Airports, Cities, A Doctors appointment, over 25 years of serving the Southbury CT area.
800-914-7433
Four Seasons Limousine put this blog together to keep the people of the Southburyn area up to date and informed nof the local current events. If you have some information, pictures or current events send them to colin@fourseasonslimo.biz
800-914-7433
Four Seasons Limousine put this blog together to keep the people of the Southburyn area up to date and informed nof the local current events. If you have some information, pictures or current events send them to colin@fourseasonslimo.biz
 |
In this Sept. 22, 2011 photo, careworker Dorcea Thomas, left,
walks with a resident at Southbury Training School in Southbury, Conn. A
Connecticut legislative committee is studying the cost effectiveness of
providing public vs. private 24-hour-a-day residential services to people with
intellectual disabilities who are currently clients of the state. Family members
of residents at the Southbury Training School worry this will mean closure for
the sprawling facility which has not taken in any new residents for years.
Photo: Jessica Hill / AP
|
Loved ones of profoundly developmentally disabled residents of the Southbury
Training School say they fear the sprawling residential facility will be
closed in coming years to help balance Connecticut's budget and satisfy those
who believe the state's last institution of its kind should be shuttered.
State officials, including Gov. Dannel
P. Malloy, have said there are no immediate plans to shut down Southbury.
The aging parents and guardians, however, are worried that after they die, their
relatives will be placed in less expensive, nonprofit programs such as community
group homes, and won't get the same level of care.
Many of the families and guardians are elderly, said David
Kassel, spokesman for The
Southbury Training School Home and School Association. "The last thing they
want is the kind of uncertainty the administration is placing them under as far
as the future of their loved ones at STS (Southbury Training School)."
The association plans to make its members' concerns
known at a legislative public hearing scheduled for Tuesday. The General
Assembly's Program
Review and Investigations Committee is studying residential and day services
for the 15,488 DDS clients, including a comparison of the costs of state
services and those available from private agencies.
Southbury, built in the 1930s, has long been at the
center of a debate over the appropriate care of people with mental retardation.
Beginning Nov. 1, trained teams will begin evaluating each resident — 425 as of
Sept. 1 — to see if they can live successfully in the community, such as in a
group home. That information will be given the residents, their parents and
guardians so they can decide whether to leave. It is the crux of a settlement
agreement ending a 16-year-old class-action lawsuit over the state's failure to
adequately evaluate residents for community placement.
New admissions to Southbury were halted in 1986
following a federal court order. The Department
of Justice sued the state in 1985, alleging poor conditions violated the
residents' civil rights. By 1994, DOJ still considered Southbury to be a "very
dangerous place" and said the residents were not getting necessary medical
attention, staff were poorly trained, conditions were not therapeutic and
physical therapy services were inadequate. A special court-appointed master
oversaw the facility until 2006, when the judge ruled that Connecticut had
improved conditions and care at the facility.
Dr. Philip
Bondy, 93, whose son Stevie, 56, has lived in Southbury since the 1970s,
said there's a belief among many state officials that the residents would be
better off in the community. But given the changes in the wake of the court
action, he said Southbury is not an ordinary institution. There's been a push to
integrate the residents with the community. Stevie, he said, has outside jobs
and goes to the movies, restaurants and the grocery store. He and other
residents live in cottages and apartments on the campus.
"It's a strong belief (among state officials) there's
something magic about changing their address and going out in the community,"
said Bondy, a retired physician who has taught at Yale
Medical School. He called that way of thinking "imaginary."
Talk of
closure comes as the Malloy administration looks at ways to downsize state
government. According to the DDS website, more than 1,333 full-time, part-time
and consulting staff are employed at the school.
Rep. T.R.
Rowe, R-Trumbull, co-chairman of the Program and Review
Committee, said Southbury is a small part of a larger legislative study of
services for the developmentally disabled. While he said he doesn't foresee
Southbury closing "before its usefulness is exhausted," he said it appears that
Connecticut could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year by shifting more
DDS clients into community nonprofit settings.
 |
| This Bald Eagle lives in Brewster |
 |
| Colin Holliday with Four Seasons Limousine in Southbury CT |
 |
| Spruce Brook in Koons Nature Preserver |
 |
| Bent of the River Hiking trails |
 |
| Four Seasons Limousine in Southbury CT |
This blog is for posting pictures,current events, news and history about he Bethel area and its people. We will post at least once a week and look forward to people sending us pictures and stories about the area. If you have something to share please e mail to 
