COFAR blog

After initially being denied a placement at the Wrentham Developmental Center, Kristen Robinson has been living and “thriving” since June at the Hogan Regional Center, her sister, Kim Meehan, said last week.

Kim said the family is now ready to talk about the happy outcome of their months-long struggle to get Kristen, who is 51 years old, into an Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) in Massachusetts.

“She (Kristen) is so happy,” Kim said. “ She’s joyful, cared for, loved. They love her at Hogan. She’s treated the way she should be treated.”

Hogan, which is in Danvers, and the Wrentham Developmental Center are the state’s two remaining ICF-level congregate care centers. But as we’ve noted many times, it is extremely difficult for people to get admitted to them.

Kristen and Kim on wheelchair swing at Hogan Center

As we reported in May, then Department of Developmental Services (DDS) Commissioner Jane Ryder initially promised Kristen’s family she would admit Kristen for evaluation and rehabilitation to Wrentham’s May Center medical unit.

But Ryder reneged on that promise just a few days later, saying she hadn’t been aware that only Wrentham Center residents are admitted to the May Center unit. This was despite the fact that Kristen is profoundly intellectually disabled, legally blind, and quadriplegic, and has seizure disorder and severe dysphagia, a medical condition that causes an inability to swallow.

DDS rarely admits individuals to either ICF because the Department maintains that so-called community-based residential settings are less “restrictive.” But DDS had been unable to find either a community-based group home or a nursing home that could meet Kristen’s needs.

Yet, while Ryder did go back her promise to admit Kristen to Wrentham, Kim said Ryder then gave the family some other options. One option was for an “evaluation” of Kristen at Hogan; and the other options were for short-term placements at either of two private rehab facilities or a state-operated group home.

Kim said the family visited all of those settings and selected Hogan even though it is a three-hour round trip from Kim’s home in Norfolk. “We felt she would be safe there,” she said.

Kristen was admitted to Hogan on June 17. It is not clear whether the placement is considered by DDS to be permanent, but Kim said she and Karen are prepared to fight to ensure that she remains there.

Hogan offers full range of services and activities

Kim maintained that all of Kristen’s needs are being met at Hogan, particularly her need for 24/7 nursing care.

Prior to her placement at Hogan, Kristen had been confined for weeks at Faulkner Hospital in Boston following a choking incident in her mother’s home.

Kristen had lived her entire life under her mother’s care in Walpole. But when their mother died a year ago this month,  Kim and her sister, Karen Brady, and their husbands began to take turns caring for Kristen and staying overnight with her.

Given Kristen’s medical complexities – particularly those related to swallowing and choking – it is safest for her to be at a facility like Hogan where medical care is available on site, Kim said. At Hogan, Kristen doesn’t need to be taken off campus for medical care or for her day program.

Kim said Kristen has been receiving physical and occupational therapy at Hogan, and is attended by doctors, nurse practitioners, and many other care givers. She is also regularly taken outside for recreational activities, including the use of a swing set built for people in wheelchairs. And she attends arts and crafts, music nights, communal dinners, and enjoys visits from school bands.

Kim said she is looking forward to having Kristen attend Hogan’s greenhouse this winter to work on making wreaths. “She always enjoyed planting flowers with our mother,” she said.

“Normally, at age 22, the educational system falls off,” Kim noted. “Here they work with her daily. This is a community like no other. When we looked at the group homes DDS showed us, people were just sitting around watching TV.”

Cleanliness highlighted

Kim said she would also like to “highlight the cleanliness at Hogan. You could eat off the floors there.”  Kristen is also very clean now, she said. When she was at the hospital, the staff were not able to shower her, she said.

Kristen’s potential still being assessed

Kim said that since she has been at Hogan, Kristen “is doing things we never knew she could do, and they’re still in the early stages of determining her capacity.”

For instance, physical therapists are working with her on standing up. “She hasn’t stood up since she was a little kid. She is now feeding herself with assistance,” Kim said.

Kim added that clinicians at Hogan think Kristen may be able to understand more than her family had previously thought. Early on, they found that Kristen could identify six colors. “She was never able to do that before.”

The Hogan clinicians also think Kristen may be able to communicate with a communication board. “They’re doing assessments to see what she can comprehend. They are learning things about her that we didn’t know. It could take years to find out what’s going on in her mind,” Kim said.

Similar assessment from mother of man admitted to Wrentham in 2022 

Kim’s assessment of Hogan is similar to Janice Marinella’s assessment of the Wrentham Center. Janice’s son Jeremy was admitted to Wrentham in 2022 after years of poor care in the community-based system.

Janice told us at that time that, “I no longer see it (Wrentham) as institutional. I now see the love and devotion the staff gives my son.” She added that even though the buildings are old, her son’s unit is “immaculate.”

It is unfortunate that the Healey administration continues to subscribe to a long-held ideology that care in Massachusetts’ two remaining congregate-care centers is unduly restrictive, and that better and more appropriate care can be found in the community-based and largely privatized group home system.

The evidence clearly shows this ideology is wrong. It doesn’t matter how many people are served by a care setting as long as the ratio of staff to residents is adequate and the staff are caring, well trained, and motivated.  The testimony of Kim Meehan, Janice Marinella, and others we have spoken with over the years shows that is certainly the case at the Wrentham and Hogan Centers.