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For decades Virginia has operated state training centers for individuals with
intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The five centers held more than 5,000 people during the 1970's.
Today there are less than 850 residents.
In August 2012, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States Department
of Justice entered into a Settlement Agreement. For the first time in our history,
Virginia has decided to close four state institutions,
and residents are moving out into their local communities.
Aide: Ella, you leaving me? Ella: Yeah. Aide: You are? Ella: Yeah.
Aide: You gonna miss me? Ella: Yeah. Aide: I'm gonna miss you, too.
Aide: Can I have a hug? Ella: Yeah. Aide: Oh, Ella!
Jackie Bartlett: Well, it is hard. I've worked with Ella
since 1986. I worked with her in day support program and then
in 2000 I came over to the other side and started working with her residentially.
So it is hard, it's hard to let go
and not be a mother hen. [laughs]
That's one way to put it. Aide: You know what color this is? Ella: Blue.
I'm very proud of her. I'm happy to see her
going to a less restrictive environment, to live in a home.
Sheila Harris: This is Ella's new home. She used to live in Cottage 35
at Southside Virginia Training Center, but now this is her new home in Petersburg,
and this is her new furniture, this is her new television.
She has her own stereo section, this is her new bed.
This was her bed that she brought from Southside Virginia Training Center that she had.
And they've decorated it and all in different colors for her
in her new home and this is her room that she shares all by herself.
Jackie Bartlett: She seems excited about it. She has had transition visits, and she did
well during the transition visits. She was quiet as far as
at night, lots of times at night she will get
up and ramble around. But they did tell me
the staff persons that I talked to from the home, they said that she slept
and that she did well.
But they're prepared if she doesn't. So it hasn't been something where
she found out yesterday and then she left today. She has been visiting
the home. Some of the staff people that work at the home are
people that I recognize, you know, they have worked here before,
so they are good, experienced people.
Aide: Jon, you ready to go for a ride? Jon: Yeah.
Aide: Okay, you ready? Come on, we need to get going.
Aide:I'm going to miss you, okay? All right.
Give me a hug before you leave. All right, okay.
We'll see you later, okay?
All right, don't be sad, it's okay.
Aide: Sit right here in this seat, Jon.
Aide: Yeah, sit right here, Jon. Sit right there. You in?
Bye! Bye!
Clarence Dilworth: Part of the process that makes the transition successful
is that we still have the opportunity to tap into those
resources that Jon left behind. We have quite a few visits
scheduled, you know, from training center staff, and from
office of licensing to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services
to the Department of Human Rights. So we're going to be under the magnifying
glass for quite some time
until they make sure that Jon's transition
has been complete and successful.
Katie Dillard: One of the biggest things we have to do, you have to be familiar with the
providers and the people in the community who are
providing services. That way you know who to put
different individuals with. What we do right now is we are required to
show the individuals at least three homes,
because we want people have a choice, and different selections
of homes. But is very important that you know the provider,
and you know that they can meet the person's needs.
I think specific to the Settlement Agreement, some of the many concerns that
people have expressed is really about our ability
to actually grow the community-based system of supports we have
for individuals.
Many of the people that currently live in our training centers
are concerned, they and their family members, about what's available
in the community.
They want to make sure they have the same level of supports, that their loved one
is able to participate in activities.
Aide: Jon, see Jon?
Jenni Schodt: The visit that we took last week is really important because
the very next day we go on a monitoring visit
and we try to monitor a meal. And this is so important because
there so many individuals that are on modified diets
and it's important because this is a safety issue. So we've really made that
part of our program, our
monitoring process, that we have actually an
occupational therapist that goes and does these visits the next day.
She's also a registered nurse. So it's important that we
really do take the time to do the specific monitoring of those procedures.
I really see the transition from going to the training center
into the community
as a good way for them to improve their quality of life,
to broaden their horizons. They get to do more things,
see more things, just have more opportunities. Aide: Very good!
Stacy Hardcastle: Jim is a very tall,
quiet young man. He does have
some things that might frighten some people
because his communication is difficult to understand, but he too has been
successful. He does volunteerism at day support, his
parents live right down the road.
They participate in his life, which is wonderful to see that
he can come and go to their house.
Parents are concerned about stigma. When individuals are at the training center
they are in group. They weren't really exposed to the community, they had
their own community and parents were afraid.
The more you go out there and the more that
you get to interact with the public, the better it is.
Jerry Thompson: The Brambles here is starting something that I'm glad to see
because
it's in the community. You're part of the community rather than
a part of something in another town someplace else.
Mark Whetstine: Kathy's been doing Meals on Wheels pretty
much since she's been here at the ARC.
She goes out usually at least once a week, sometimes twice a week to do it.
I think the thing that's beneficial about it is that
our people feel like they're giving something back to the community
when they do it and
I think that's pretty huge for them.
Aide: Watch the dog, Kathy. You don't want to step on the doggy, right?
[laughs]. Awww.
Mark Whetstine: They feel like they are really contributing back to our society.
Aide: How you doing? I'm doing fine. That's good, you're doing better.
We're doing great, thank you. Thank you all so much! Kathy: I did it!
Kathy, do you want your check? Yeah!
Come here, I've got it right here. There you go! Thank you.
Evelyn Chambliss: Bonita always seems to be very,
sort of happy. She has her days where she might not be as pleasant as other days
but she walks in with this smile and she says
"I've been good today" and you know it's refreshing.
I was contacted by one of
the personnel at Southside Virginia Training Center
stating that she was able to get a job,
which was surprising to me. Jenni Schodt: I don't think that the general
public really has bought into the fact that they can and are very good employees,
very dependable employees. All they need is some training and job coaching.
They want to go to work and they do enjoy working.
So I just think it's a thing of education.
Gail Hairston: When she did the interview at Walgreens
she voted for the first time with assistance
and she loves her job.
Last year, I believe it was, was when we were notified that
they were closing all of the training centers.
Before then the social worker had told me that she was eligible
and could go in the community but I was skeptical.
Since they're closing the training centers, I better go
out with the social workers and start visiting group homes.
The home that we visited in Chesterfield
was nice but all their bedrooms to me were upstairs.
They weren't thinking about when the clients get old,
how are they going to get downstairs? Or if they thought
they were going to ship them off to a nursing facility
or another assisted living place.
So I was looking for something like just on one floor,
and the Between the T's home
everything is on one floor.
Evelyn Chambliss: Right here, honey.
In the mid seventies
Virginia had
over 5,500 people in its
large institutions, the training centers. We had five
training centers at that time, we still have five training centers.
But over the years the number of people in the training centers has dropped.
At the same time in the community
we have a large number of individuals on our waiting list
for the home and community-based Medicaid Waiver. There are
over 5,000 people waiting
for the intellectual disability waiver and
about 1,200 people waiting for the developmental disability waiver.
Jack Wall: The Settlement provides a real opportunity for Virginia
to move resources from
large, congregate, primarily segregated settings
into these integrated settings. The thing
that is important for people understand is that
the individuals with disabilities that we're working with,
they have specific needs for support.
Sue Gunter: She's so, so much calmer. If you had come in
even four months ago, maybe three months ago, she'd be hanging on
your arm, squeezing it, and
just too anxious to let go. She would have been so uncomfortable with this number
of people being in the home with this level of noise.
She's just really, really calm. She used to eat like she used to bolt her food
and now she actually takes her time where I say "Kathy, come on, we
need to go to day support, we have to get out to the store."
So she is really much, much calmer.
Two friends of mine actually had decided to do sponsored residential
and after I had talked to them I thought oh that would be great because
you really give then people a
number of opportunities, a number of different
options of how they want to live.
And so I was a friend with the case manager at the time,
who was with Wall [Residences], and
my husband and I sat down and talked to her. We really liked the program
so we signed up to do it and then we started. People get a chance to
interview you to see if you're a good fit for them and you get a chance to
interview them to
see if they're good fit for your family. And it took us almost a
year and a half to find Kathy,
because either the age of the person or the disability wouldn't be
appropriate with the age of my children, who are young adults,
or there was something, but we've been very happy
you know with our choice and with her choosing us.
Edith Aradela: Since Donald had
come to us in September, September 11, 2012,
he has progressed very well. He's been happy, he's content.
He had problems with banging when he was at Southeastern we have not seen
that at all.
Maybe occasionally he would have that when he's having a bad day
but generally, a majority of the time he's happy, he's content.
He goes out to the community.
He's been at a day support program two times a week
and that has really made a big difference. We've seen that when
he first started here going
out into the community, he asked for it every single day.
Mary Johnson: He smiles more often,
he talks more often, and he's just happier here
than he was at Southeastern.
Jared Detrick: Can you hold that? You got it? Hold it right there. Good job Donald.
There you go, just don't move the hand. You got it!
All the way!
Because you're gonna make this purchase yourself, Donald.
We're catching the ball!
I've known Donald for about 5 months now, working with him on and off.
Our relationship is pretty much like any relationship, probably more close to friends.
We take him out...we typically ask him where he'd like to go. We have a communication
board that he likes to point to, different pictures. We have a picture of Macy's,
***'s Sporting Goods, sometimes we'll split the group up and have
a little guy time and I'll be like, "Don, where do you want to go?" and he'll point to
Victoria Secret and like this he'll point. I'm like "Alright, Donald, we'll go look at
Victoria Secret!" and he'll have a little kid grin on his face. It's just funny.
I have to say that's really funny about Donald. Huh, Donald? Yeah. You silly Donald.
Clarence Dilworth: What people need to understand
is that Jon and many others like him have been in an institution
all of their lives. And sometimes,
we make the mistake of believing that they are satisfied
where they are. Well, in most cases, it's the only environment
they've ever known.
Once they get into the community and experience
more freedom, more flexibility, more normalized lifestyle,
they adjust to it very quickly. They're no different than you or I,
they look for the same things in their environment.
The opportunity to do some of the things that they like, the opportunity to go
and use community resources and eat different foods and go different places.
Jim Stewart: It's so important for families to understand that we know,
I know, and our department knows, that it is critical to assure quality services
and a safe environment. We're expanding our licensure staff
so that more staff are on the ground. We're increasing our human rights protection
staff and we are
expanding our quality improvement program
so that in the long term we can assure, for years to come,
that those who live in the community are safe and are successful.