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Courant.com
DCF Seen As Backtracking
July 18, 2007
By Colin Poitras
State child welfare officials are
considering creating a 64-bed facility for abused and neglected
children with cognitive disabilities, a move the state's child
advocate and attorney general said flies in the face of current
treatment standards.
The Department of Children and
Families began advertising bids for the project on June 15, about a
month after the agency announced it was removing its children and
adolescents from the 116-bed Lake Grove School in Durham because of
concerns about the quality of care.
Lake Grove had been a valuable
resource for DCF because it was the only large facility in the state
that was able to accommodate this particular population with its
unique therapeutic, schooling and treatment needs.
At the time the Lake Grove decision
was announced, Brian Mattiello, who was then the acting
commissioner, said the department would work to place the children
in "smaller and more community-based programs" as part of the
agency's push toward deinstitutionalization.
Connecticut Child Advocate Jeanne
Milstein and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal want to know why
the agency now appears to be reversing course.
Milstein and Blumenthal had
repeatedly complained about inadequate medical care and supervision
at Lake Grove before DCF's decision to stop using the facility. The
two are expected to release an investigative report on Lake Grove
later this year.
"We are deeply troubled that ...
DCF is moving in the direction of perpetuating institutionalization
of children with disabilities," Milstein and Blumenthal wrote in a
June 26 letter to DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton obtained by The
Courant. They cited the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act, the
Olmstead Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act as all
encouraging the deinstitutionalization of the developmentally
disabled.
"This continued reliance on
institutional care for children with developmental disabilities will
only serve to harm those children," Milstein and Blumenthal said.
"It is bad policy and creates an unacceptable level of risk of
abusive practices."
DCF spokesman Gary Kleeblatt said
that just because the agency is soliciting bids for a facility with
up to 64 beds doesn't mean that will be the end result.
"We are seeking residential
treatment services for 64 children," Kleeblatt said in a written
response Tuesday. "However, those services are not necessarily going
to be provided in a single facility. ... We may find that the best
proposal is to open two or three programs that might serve a total
of 64 children."
But the bid specifications make no
mention of several smaller residential centers. The project summary
refers to the creation of a single "Center of Excellence" for
children with cognitive limitations that would include a large
treatment center of up to 64 beds with its own school; up to three
transitional living cottages of up to six beds each; and between one
and three therapeutic group homes of up to six beds each. Qualified
bidders have until Thursday to submit their letters of interest in
the project.
"As a state, we have determined
that is inadequate for adults with disabilities to live in large
institutions. Why is it acceptable for children?" Milstein said
Tuesday.
Of the 32 DCF children discharged
from Lake Grove since Feb. 1, two were placed with families and 16
were placed in group homes, which typically have up to five beds,
Kleeblatt said. Ten children were placed in other residential
programs in Connecticut, and four children were placed out of state.
Twenty-seven children remain at Lake Grove. The agency hopes to find
places for those children by September.
Kleeblatt said a program for 64
children is not unusual. He cited other large residential programs
such as Connecticut Junior Republic in Litchfield (84 beds) and Lake
Grove (116 beds) as being large. But those facilities were built
before the trend toward deinstitutionalization.
State Sen. Edward Meyer,
D-Guilford, said he believes there may still be a need for larger
residential centers that provide intense 24-hour care. Meyer, who is
chairman of the legislature's Select Committee on Children and whose
district includes Lake Grove in Durham, said he believes that all of
the problems at Lake Grove have been corrected and that he would
like DCF to reconsider its stance.
"With the exception of a few
mistakes in pharmacological procedures and limited cases of abuse, I
felt this program was useful to the children of Connecticut," Meyer
said.
Contact Colin Poitras at cpoitras@courant.com.
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