will not only affect residents, but the entire community.”

Frank Oberle, associate minister of services for persons with disabilities, said there are enough continuing-care spaces for the residents of the Michener Centre and that the province has set aside $10 million to retrofit facilities for those with unique needs.

Further, he said the 2013-14 budget provides a 10-per-cent increase in pay for contract disability workers, because agencies have a tough time keeping staff.

“Nobody is going to be turned out from this centre without an available bed for them,” Oberle said, adding the province will help families find homes for their loved ones over the course of the coming year.

“Today we have an inventory of group homes that can care for a full spectrum of patient needs, and we believe the inventory is there,” Oberle said. “We also have ($10 million) if we need renovations in some of the group homes.

“Our contract agencies offer excellent, responsible, accountable care and moving forward they’re going to continue to do that.”

Bill Lough, of Sundre, is the president of the Society of Parents and Friends of Michener Centre. His late brother lived in the home for more than 20 years. He said his brother received wonderful, loving, stable care at the home.

Lough said residents and their families were asked in 2006 if they wanted to move out of the facility; 95 per cent, he said voted to stay at Michener.

“Choices had been made by individuals and I feel those choices should be honoured,” Lough said. “We are losing what is basically a tremendous care-giving service. I don’t understand why this has even happened.”

Lough said the average age of the current Michener residents is 61. The youngest person to be affected by the closing is 40. He estimates that 20 of the residents who will be forced to move are older than 80.

He’s doubtful a standard extended-care facility will be able to cope with their complex needs. He’s also worried that group homes, with their high staff turnover, won’t be the right environment for residents who are used to the continuity of care Michener provided.

“I’m not naive. But we should not be using the most vulnerable people in our society to save money. I have no issue, if I could trust that the government would provide support. But I don’t. If you couldn’t balance the budget this time around, how do I know you’ll have the money when the doors close? Where is your word good? I’m a small-c conservative. I vote Conservative. Well, I did. Not anymore.”

The facility is expected to close its doors in April 2014.