High and Dry Meadows
http://newhavenadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=14324
DCF is transferring children out of state in its rush to close a home for troubled boys with complex medical needs
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
By Betsy Yagla
Michele Doron struggled with her 16-year-old son, Justin. He’s thrown furniture and a cast-iron pan at her; he’s broken doors and busted windows in her rental apartment. Justin has severe diabetes, bipolar disorder and violent tendencies. They found help at the state-run High Meadows Residential Facility in Hamden that treats boys with complex medical and mental problems.
After three months there, Justin’s behavior has improved; he’s even been able to go home on weekends. Now Justin is one of the few remaining residents — he rattles off a list of five friends who’ve left this month. Boys have been disappearing at an alarming rate say High Meadows staff members. More than a dozen have been transferred to other facilities including three who were sent out of state since the beginning of August. Just this week one was sent to Massachusetts and another is set to go to New Hampshire.
High Meadows is the state’s only facility with on-site, round-the-clock medical care. It’s also the only one that takes boys other facilities and hospitals refuse to treat.
But Gov. Jodi Rell wants to close High Meadows as part of her budget cuts proposal (she has an $8 billion gap to close). Democrats say they won’t approve a budget without it.
Closing it, say staff and families, will hurt the boys. They’ll be sent places in-state not equipped to handle them; others will be sent out of state, far from their families. It could also have a ripple effect at other facilities by creating a backlog of boys waiting for appropriate treatment in hospital emergency beds and longer out-of-state stays for kids waiting for in-state treatment.
While the Governor and the Democrats squabble over the budget, High Meadows staff worry that DCF is hurrying to transfer kids out of the facility before a budget agreement is reached, thereby making the closing inevitable.
“They’re rushing to get these kids out of here,” says Robert Genzano, a rehabilitation therapist at High Meadows and a union delegate for Service Employees International Union.
When asked if DCF is in a rush to transfer kids, agency spokesman Gary Kleeblat says, “we are currently in the process of planning the closure. This is going forward.”
But it sure feels like a rush: In a letter that says DCF wants to “close this facility as soon as is reasonably possible,” the agency requested to skip the usual 60-day wait period before holding a hearing on the possible closure. Instead of scheduling it for late October, per the rules, DCF will hold a hearing Sept. 3.
Rell’s spokesmen have said the closing would save $11 million slated for improvements. But High Meadows staff say the improvements are scheduled to take place over five years, not two — making the $11 million figure disingenuous. And, High Meadows has two nearly completed construction projects to buildings on-site, and the state just installed a new, heated pool at the facility. It doesn’t make sense, Genzano says, to invest so much and then close up shop. Plus, he points out, closing High Meadows won’t save the $10 million paid to staff in salary and benefits, since the union signed a no-layoff deal with the governor. About $2 million could be saved in fuel and electrical costs.
By closing the facility, some of High Meadows’ kids will join the expensive diaspora of DCF children already in other states’ care.
As of last month DCF was paying for about 350 Connecticut kids sent to other states, which costs about $27 million a year. These kids are in Massachusetts (193), Pennsylvania (48), Vermont (32) and Maine (10). Some are as far away as Florida (9), Iowa (7) and Virginia (4). Illinois, Utah, Colorado and Alabama are also caring for Connecticut children.
Some (like chronic fire starters) are out of state because no Connecticut facility is equipped to treat them. Many are out of state because there are not enough beds for them in Connecticut.
In an April report, DCF claims High Meadows can be closed because there’s been a 30 percent reduction in need for residential beds in the state, since more kids are getting help from community services. That seems to directly contradict another report from DCF written a month earlier: “In order to minimize out-of-state placements, additional in-state capacity would be required in order to treat children and youth with particular complex behavioral health disorders.”
Kleeblat says there are more community services available then just a few years ago, making it possible for more kids to receive help at home. But those services don’t offer 24/7 medical care, like High Meadows.
Since High Meadows stopped taking in new patients and began to quickly transfer kids out, staff say they worry about ballooning backlogs at Riverview, the state-run children’s psychiatric hospital, which often sends its patients to High Meadows.
“Closing High Meadows is a huge mistake,” says Michele Doron. Doron wants Justin to get the care he needs, but she doesn’t want him out of state. “If my son gets sent out of state how am I going to get to see him?,” she asks desperately. She visits twice a week from her West Haven home, and talks to him nightly on the phone.
“I don’t want to see the progress they’ve made with him get blown to pieces because they decide to shut this facility and ship him out of state,” she says. “They’ll set him back.”
© 2009 New Haven Advocate
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