Committee hears testimony about Beatrice center
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By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star
Sandra Ham’s teenage son Ian started running away when he lived in Lincoln group homes.
Once he caused a ruckus at a convenience store late at night, his mother said. The police who responded thought he was on drugs. They stepped on his bare feet while handcuffing him. Then they noticed his medic alert bracelet.
The officers returned Ian to his group home, where the staff member responsible for watching the clients was asleep.
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The story so far: BSDC
In September 2006, federal inspectors found serious problems at the Beatrice State Developmental Center, home to about 285 people with serious develop...
It was just one example Ham presented Thursday to a Legislative committee of how the Beatrice State Developmental Center is the best place for her son and others like him.
About a dozen parents and siblings of people living at BSDC got their chance to defend the place their loved ones call home during the daylong legislative public hearing. State senators on the committee also heard from some who want the center closed.
Ham told the committee of another time when Ian left at night, in the dead of winter. He was located after an intensive search — with help from police and the local TV station — miles from his home.
Then there was the day a group home staff member was stopped for drunk driving, with Ian in the car. This was the same staff member who was responsible for Ian’s blood testing, his insulin dosage and his meal preparation, Ham said.
After three years of living in group homes run by two different community agencies, Ham finally got Ian into BSDC — where there is always staff on duty, where there is a nurse on call, where there is constant oversight, she said.
“He now has the care that group homes could not or would not provide,” she told the committee.
It is the safest place for her son and others with more demanding medical needs and who exhibit at-risk behaviors, she said.
Other supporters praised the state institution, the long-term loving staff members who watch over adults with the capabilities of a toddler, the special program for teens and adults with serious behavior issues, the community atmosphere where everything from the doctor to the swimming pool is just a short walk away.
Some told horror stories about community programs where staff members slept while their children wandered the streets, or watched TV rather than watch over the residents. Where there was not enough staff to give high-need clients one-on-one supervision, where staff weren’t able to handle people with serious behavior or medical problems.
And they suggested community programs should have the same scrutiny that occurs at Beatrice, where investigators from several federal agencies have spent weeks observing life at the center.
The reports from those agencies citing serious, specific instances of abuse, neglect and staffing shortages at BSDC led to creation of the special committee, with Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop as its chairman.
The state faces the loss of about $28.6 million a year in federal funds for the center, which currently cares for 263 Nebraskans with serious developmental disabilities. The center is also being monitored under a federal court order.
Senators also heard Thursday from some who want BSDC closed.
Beatrice is an “outmoded, outdated institution” that “violates the rights of people living there,” said Mary Angus, lobbyist for the ARC of Nebraska, an advocacy group for people with disabilities and their families and friends.
“We believe the reasons BSDC has remained opened are political. ... Because it is best for the community, not because it is best for the residents,” she said.
People with severe disabilities also live successfully in local community programs, she said. Sixty percent of the adult Nebraskans with profound mental retardation are served by such programs, she noted.
BSDC uses up 18 percent of the state’s funding for developmental disability services, but serves only 6 percent of the people getting services, she said. It “misuses scarce resources.”
Chairman Lathrop commented on the obvious philosophical split between Beatrice center supporters — who want to make certain an institutional choice exists — and groups like ARC of Nebraska — that would like to see the Beatrice campus eventually closed and its $52 million in state and federal funding used for community programs.
“It seems to me this is not a black and white issue. That there is room for both (community programs and institutional programs),” Lathrop said.
Angus gave another option. Everyone could be served in community programs if the state increased the quality and the breadth of community services, she said.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.
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Huh wrote on August 22, 2008 6:34 am:
Herewegoagain wrote on August 22, 2008 1:55 pm:
One Parent wrote on August 22, 2008 6:29 pm:
I agree with Herewegoagain in there is no "one size fits all" solution to this issue. We need to look at a continuum of care in Nebraska that will meet the needs of the Nebraskans with developmental disabilities. "
current employee wrote on August 22, 2008 9:30 pm:
WHAT wrote on August 23, 2008 9:55 am: