September 23, 2004 The Honourable Sandra Pupatello, Minister of Community and Social Services 6th Floor, Hepburn Block 80 Grosvenor Street Toronto, Ontario M7A 1E9 Dear Mrs. Pupatello: I would like to thank you for calling me before the official announcement was made to close the three regional centres.  Needless to say it was a shock and also needless to say, I am in total disagreement with this decision. I am afraid that your reasons for closing the centres are too idealistic.  I would like to have the real reasons explained.  Does some group or organization want the properties that the centres now occupy?  Have the Community Living people convinced you that the centres are inappropriate homes for the developmentally disabled?  Have the Community Living people convinced you that they can provide better services, and spend the dollars now caring for the residents in the centres, more effectively?  Does the government just want to shed the responsibility of looking after these vulnerable people?   To understand the position that I am taking, you, your fellow members of the Legislature, the members of Community Living, and the media have got to get into the centres and actually see what is happening there.   They are not jails.  They are safe, secure, community oriented centres with qualified caregivers, with all the needed services on site.  The residents do go out into the community and return to a safe and secure home at the centres.  The community does come into the centres to use some of the facilities (the swimming pool at Huronia is shared with outside groups). Most of the residents left in the centres require intensive care.  First of all, they have been there for years and this is their home.  As you are aware, many are developing dementia, and along with their other problems, are becoming more difficult to manage.  How many homes in the community are going to welcome these individuals?  Where are the specialized medical and therapeutic services in the community going to come from?  Services of doctors, especially family doctors, and therapies are extremely scarce.  Are you going to see the general population in the community bumped so that these individuals can be serviced?  What happens when a resident has to go to the hospital and requires a 24 hour attendant?  At the moment, I believe that a hospital has to pay $25-$30/hr. for an attendant.  At the centres, when a resident needs an attendant, the staff at the centre provides this service.   2. Do you really believe that their quality of life is going to be improved?  My feeling is that those who think that these folks are going to blossom are wishful thinkers.  What happens when a room is trashed?  What happens when the staff has to clean feces every day?  These are regular occurrences with some of the residents at the centres.  Some of these folks are going to end up in restraints and ‘warehoused’ in their home.  At the centres, there is trained staff capable of coping with these situations. Who is going to assess the needs of the residents living in the community?  Once they have been moved, they will have lost contact with their advocates at the centres.  Many have no idea of right from wrong and lack a comprehension of what is appropriate in a so called “normal” environment.  Many cannot cope with any kind of change.  This is going to create extreme stress for them.  What happens when a group home in the community decides that the resident from a centre can no longer live in that home?  Is it off to jail or Penetang?  This is a real, and very realistic fear that some parents are experiencing. In the past, when residents of the centres were moved into the community, some just did not fit in and were returned.  You gave me a statistic about this occurrence, and I believe that it was 3 or 4 individuals had been returned.  This time the number will be much higher and they will have nowhere to go back to!  Remember, we are dealing with people who are developmentally disabled and their behaviours are  NOT going to change at this stage of their lives.  You are taking 30-70 year olds who are at a 3- 5 year old level and placing them into an unknown environment, facing situations that they cannot, and probably will not, be able to understand.  Again, you must get up to Huronia (and the other centres) and actually see what you are doing. From a parent point of view, this is creating enormous stress.  We are all getting older and need to see that our ‘children’ are safe and well cared for.  Your theory that this is what parents want is quite misguided.  It is not what the parents of residents living in the centres want!  It is what the parents of developmentally disabled children now living in the community want.  They also want the money that is now being spent at the centres! When things go awry in the community, the option of bringing their child home is not an option.  Again, what happens?  Do they go to jail, to Penetang, or the other scary thought, out onto the street (and this could happen).  The residents who are presently living at the centres are there for a reason.  They could not be handled at home!  Many of us went through years of every possible behaviour modification program, to no avail.  This was the last resort, and as it turned out, the very best for our child.  The centres provided the environment and services that made life as ‘normal’ as possible.  They can interact with the staff, other residents, be accompanied to special outside events, and in the summer participate in wonderful programs that are staffed with energetic young people from colleges and universities. What is going to happen to all of the expertise and talent that the staff at Huronia has developed over the years?  Some of these folks have worked with the developmentally disabled all of their working lives.  To the front line workers at the centre, the residents are their family and they advocate for them.  Who is going to take over this important 3. function?  Also, many of the staff have families working or going to school in the community.  What are they going to do – move away?  Finding employment in their field, at a comparable salary is probably non-existent.   They deserve to be fairly paid for this very difficult work.  They are patient, thoughtful and caring toward the residents.   What happens when a group home gets into financial difficulty (and this has happened – see Toronto Star, Thursday, March 13, 2003, GTA Section)?  What happens if there is a labour dispute?  If this occurs at the centres, there is always a core group of staff to care for the  residents, and they are not sent home. I have always considered this province to be a democracy and one has choices.  My choice for my son was to have him live at Huronia Regional Centre.  Somehow, a vocal group has convinced this administration that my way is the wrong way.  I really resent that.  Instead of closing Huronia, and the other centres, the centres should be expanding their facilities to those people who have special needs.  Why close a facility when ALL of the services are in place?  I am not an economist, but $110M is a drop in the bucket.  This is going to cost dearly, if as you say, ‘you are going to do it right’.  You and the folks at Community Living have no idea of the magnitude of this most destructive decision. Leave the centres alone and let both the ‘children’ and their parents end their days in peace. Yours sincerely, Patricia A. Cooke President Huronia Helpers-Orillia Centre cc:  The Honourable Dalton McGuinty  The Honourable Leona Dombrowsky  The Honourable George Smitherman  Mr. Garfield Dunlop, M.P.P. Simcoe North         Mr. Howard Hampton, Leader of the NDP Party of Ontario  Mr. John Tory, Leader of the Conservative Party of Ontario  Huronia Regional Centre  Southwestern Regional Centre c/o Mr. & Mrs. Lorne Coleman  Rideau Regional Centre c/o Mrs. Monica McCook  Toronto Star  Orillia Packet & Times  Federation of Advocates for Developmentally Disabled  c/o Mr. Chris Pavlov  Members of Huronia Helpers Board  Ontario Association for Community Living