Representative Chris Hurst Statement About DD Institutions

Proposed Rainier School Closure Ill-Informed, Ill-Advised
By State Representative Christopher Hurst
Once again in Washington State, there is another move to reduce or eliminate capacity of our state’s facilities for the developmentally disabled. These are our Residential Habilitation Centers (RHC’s) and there are five, strategically located in Buckley, Bremerton, Shoreline, Spokane and Yakima. They are home to some of our state’s most fragile and vulnerable citizens.
Attempts to close our RHC’s are always presented as a way to save the state money and provide more services to those thousands in our state so desperately in need of the very services our RHC’s provide. The facts, however, overwhelmingly support keeping existing capacity at our RHC’s. Existing needs actually support increasing our RHC’s ability to provide respite for those families at the very verge of collapse because of the pressures at home with a loved one, who demands everything from everyone. As an aging population with loved ones at home becomes desperate for loving care for their family members, demands for long term care increase and RHC’s offer an ideal setting for those who need the kind of loving sheltered environment offered at facilities like Rainier School in Pierce County.
Many still refer to our state’s RHC’s as institutions. That is simply not the case. Institutions for the developmentally disabled were deinstitutionalized in the early 1980’s and current facilities now offer secure campus like settings with individual cottages. Rainier School, in our own community, is typical of the state’s RHC’s with cottage homes, secure streets, a snack bar with easy access to those who are barely ambulatory, a recreation hall available to all, a gym, a swimming pool for therapeutic swimming, a dental clinic (many dentists in the community simply are not able to deal with this population) a medical clinic, and there is even a chapel for those who choose to attend worship services. Employment is available through various opportunities on site and off site.
The options for those residents who reside at Rainier, should it close, are pretty dismal. Most would be virtual prisoners in their apartments. The need for 24 hour care would severely restrict the ability of the resident to come and go. Many other services now available like dental care and a place to go to work just do not exist in most community settings. The Court decided years ago in the landmark Olmstead decision that residents should be given the choice of where they live so long as the professionals and the individual or their guardian agreed and that there is a suitable alternative place to go. The most desirable living arrangements should be those that are the least restrictive and the most integrated. In their zeal, advocates for closure of the RHC’s have dropped “least restrictive” and are only concerned with “most integrated.” The cost of providing the quality of life for the residents of our RHC’s in a setting without benefit of economies of scale would be so prohibitive that the state would be forced to cut services. In some cases those reductions in services would seriously impact not only the quality of life, but would impose serious safety and health threats as well. Many of these residents would be easy targets for victimization if they were forced to move from the Rainer School.
So, instead of seeking to restrict the services available to our most vulnerable and fragile neighbors, we should look to expand our ability to fill those voids currently existing in our community settings. RHC’s should be utilized to provide needed, and in many cases, missing services. Most notably these could be medical and dental clinics open to anyone on Medicaid because of developmental disabilities, therapeutic swimming programs, and training sites for students in medical school and other professional services, and outreach classes in self-reliance. Respite care to provide relief for families striving to care for loved ones at home, but unable to rest or recuperate is a desperately unfilled need. And finally, there should be someplace where people can live in safety and fulfillment, secure in the knowledge that their home is safe and will be there for them. Their home would not be lost because of zoning laws change or because their adult boarding home or apartment is placed on the auction block because of change in ownership. It is a moral imperative that the Rainier School remain open.
State Representative Christopher Hurst represents the 31st Legislative District, and worked as a police detective for 25 years.
hurst.christopher@leg.wa.gov
360-786-7866