Comments on: Saving the Glavin Center comes down to one man

By: capecod

capecod — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:56:11 +0000

What a hurtful and insulting comment by “jdent”. How dare he/she imply that we the families would warehouse our loved ones. I spent years trying to find a facility that would best care for my son. Twenty three years ago I found the only place that could meet the special needs he required to survive in this world. He has received the best on-site quality care in a safe environment that NO community home can match. I had a choice as did all the other families. We chose the facilities that “jdent” refers to as warehouses, because we knew that they would be best cared for and a new hope would be provided for them. Many of these clients could not and will not survive in the community. Community life failed them. Templeton Developmental Center saved my son.

I am also outraged at the term being used when referring to our loved ones suffering from this terrible disability.
A “WASTE’ – that they are a waste of time and money. Is this the “new world” ?? What in God’s name have you all become.

By: jdent

jdent — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:04:58 +0000

Not only should Glavin go, but everyone of these old decriptive state facilites where people are being warehoused. They belong in the community, not a “community of themselves”.

By: ssurette

ssurette — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:11:30 +0000

mzanger is so right….a gigantic waste. You can easily say that about each of the developmental centers the state is closing. Each of them have unique facilities and services. I’m willing to bet you could easily find similar stories (as the Dumont’s and mzanger)at each of these facilities.

The examples of repurposig Glavin are really just a beginning of how you could maximize the use of this and the other developmental centers. But that would require someone in the administration to do a little creative thinking. The mind set is obviously “all or nothing” regardless of the waste or human cost or even just that its the right thing to do.

By: mzanger

mzanger — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:18:05 +0000

The Glavin Center is or was an important safety net for the entire system. When I was working for COFAR I heard from several family members, one from my own hometown via my mother, whose stories were quite similar of dually diagnosed loved ones who did not respond to psychiatric medicine well in group home settings (where even a pro-closure survey of studied, by Kozma and others, concedes too much chemical restraint is used relative to larger more comprehensive faciltie) who had to advocate for years and pull political strings to get their person in Glavin, where he or she has thrived and recovered some ability to function in the community. I am struck by the wastefulness of empty beds in this relatively modern, never overcrowded or badly run, facility, centrally located, and even supporting a number of high-level state operated group homes just outside the grounds. While the land just off Rte. 9 may have some commercial potential, Glavin was never a farm, and ironically the piece of land right on Rte 9 sold for development has been a shuttered Borders bookstore. Meanwhile the state is starved for hospital beds for persons with mental retardation and a mental health issue, who are too vulnerable for the dwindling number of psych wards. At Glavin they had long-term services, and every year returned to community settings, a few people. The youth I now serve as a mental health worker, if they have co-occuring intellectual disability and need psychiatric hospitalization, often go to a hospital in another state, Peoople under 22 would not be able to go to the Glavin Center as a DDS facility, but part of the center could be repurposed even now as a specialty adolescent ward, even under private non-profit management, with ability to use the back-up services available, and bring help to many families. It such an odd time to be closing such a workable facility, when more than half of DDS clients live with parents over 60, and residential budgets have been static or cut.

By: ssurette

ssurette — Tue, 22 May 2012 01:31:35 +0000

That a “public servant” elected by the people to represent the people would even have the nerve to utter the words that he doesn’t have the energy to fight for the totally powerless and completely vulnerable people in his district. Used to be you could at least count on a politican to give you “lip service”. Now the severely developmentally disabled people of his district are even worthy of lip service.

Even though the folks at Glavin have their hands full trying to save the lives of their familiy members from the mandates of an administration completely devoid of any human compassion, they should focus some of their collective efforts to see that Senator Brewer is not re-elected.