Parents Of Disabled Residents Blast Decision To Close Training Centers
FAIRFAX, Va. (WUSA) - Parents of children who live in Virginia's Training Centers blasted the Justice Department for the decision to close four of the five centers. The plan would move the residents into group homes or their own homes with support services within ten years. The Northern Virginia Training Center in Fairfax is slated to close in three years.
"It's draconian to expect to move these people in that short amount of time," says Jane Anthony, a parent of resident at the NVTC, and the Co-President of the NVTC Parents and Associates. She calls the decision a "death sentence" for many residents.
"It all about ideology, not about what's right for these people," says Jane Anthony, whose son Jason, 36, has lived at NVTC since he was a toddler. He is taken to therapeutic horseback riding and enjoys volunteer groups and other activities at the Center. Anthony says it'll be impossible to have all the many services and activities at each of the group homes that are at NVTC.
"You want to put him in a group home? You gonna put him in a play pen and put a TV in front of him and feed him? That's not a life like yours. That's a prison," says Anthony.
"A Life Like Yours" is the slogan for the ARC organizations which advocate for people with disabilities to receive the support services they need to live in their communities. The ARC has been pushing for the closure of Training Centers in Virginia, arguing that people should not be institutionalized. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in 1999 and in 2011 the U.S. Justice Department found Virginia was violating the rights of people by keeping them in large institutions instead of moving them to community-based homes.
But Anthony disputes the term 'institution' and says NVTC is a campus and part of the community. "It's a Mecca for this community," she said referring the medical and dental services provided at the Center to people with disabilities who don't live at the Center and don't receive funding to cover them.
Anthony says he and the other approximate 150 residents at NVTC need 24/7 specialized care that you couldn't get in group homes. Ed Senft's son John can't walk or talk and uses a wheelchair.
"What happens if his wheelchair breaks in a group home? At NVTC there's a electrician who comes and fixes it right away. I don't think that would happen in a group home," said Senft.
The parents' legislative message warns that closing the Training Centers may lead to what happened in New York State. The New York Times found that 1,200 deaths of disabled people living in group homes over the past decade, were attributed to 'unknown' or 'unnatural' causes. Things like drowning in a bathtub or falling down the stairs.
"To ask a six month old, to give them their civil rights, is equivalent to asking Jason what car he wants to be hit by on Braddock Road," said Anthony.
Written by Peggy Fox
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