Maryland: Troubled facility for developmentally disabled closing
January 16, 2008
By Laura SchwartzmanCapital News Service
ANNAPOLIS - Gov. Martin O'Malley signed an executive order Tuesday to close Rosewood Center, drawing mixed emotions over a plan to relocate all residents from the 120-year old facility for the developmentally disabled.
At an early afternoon press conference in front of the center's administration building, advocates for the disabled, former residents, family members and employees stood through a snow flurry to hear the final fate of Rosewood, a state-run home plagued in recent years by accusations of abuse, neglect and unsafe conditions.
Many
applauded as O'Malley announced the center's closure, which will take place over
the next 18 months. But not everyone was relieved.
Some families and
Rosewood employees are now questioning their futures.
Most of the 156
residents will be offered home and community-based settings, which studies show
are the most effective treatment for individuals with developmental
disabilities, O'Malley said.
"No one will be left behind," said John
Colmers, secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
But
Mary Hom, 54, of Baltimore, is skeptical and nervous. Her profoundly retarded
brother Richard Nilsson, 48, has been at Rosewood since 1990.
"He's not
going to last a day in a group home," she said. "He needs a team to take care of
him."
She praised Rosewood for providing "excellent care" through a team
approach and worries that smaller facilities aren't properly equipped and
staffed to care for him.
Advocacy groups for the disabled have denounced
Rosewood and worked to close it down for years following the December 2000 death
of a resident who was restrained at the time. The incident sparked federal and
state investigations into the facility.
A 2001 federal survey found
improper use of seclusion, restraints and sedation. A Maryland Office of Health
Care Quality survey in 2006 found staff had failed to protect residents from
harm, including injuries resulting from fights.
A ban on admissions to
Rosewood was imposed in January 2007.
Anna Burkett, 54, of Annapolis,
lived at Rosewood for more than three years. She described seeing residents
"punished for no reason" and being forced to "scrub the floor on hands and
knees."
Advocacy groups for the disabled hailed Rosewood's closure as a
civil rights victory, part of a larger push to integrate more disabled
individuals into their communities.
"This is a historic day for us," said
Rachel London, an attorney for the Maryland Disability Law Center. The center,
established by federal and state law, called for Rosewood's closure in a 2007
report which decried the facility's unsanitary conditions and inability to care
for residents humanely.
But Diana Lyles, vice president of AFSCME Local
422, which represents Rosewood employees, said staff provide "outstanding care"
to residents.
"We love them like they're our own family," she said,
adding that many employees are saddened by the news. O'Malley said the state
will help place employees at other institutions or agencies.
Pam
Matheson, whose adopted son Matthew Matheson, 37, was institutionalized at
Rosewood as a child, agreed that the facility has many caring staff. But
Matheson welcomed the center's closing, citing physical and emotional cruelty
she witnessed during her son's stay.
"There are wonderful workers at
Rosewood who really care for people, and there are satisfied, loving parents,"
she said. "But it's not a good thing for anyone to have to live in an
institution."