Facing Pomona state facility’s closure, family members seek answers to community-care concerns at Department of Developmental Services meeting
Save Lanterman Coalition:
| WHAT: | California Department of Developmental Services update meeting on the | |
| Lanterman Developmental Center closure process. | ||
| WHEN: | Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012; 10 a.m. | |
| WHERE: | Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Blvd., Pomona, Calif.; | |
| DeBell Auditorium. | ||
| WHO: | Family members of Lanterman Developmental Center residents; California Department of Developmental Services representatives; Lanterman direct-care professionals; Southern California Regional Center representatives. | |
WHY: Californians with relatives living at Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona, Calif., are searching for answers to their questions of who will care for their family members when Lanterman closes: poorly paid and inadequately trained direct-care staff, or licensed and certified professionals with decades of developmental-services experience.
For more than 80 years, Lanterman Developmental Center has provided wrap-around, state-of-the-art care for people with a range of developmental disabilities and related medical issues. However, in 2010, the State of California announced its intention to close this center, which provides federally certified developmental and medical services found nowhere else in its Southern California region.
Since the closure was announced and approved, residents’ families and conservators have worked to be a part of the California Department of Developmental Disabilities’ process to find smaller local residences with the same level of dedicated, professional care provided at Lanterman. One of the programs approved by the California Legislature as part of the closure would install licensed and certified Lanterman employees -- many of whom have cared for this unique population for decades -- at smaller group homes. However, nearly three years into the closure process, family members report that there is no indication that DDS intends to implement the promised professional staffing program.
“During the DDS budget hearings earlier this year, an Assembly member accused the department of playing a ‘bait and switch’ on this most important component of the closure process,” said Art Lopez, whose brother has called Lanterman Developmental Center his home for approximately 37 years. “Experienced, regulated staffing is a real matter of life and death to our loved ones, and we family members need real answers from the Department of Developmental Services.”
for Save Lanterman Coalition
Art Lopez, 213-590-8326
Anna Agopian, 213-430-3401
Dorothy Juarez Fulco, 626-437-9336
Source: Save Lanterman Coalition