Wake Up People! Fernald is closing. Staff are being laid off, consolidations are happening, and buildings are closing. Instead of driving the bus, families are being left at the bus stop. And while we have all empathized with the place being a long time home for your sons, daughters, sisters and brothers, it’s over. Do you listen to the news or read the papers? This economic crisis is for real! It doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or Republican; there ain’t no money! Services throughout state government are being slashed. But, the Patrick Administration is offering you a renovated building at Wrentham and beautiful homes in the community. So what are you doing? Instead of being part of the process, you are waiting to the end and forcing the state to make decisions for you. Sit yourself right in that drivers’ seat. Face the reality of the closing and take the next step. While thousands of families throughout the state are having their services cut, you still have control. Participate in the process of transferring your love one. Transfer your passions for Fernald and direct them to getting the best services. Join forces with all of us advocating for the best services for all individuals with developmental disabilities. We need you working with us, rather than against us. Stop taking valuable resources for a hopeless cause. We need all families for the disabled to unite and be one voice. We can be your best friends.
me just how offensive some community advocates are, Ruby.
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p>What you fail to honor and recognize is that these families have been fighting for services for all people with developmental disabilities for decades. COFAR (of which Fernald is a member) is a pro-family organization with a president with a community-living, disabled sibling….and it advocates for the right services and the right residential supports instead of insisting on shoehorning people into inappropriate placements. Funny, we don’t insist that certain populations (like the elderly) live in group homes..but people with developmental disabilities are being forced into it. This isn’t about what’s in the best interests of these fragile people, this is about privitization, and getting those contracts in the hands of vendors!!
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p>BTW, No one knows better than these families that there is an economic crisis going on. Of course, the vendor presidents are still making 6-figure plus salaries, aren’t they? How about Governor Patricks’ deputies over at the Dept of Transportation? Are they still cashing their checks? This is about priorites, Ruby and evidently profoundly disabled, medically fragile people aren’t one of the Governors. You do know he’s closing Tufts Dental, right? Yeah – served 2100 patients with developmental disabilties in both residential and community residences.
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p>Please don’t preach about what the Patrick Administration is offering to Fernald families, because it’s clear that you have NO idea. It’s offering some families inappropriate placements because there’s not enough room at Wrentham. It’s offered up a group home where one of our residents died, after being removed from Fernald against her will. Sensitivity and good times.
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p>But what we don’t do, Ruby, is join forces with vendors. There’s no “one voice” if it includes vendors. It’s that whole “conflict of interest thing” that some of the vendor advocates who masquerade as family advocates have never fully acknowledged. You really can’t serve two masters.
You make the best case for “Social Darwinism” I’ve ever seen. You see honey: YOU need a loved one to fight the battle, otherwise, I’m sorry, you’re just an ignorant outsider.
I liken it to when I was in a nursing home two years ago. my nurse hated me because I could communicate to her my ideas on the best care for me. It seems I screwed up her “schedule.” She let my medication run out to make me sick. Fortunately, my regular nurse answered my questions about my missing a medication. She agreed with my having my daughter bring my medication from home to prevent me from becoming ill. My family was BULLSHIT about this incident. It was assured that it was never happening again. Of course, records were fudged and nothing ever happened. But the bitch never was involved with me again.
Unfortunately for a social darwinist like you, I’m living happily ever after. A “person”, I mean savage like you should not be involved in human services.
All fucking sincerity intended. She’s messing with human lives here.