39 Comments - SW101 - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 11:50 am: So much for open government. This gov is no better than the last two. This state has very few mental health centers left. What are these ppl and their families supposed to do. - RMWStanford - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 11:58 am: There should be public input in the process but that being said I dont know of any local community that consider the local state agency to be unneeded or inefficient. Part of fixing the state fiscal health is going to have to include close some facilities and finding more cost effective alternatives. - How Ironic - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 12:06 pm: Funny how the GOP screams that gov spending should be slashed. And how Gov’t spending doesn’t create jobs like private business does. Unless of course the proposed spending cuts are in a GOP district that would put workers out of a job. Then suddenly the tune changes. I don’t personally know how Jacksonville could afford to put up cash or other subsidies. They have lost much of their manufacturing base (AC Humco, EMI, and some others). Secondly…this is a preverse game just like Sears and CBOT pulled. The state is going to squeeze small towns to see what kind of concessions we can get out them? Outrageous. - Shock & Awww(e) - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 12:12 pm: Interesting thought at the end there, Rich. This may evolve into a twisted version of the state’s recent business incentives: “Who’s the highest bidder to keep your local facility open? Going once. Going twice. Sold! We’ll keep Jacksonville open and close ___ instead!” That would be a very cost-effective approach for the state. It also makes tremendous sense for desparate localities on the chopping block to try everything possible in keeping those facilites open. One must wonder, however, where such an approach leads amid the budget choices IL faces. Will we see the state holding out for subsidies from local municipalities? The same way businesses have been holding out for subsidies from the state? Forget about geographic balance of services, quality of care, general living standards, local alternatives (if any) or other considerations… IL has a budget to balance! I can see a version of that happening. Would make for some strange days. - Cassiopeia - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 12:19 pm: Businesses close when the economic rationale for them to remain open goes away. This hurts the employees but is a natural part of economic activity. Government facilities and agencies should not be any different. To artificially continue to keep entities going when the underlying rationale for them changes only delays what eventually will happen. The state has to make a lot of tough decisions and they need to make them now. This will be one of many. There are no perfect choices. - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 12:35 pm: Sometimes I wonder how GOP members can even look at themselves in the mirror, let alone look at their voters. Cut, cut, cut, but wait not in my district. No to borrowing, no to the tax increase, in fact take back the tax increase. They want it both ways. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 12:39 pm: Rep. Watson believes the state should be the employer of first resort in Jacksonville, but has no problem blowing a $700 million hole in the budget by rolling back the corporate income tax. For real? - Kerfuffle - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 1:14 pm: Shock & Awww(e) ““Who’s the highest bidder to keep your local facility open? Going once. Going twice. Sold! We’ll keep Jacksonville open and close ___ instead!” This idea is reminiscent of the new prison lotteries that were held in the 1980’s. Jacksonville ponied up the land back then just to get the jobs. They would probably be willing to do something again to retain the jobs but it is a very different economic time and might not be able to do enough to save the facility. - TCB - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 1:22 pm: @SW101 The plan is to increase the use of community care providers. This allows the residents of these facilities to actually live in their own home, with their families & recieve the same level of care that they did in the facilities (which are falling apart & are expensive to maintain) at a fraction of the cost to the state. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 1:23 pm: Frankly, I am happy to know that there was a thoughtful consideration of the multiple factors to consider in weighing options. Community input should be *one* of those factors, but *not* the sole determinant. - Solomon - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 1:26 pm: “The plan is to increase the use of community care providers. This allows the residents of these facilities to actually live in their own home, with their families & recieve the same level of care that they did in the facilities (which are falling apart & are expensive to maintain) at a fraction of the cost to the state.” Group homes provide a great service but are certainly not the same level of care, particularly when it comes to dealing with violent or self-destructive patients that require constant monitoring. Those guys will all be transferred out of JDC and into, ironically, other SODCs. - Small Town Liberal - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 1:30 pm: - For real? - Try reading the Jacksonville Journal Courier sometime if you’re running low on hypocrisy. You’ll be amazed at how far to the right a town can be that basically depends on several large state facilities for survival. - Jeff Park Mom - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 1:45 pm: Governor Quinn is not the Pat Quinn I knew in the 1990’s. That Pat Quinn met with every neighborhood and senior citizen group that asked, and said “Let the will of the people be the law of the land” so much the crowd would chant it with him. So now he is deciding to close the homes of vulnerable people and he refuses to meet with their families? He hatches schemes behind closed doors? What a disappointment. - Stooges - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 1:47 pm: The problem with closing institutions is that the care provided in the institutions is not funded in the community. Check out the cuts in community mental health programs the lsat two years. I can understand how families do not want loved ones moved into the community where there is no support for their care. - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:12 pm: Try reading the Jacksonville Journal Courier sometime if you’re running low on hypocrisy. “You’ll be amazed at how far to the right a town can be that basically depends on several large state facilities for survival.” Illinois School for the Deaf Illinois School for the Blind Jacksonville Developmental Center Jacksonville Corrections Facility Local office of DHS Local office of DCFS Branch of Lincoln Land CC A whole lot “Big Government” in JVille. - Protecting our most fragile citizens - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:19 pm: Does anyone really care if these individuals live or die? I guess not since it is all about who thinks they know what is best for someone they don’t even know and lets take away from those who need it the most. What happen to these individuals rights? It is no wonder we rank the lowest, we have politicians who just don’t care about the people they serve. - Small Town Liberal - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:55 pm: - It is no wonder we rank the lowest, we have politicians who just don’t care about the people they serve. - Were you out on the front line demanding an increase in the income tax to pay for these kinds of facilities? Where do you people think all of these cuts are going to be? People need to wake up and realize that there aren’t several billion dollars in painless cuts that can be made. These cuts are going to hurt, and Jacksonville is one of the many areas where a lot of folks are demanding them. - gathersno - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 3:02 pm: Jacksonville and the other 7 relics of the past serving persons with developmental disabilities should go the way of orphanages. AFSCME should read the handwriting on the wall nationwide and think about what’s best for persons with developmental disabilities and not about union membership numbers and dues. - Rita Burke/ "Brian's Mom" - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 3:24 pm: State Operated Developmental Centers with 24 hour professional care are a life-line for very high needs citizens with severe medical, behavioral and intellectual disabilities for whom the community would be very restrictive and potentially life-threatening. Many SODC residents have been expelled by community settings that could not and would not serve their intensive needs. Families have pleaded with the Governor to listen to us who know our loved ones best and warn that they will not fare well in the community. We challenge the legitimacy of a scoring process by people who are not intimately knowledgeable about the facilities or their residents. Does the governor truly believe that Illinois’ budget issues should be addressed by placing this state’s most vulnerable people at risk? It would seem he does. - unspun - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 3:43 pm: 1) The Administration has the right (and the duty) to look at all options as it relates to the budget 2) The legislature has been screaming for a long-term, sustainable plan relative to state facilities, which appears to be the goal of the “secret” panel 3) The administration finally appears to be including the legislature in the planning process, which may finally allow the plans for closure (or realignment) to happen, and their associated cost savings realized. 4)The moment the administration would ask for AFSCME input on closures or realignment, the brushfire of panic would begin (clearly that happens whether or not AFSCME is included). There’s nothing wrong with coming up with a framework, then negotiating its details with the union. I’m no fan of this administration generally, but these facilities need to be streamlined with a phase-out plan for the inefficient areas, regardless of who is holding the reins. This issue is beginning to look a great deal like the teacher’s union issue a couple of years ago; the Speaker (and Cross) have already fired their warning shot on the pay freeze issue…it looks like AFSCME should get to the table before they get railroaded. - Sean - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 4:01 pm: My brother is currently served in a state-operated facility, and he has a real life, and a job there, and friends. Most importantly, he is in an environment where his special needs are met in a structure he can handle. Don’t think for a second that these budget cuts are like any others: the disabled - unequipped to take care of themselves once they are abandoned in the euphemistically termed “community setting” - will end up homeless, or in jail, or dead. People like my brother will not be able to protest the injustice of having to cope in a world they don’t understand. They will simply vanish from public view, and no one will have to think about the fates that befell them. Look at the other states where these facilities have closed. What happened to all of them? - Shock & Awww(e) - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 4:08 pm: Kerfuffle @ 1:14 - thanks for lending a bit of additional background. Much appreciated. In general, I couldn’t care less at the moment about Watson’s motives or what the GOP previously said regarding the budget. All I know is that if this place closes, the next nearest state developmental facility for these families and their loved ones is roughly a 3 hour drive away http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=31359 I also know that PQ’s weak “transition plan” during the last go-round a few months ago desperately scared many of these families. * the politics and optics on this one. These pending decisions cut much deeper than that. It’s on both parties to make sure the weakest among us are treated with some modicum of decency during the next 2-3 years of budgeting. Close JDC if need be, but make sure the “plan” isn’t simply sloughing these people off on the local service providers. And please don’t pretened sufficient local resources already exist to compensate for the closure of this facility, when we know they don’t. Surprise us, PQ & company. Come up with a real plan and others will meet you halfway. Please. - zatoichi - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 4:46 pm: TCB “This allows the residents of these facilities to actually live in their own home, with their families & receive the same level of care that they did in the facilities (which are falling apart & are expensive to maintain) at a fraction of the cost to the state.” How many people living at SODCs do you think have family? Some do, but many others have none or have been abandoned. Many families use SODCs because they cannot handle the behavioral or medical needs their family member has had for years. ‘Fraction of the cost’? You live in a dream world. Those SODCs have physicians, pharmacists, and nursing staff on property. That is all additional costs for CILAs. Other specific needs will push many specialized community placements costs close to, if not over, current average at an SODC. How many people here actually know anyone living at an SODC, have ever worked at one, or even visited one? Rita Burke and Sean describe the situation very well. There are people where SODCs meet their needs and provide a decent life. The advocates for closing them can talk all the philosophy they want on how a community setting is better. Step up and volunteer to move 1-2 people from JDC into your home with you for several years. This private committee seems exactly like Dean Wormer’s ‘Double secret probation’ bit. To steal an phrase, ‘What are they thinking?’ Terrible idea. Make it transparent. - steve schnorf - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 6:14 pm: I haven’t been to a state facility for persons with developmental disabilities in a long time. If I went I don’t know if I would even recognize them, compared to when I used to visit them, starting more than 40 years ago. At that time they were, for the most part, not places where you would have wanted your loved one to live, though even then they were run by and staffed by many very competent, caring people. I’m certain there are people living in our state run facilities who could function well, even thrive, in community placements. There always have been. The availability of sufficient numbers of quality community placements has always trailed the demand, and those slots are competed for by both people who might leave the facilities, and people with aging families and other reasons who currently live in the community and need to avoid going into state operated facilities. At the same time, I suspect that there are people living in state facilities (say Fox, for example) whose disabilities are multiple and so severe that serving them in small community facilities would be quite challenging. This is an issue that every Governor for the past 50 years has had to face. As availability of community services expanded, court cases were resolved, and perception of the disabled evolved, the state institutions began to seem to be anachronisms, more so to some than to others. To a dinosaur like me, JRT for all practical purposes eliminated the institutions as I had known them, though Dan Walker and Richard Ogilvie have to be given credit for starting the real push for community living alternatives. Under Thompson the inpatient population plummeted. The competing interests of the communities who host these facilities and their citizens, the facility residents, the unions, the professional advocates, the parents, all are real, at least to them. This isn’t easy to reduce to a black and white problem, where it is clear who is right and who is wrong, or which considerations should be given how much weight. It probably shouldn’t be viewed a a budget issue, and number crunchers should probably only be allowed to do the adding and subtracting, and not allowed near the values questions inherent in the discussion. - Ken - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 6:20 pm: The notion that all of these people can be served in the community is a damnable lie. The closure of these facilities will certainly spell a cruel death for many, as has been shown in other states that have done this. The governor’s people know this. But what is truly vile is that there are groups of supposed advocates for the developmentally disabled and mentally ill that also push this. These groups see dollar signs with these closures because money not spent on SODC’s can be diverted to their community programs. Then there are those with simplistic ideologies that lead them to the utterly unsupported thesis that “all people can be served in the community.” These community programs have poor oversight and are rife with fraud. Further, they only serve the more easily managable. Those who, through no fault of their own, may have disabilities that entail violent or other difficult behaviors will end up dead or in jail — and then dead. If the governor and these “advocacy groups” were more honest about it and say that they are saving money by sending many of our most vulnerable citizens to jails and the graveyard. Shameful. - Wickedred - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 6:26 pm: I’ve been on both sides in working with the developmentally disabled. I worked at a community agency and I now work for the state. I think it gives me a pretty good picture of what is available and what works. There are quite a few people in the state ops who could (eventually) benefit from living in a community placement, tailored to fit their needs. There are also quite a few, that without a HUGE increase in funding, that will require more intensive services, such as those provided by the state ops now. Due to a lawsuit, there is a big frown on placing individuals from the state centers into 16 bed homes (all the rage the past two decades), because these are now considered too big. If a person has a developmental disability along with co-existing medical, physical or behavioral needs (consider the deaf, blind, deaf/blind, those with autism or seizures, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc), many community placements aren’t equipped to deal with their needs, when compared with the care they get in a state op. Let’s not forget there are currently 21,000 individuals living in Illinois waiting for services. What makes it more important to place people out of state ops when you have that many people waiting? There is no way a community could come up with the money needed to bring up to standards some of the older facilities. Sad, but true, so don’t depend on Jacksonville to step up and agree to give the money. They are proposing to give a certain amount to place individuals into the community, but this amount does not take into consideration things that are currently provided if someone lives in a state op. Doctors, OT and PT specialists, Vision and Hearing staff, the Dentist, etc. Each of these needs to be contracted out separately in a community home. Do that and those costs go through the roof. Do I disagree with placement? No I don’t, as long as it is a well thought out process and is done for those who are able to, and as long as the guardians agree. This is not a well thought out plan - Quinn wants to place 600 people in the community in 2 years. No safeguards in place if someone fails. I fear for the lives of people I work with and care about. It’s my chosen work. To see someone excel at even the little things is great indeed. I am sorry that most of you aren’t lucky enough to understand the kind of work we do. - Wickedred - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 6:31 pm: Oh, and about family involvement….. There are more families involved now than in the past, when people were sent away and never thought of again. The numbers who have state guardians are dwindling, as family members, friends, and even former staff accept the responsibility of being a guardian. These guardians, especially family members, should be given great consideration. What is sad is that state guardians are being pressured to figure out who “could” be placed on their caseloads. - PS - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 6:38 pm: As a parent of a person residing in a SODC, it saddens me when people with no attachment to those who live in developmental centers, who have no personal knowledge of how they function on a day-to-day basis, feel they know better than the parent what is best for their child. If the politicians would put an end to wasteful spending and self-serving projects, they would not have to worry about balancing a budget by sacrificing the neediest, most fragile and most disabled members of our society. If all related cost are taken into consideration, you will find community placement does not save the large amounts being stated. Seventy-five persent of developmental center residents have severe or profound intellectual disabilities. sixty-four percent have additional disabling conditions. Many cannot communicate verbally. They need 24 hour supervision to a degree not handled by community placement. The SODC is their home. Our state needs to step up and support the SODCs for those who will not fit into community placement and also fund more community settings. BOTH ARE NEEDED. - DuPage Dave - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 7:30 pm: Any statement put out by AFSCME on this type of issue is highly questionable. Secret meetings? Really? There were numerous public meetings held last fall regarding all the proposed facilty closures. You could look it up. The problem is that this is a losing issue for AFSCME. The state operated DD facilities have a fraction of the residents they had 20 years ago, as noted by Steve Schnorf. But nearly all the facilities remain open, although with much smaller resident populations. Eventually, though, some dominoes will have to fall. Jacksonville has quite a few other state facilities to keep the local merchants in business. It is probably no better or worse a facility than any of the others, but some facilities need to close in the next five years. For now, they seem to hold the short straw. - Kendal - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 8:12 pm: I am guardian for two individuals who have been unsuccessful in staying in community placements…after several attempts. They are now safely residing in a state operated facility which at this point is their least restrictive environment. Their current placement at the SODC is healthy, stimulating, integrated into the community, and socially rich with opportunities to interact with non disabled individuals. Without the SODC, I shutter to imagine what their fate would be. Significant improvements need to be made to community placements in order to address the needs of the most challenging individuals. These changes will most likely be far more expensive than the State is able to provide for and sometimes impossible to achieve. There will continue to be a need for SODCs….no matter what. As someone who has spent her life supporting community options, I have only the greatest respect for the notion of a continuum of placements, including the SODC. - THE RN of the State - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 10:24 pm: As an RN working in a state run facility for mental health, the public really does not know how people with psychiatric are cared for…..U have insurance, U have decent care in a private hospital. No insurance and the private hospital (if they even have a behavioral health unit) are trying to get rid of U like a hot potato !!! It’s sad to see non existent care for the severely mentally ill !!! The communities simply cannot manage these patients ! The State run facilities may not be the most comfortable settings, but patients get the best nursing care around no matter what!!! Please keep them open !!!! God Bless …. - Jericho - Wednesday, Jan 18, 12 @ 12:08 am: When provided the opportunity to find cost-savings from a menu of bloated, over-funded state programs, this administration had the courage, by God, to target the least of our brothers and sisters living in state-operated facilities. Pay attention to the language of the anti-SODC crowd; with overly simplistic business-model speak, they describe the imperative of closing SODCs not because its good or appropriate for the most vulnerable in our society (previous posts effectively challenge the “appropriateness” of community centers for the majority of those with DD). Instead, using language now commonplace among those who have never known or cared for someone with special needs, they litter their arguments with euphemistic nonsense along the lines of “streamling facilities” or “phase-out plans for inefficient areas.” I’m willing to wager that the only thing viewed as “inefficient” in their eyes is a resident who calls a SODC home. I’m also willing to wager that the average Illinoian will recoil in disgust once he learns how this administration intends to cut-off and throw into the wilderness of a community setting those most in need of constant, professionalized care - care best and most appropriately found in an SODC. - MM - Wednesday, Jan 18, 12 @ 9:17 am: *The cost savings that community activits site is NOT reality–serving high need individuals in the community will be costly. *Compound the cost many times if they end up hospitalized. *There are currently NO community placements capable of serving my son. *Closure of JDC would mean placement at another SODC involving substantial travel time, thus decreasing family time that helps my son function. *Governor Quinn, please reconsider this decision. Perhaps a smaller JDC? - Anonymous - Wednesday, Jan 18, 12 @ 10:17 am: My sister is a long term resident of the Jack Mabley Center in Dixon, Il. She receives EXCELLENT care. She would not get the care she needs in a community group home. One size does not fit all. While many people with disabilities are better served in small group homes, that is not true for everyone. I know what is best for my sister, not a politician. Does everything come down to money. Where is our humanity and compassion. KEEP THESE CENTERS OPEN! - EMS - Wednesday, Jan 18, 12 @ 11:07 am: It all boils down to politics and how to save money to creat positions with high paying salaries for cronies and big contributors. Jack Mabley Ctr. is one of the nicest and cleanest, best run faciluties my child has ever been in and that has been 3 that have closed down now. - Caring sister - Wednesday, Jan 18, 12 @ 12:33 pm: I have a brother in Mabley SODC that is loved and well taken care of in this safe and comfortable environment for 25 years. Before here he was rejected out of community placement homes. We have been actively looking into alternate care in the community and keep getting rejected because of his behavior problems, where does the governor think these most vulnerable citizens will live? The state SODC’S serve these citizens that aren’t able to function in the community. Instead of closing Illinois needs to keep these open for those that need them!!!! - Concerned G'ma - Wednesday, Jan 18, 12 @ 1:36 pm: In the world of Politicians it always amazes me that they think they know it all. Why would the the administration not include the families unless they what they are doing is WRONG. If they study the case histories of each special needs client they will find that community group home probably are not for them. What then? Throw them all into one big mental hospital. Pat Quinn should stop thinking like a politician and get input from families and then act on that input. You can still smell the fish behind closed doors. - Barb-Gary's Mom - Friday, Jan 20, 12 @ 4:21 am: My son is one who was kicked out of a private group home in a community setting. He was 13 years old and as behaviors became more challenging,he was not wanted! It was one of the ” better” rated group homes but he was discharged with no where to go and no appeal process available to him at that time in a DCFS licensed facility.Equip for Equality advocated for him unsuccessfully. Is this what my son has to look forward to? There is so much more to worry about i.e. clients being admitted to Psych facilities and medicated into control and police being called to control behaviors. I fear for my son’s safety in the community and I seriously hope that my concerns will be addressed before my son is evicted yet a second time in his life for no other reason than he is not “normal”. Thank you! - An Angel's Mom - Friday, Jan 20, 12 @ 9:47 am: My daughter was asked to leave a Community placement because of health issues. Many people with DD can and should live in the community. Those who have severe medical issues like my daughter, or behavior problems, dual diagnosis and other complex problems are best served in our State Operated Developmental Centers. The SODC where my daughter lives has all the necessary services to keep her HEALTHY and HAPPY. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.