Our Opinion: State must keep JDC promises to families
The State Journal-Register
Jacksonville Developmental Center has for years stood as a relic of an antiquated approach to caring for the developmentally disabled.
The state’s announcement on Thursday that JDC will close later this year — after its residents have been evaluated and moved into appropriate community care settings — is an important, much-belated milestone. It’s the first step toward moving Illinois away from its excessive reliance on large institutions to house and treat its developmentally disabled citizens.
We’re aware that the closing of JDC brings with it an economic cost to the Jacksonville community. The center employs 379 people in a town that has been hard hit by the loss of industry in recent years. But establishment of community care should absorb many of those jobs, and could create more.
We’ll be attentive in the coming months to make sure the state keeps its promises to residents and their families. It’s critical that no one feel left out of this process. Overall, though, we’re pleased that Illinois finally is moving out of the dark ages in giving its most vulnerable citizens the best care possible.
In state after state, the institutional model of treatment has been judged ineffective, inefficient and inferior to housing developmentally disabled people in small, residential settings. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have closed all their state institutions for the developmentally disabled. Illinois, meanwhile, has the third highest population of institutionalized individuals of any state. Even after closing JDC, it will retain that rank.
Advocates for the disabled have for years urged the state to move away from institutional housing and treatment centers.
“This is long overdue,” said Don Moss, director of United Cerebral Palsy of Illinois. “All such institutions should go the way of orphanages and no longer be part of the social service system in Illinois.”
Treatment and care for the developmentally disabled has as its foundation two goals: to allow the disabled to live as productive and fulfilling lives as possible despite their disabilities and to be as active members of society as possible. Institutional settings too often work against those goals by establishing firm separation between residents of the institution and the society outside its walls.
Now comes the real challenge. The 185 residents of JDC must be carefully assessed according to their individual needs as this transition is made. For some, JDC has been home for many years. Some may have had bad experiences in group home settings before coming to JDC. The coming move must not induce anxiety among those it is intended to help.
“We would like to impress on the public that these are not cattle to be moved out 20 a month. These are human beings,” said Rita Burke, president of the Illinois League of Advocates for the Developmentally Disabled.
In making the announcement last week, however, officials voiced confidence that residents’ needs are paramount in this process and that there is no degree of disability that can’t be better addressed in a community setting.
“We can support anybody with almost any type of disability in the community if we are smart in how we arrange the supports and put the resources behind it,” said Mark Doyle, who is heading up the transition effort for the Department of Human Services.
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