Keep Polk Center open
Look at options for residents, families and employees
The state needs to halt the rush to close the Polk and White Haven residential centers for people with intellectual disabilities. Too many unanswered questions remain.
State officials have decided to move forward with the closure despite concerns of families of the residents and employees of the centers.
State legislators are also concerned — so concerned that a bill that would halt the closures for at least five years has passed both houses of the Legislature, with large majorities. The bill calls for an independent task force to decide the fate of the centers.
Gov. Tom Wolf has said he will veto the bill. The governor should reconsider. If the governor does veto the bill, legislators should override the veto.
Much is at stake for residents and employees of the Polk Center, 90 minutes north of Pittsburgh, and the similar White Haven Center in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The governor and other state officials should find a way forward that isn’t as disruptive to the residents. Many have called the centers home for most of their lives. While group home care may be the ideal, the reality is group homes are struggling with finding and keeping employees.
The closures would follow a long trend of moving from institutionalization to community-based care. In most cases, that’s a good plan, but not in this case.
The transition will be traumatic, including the loss of the caregivers residents are used to and the rooms and grounds residents have seen every day for years.
Most residents are older and their intellectual capacity is that of an infant or toddler — many cannot communicate verbally. Most also have serious medical problems.
Yes, closing the centers will save money, which state officials say could be used to help 13,000 people with disabilities on a waiting list for added state services.
Unfortunately, almost every resident of these centers needs 24-hour care. They cannot go on a waiting list. The state knows that and claims the former Polk and White Haven residents will go directly into community-based care.
That’s not going to be of immediate help to the 13,000 people on the waiting list. The bill requires the existing waiting list to be eliminated before the centers are closed.
It might be possible to garner cost savings with downsizing of the centers.
That could be accomplished by selling off most of the 2,000 acres of land, now unused, at the Polk Center. With money from the sale, smaller residential facilities on the remaining grounds could be built to care for residents who wish to remain rather than be moved to a group home.
That idea would also save some jobs for employees at the center. The governor needs to listen. Legislators should continue to fight the closures.
The residents of the Polk and White Haven centers, their families and the employees need answers.