Settlement Could Lead To Drop in Residents at Developmental Centers
California will have to provide more information about other living options to people with developmental disabilities who live in state hospitals and nursing homes under a court settlement an Alameda Superior Court judge approved Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The settlement will require the state to:
- Provide information about community living options to institutionalized people with developmental disabilities;
- Assign caseworkers to attend yearly meetings on the status of hospital residents;
- Schedule such meetings so that patients can attend them; and
- Ask the Legislature to maintain funding for new housing options, the downsizing of private care facilities and assistance for institutionalized people who want to move to community settings.
State officials say fewer than 2,400 people with developmental disabilities currently live in state hospitals, called developmental centers, and 4,500 other people with developmental disabilities live in nursing homes or other large private facilities.
One year of care in a developmental center costs the state $270,000, significantly more than care in a community-based facility would cost, according to the advocacy group Disability Rights California, which represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit (Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/28).
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