COFAR blog

House Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad, who just spearheaded a successful effort  to block the immediate closure of Taunton State Hospital, supports undertaking an independent study prior to the closure of the state-run Glavin Regional Center in Shrewsbury for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Speaking at a meeting Tuesday at the State House attended by Glavin family members,  legislators and their staffs, and officials of the Department of Developmental Services, Haddad said the independent study should cover “the entire DMH (Department of Mental Health) and DDS system.”

“Someone has to be the first to say we’re not afraid to have an outside study done to tell us what’s wrong and what’s right,” Haddad said.  She maintained that internal studies done by the administration that showed a savings in closing Glavin and other developmental centers in Massachusetts “are asking people to trust the results.”

The Tuesday meeting was organized by Republican Representative Matthew Beaton, whose Shrewsbury-based district is home to Glavin.  In 2008, the Patrick administration targeted the Glavin, Fernald, Monson, and Templeton developmental centers for closure as of the end of the current fiscal year.

Fernald has remained open pending the outcome of appeals filed by the guardians of 14 remaining residents.  The Monson center was officially closed last month.

During the Tuesday meeting, I pointed out on behalf of COFAR that the planned closures of the four developmental centers will leave only two locations in Massachusetts for federally regulated Intermediate Level Facility (ICF) care.  Those remaining facilities are located in Danvers in the northeastern corner of the state, and Wrentham in southeastern Massachusetts.  The administration has deferred a decision on whether to close the Danvers facility.

During the meeting, Will Dumont of Brookfield, the father of a resident of the centrally located Glavin Center, said it would be much more difficult to regularly visit his son if he were transferred hours away to Wrentham.

Sheila Bailey, another family member, said her brother had suffered abuse in a facility that he had lived in prior to coming to Glavin.  “It was like a cloud was lifted when he got to Glavin,” Bailey said.  “He finally had a life there.”

Beaton maintained that Al Bacotti, a former director of the Glavin Center, who has taken an active role in opposing its closure, maintained to him that in the next 10 to 15 years, the loss of the ICF-level care provided by facilities such as Glavin will force the state to rebuild them.

DDS Deputy Commissioner Larry Tummino said he did not dispute that the services at Glavin are excellent.  He contended that “we can structure that clinical expertise in the community.”   Tummino also maintained that guardians of some 31 residents at Glavin have agreed thus far to move those residents to other locations.

That latter claim from Tummino brought a sharp rebuke from Roland Charpentier, the president of the Glavin family association.  Charpentier said  the guardians who agreed to leave Glavin did so “because they were scared to death that Glavin is going to close.”

Haddad also was critical of the administration’s contention that the services provided by facilities such as Glavin and Taunton state can be replicated in the community system.   “There are more horror stories than good stories in the private sector,” Haddad said.  “You’re asking people to trust a system that has a lot of flaws,” she said to Tummino and a second DDS official who attended the Tuesday meeting.

“This is not something you can just say ‘it’s going to be okay,” Haddad added. 

Haddad said she was nervous about what the independent study approved for Taunton State Hospital might conclude, but that she believes the outcome will be support for “a continuum of care” in the mental health system that would include Taunton State.

Speaking specifically about the plan to close Glavin, Haddad maintained that it is harmful to remove intellectually disabled people from their longtime homes.  “People cling to the people and things that they know,” she said.