Fenty to Assess Gains For Mentally Disabled
D.C. Has Deadline Of Feb. 10 for Fixes

By Karlyn Barker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006

D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty will hold another hearing next month to assess the District's progress on improving services for the mentally disabled, especially those living in its group homes.

Fenty (D-Ward 4), who chairs the council's Committee on Human Services, wants to see whether the city's Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration (MRDDA) has complied with a court deadline to find better, safer housing for some group-home residents and help others move into assisted employment opportunities.

The court set a 90-day deadline, ending Feb. 10, for those initiatives to be completed. Fenty plans to make his own assessment with his hearing on Feb. 22.

"I want to work with the advocates and the experts to make sure that MRDDA is moving forward and meeting the 90-day plan," Fenty said.

Fenty's panel held an emergency hearing last month in the aftermath of a court monitor's report that found that four group-home residents -- a woman and three men -- had died since November 2004 because of inadequate health care. The report attributed the deaths to a pattern of neglect in the homes and shoddy oversight by the city.

The District government is the defendant in a nearly 30-year-old class-action federal lawsuit that centers on the quality of care for mentally disabled people housed by the District, many of whom also have severe physical disabilities. The plaintiffs are several hundred former residents of Forest Haven, the city's now-defunct facility for the mentally retarded. Most of them now live in group homes.

Marsha Thompson, who has been interim administrator of the MRDDA since April, has promised U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle that by Feb. 10 the city will:

Have a plan for better monitoring of the health care of 45 medically fragile residents previously identified as needing extra attention.

Move 30 group-home residents out of living arrangements that have been determined to be harmful and relocate them in small, integrated community settings.

Move 30 people into "supported employment," jobs that offer training and assistance to help them perform the work.

"I expect that this will all happen by the deadline," Thompson said in an interview.

Her office, she said, is working with group-home operators to ensure smooth relocations. Some residents, she said, don't want to leave the homes where they have lived for years and have friends. Her agency is trying to help them move into apartments or other group homes, often with close friends.

"They can't stay where they are if it's a bad provider or if the services are not supporting them appropriately," Thompson said.

At last month's hearing, Sandy Bernstein, legal director of University Legal Services, which represents the former Forest Haven residents in the lawsuit, expressed skepticism that the city could meet these proposed objectives.

"Based on the District's track record in a case that spans three decades, the plaintiffs do not believe the defendants will be able to eliminate the health and safety risks" for the former Forest Haven residents, said Bernstein, whose group is a protection and advocacy organization for District residents with disabilities.

Bernstein told the Committee on Human Services that if the District doesn't meet the judge's deadline, the plaintiffs in the suit "intend to seek further judicial intervention." This, she told Fenty, might include asking Huvelle to place the MRDDA under court receivership.

In an interview, Bernstein said she is concerned that the city may relocate small groups of residents without addressing the systemic problems affecting the care of all the plaintiffs in the suit.

"Some of those on the list to be moved in 90 days are on the list because they were relocated from one bad house to another," she said.

Advocates for people with developmental disabilities say that one factor contributing to problems in group homes is the lack of a coordinated enforcement structure. Currently, MRDDA sets policy and handles contracting with providers, while the Department of Health licenses and certifies the providers and is responsible for enforcement. This split in functions between two agencies, advocates say, causes confusion about performance standards and delays decisive action when problems occur in the homes.

Fenty's committee is considering whether to create a separate, cabinet-level agency with enforcement powers to oversee all services for developmentally disabled residents.

The committee's hearing Feb. 22 is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the D.C. Council chamber at the John A. Wilson Building, at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW.