The state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) recently adopted an admissions policy for the state’s residential habilitation centers (RHCs), including Fircrest School in Shoreline. Fircrest has not admitted people in 15 years, with the exception of emergency situations.
In so doing, according to a report by the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, DSHS was limiting access to services provided by intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded (ICF/MR) and the state was in non-compliance with federal law and Washington’s Medicaid State Plan. Non-compliance has the potential to affect future federal funding of the state’s Medicaid program.
Linda Johnson, office chief with the Division of Developmental Disabilities in DSHS, said in early March DSHS officials adopted this policy because they did not have a formal written admissions policy. The audit, she contended, focused on the community alternative program which is connected to the state institutions. For people who do not want to be served in a community setting, Johnson said a policy was needed to determine how they would be admitted to state institutions.
An admissions team will evaluate all applications statewide, and based on criteria in the policy, will make recommendations to the division director. The admissions policy does not allow people to choose which institution in which they would like to live, but stipulates that people who are eligible to receive services at a state institution will be considered for placement at any of the four state institutions included under the admissions policy. Ultimately, Johnson said people who would like to reside at Fircrest are by no means guaranteed a spot at the institution.
“The policy doesn’t really allow for a choice,” Johnson said.
Only four of the five state institutions are included in the policy, based on their designation as ICF/MR facilities. RHCs that meet this designation include Lakeland Village in Medical Lake, Fircrest School in Shoreline, Rainier School in Buckley and Frances Haddon Morgan Center in Bremerton. Yakima Valley School is not designated as an ICF/MR facility.
There are capacity issues at Fircrest, Johnson said, and the current capacity is three to five vacancies. She added that the budget required the reduction in capacity of two homes by March and four by the biennium, and the homes that have been closed are not available for newly admitted residents.
If Fircrest is eventually directed to close, they would not commit to admitting residents to Fircrest, Johnson said.
To date, no applications for admissions have been submitted to the review team, said Johnson.
Maureen Durkan, a Friends of Fircrest member who has a sister living at Fircrest School, is concerned with how applications will be reviewed by DSHS officials. The people who review the applications are all DSHS employees and do not have any representation from parents, doctors or the community in general.
“I don’t know if it is that hopeful, they will just find a way to not admit these people to the residential centers unless they are under some scrutiny,” Durkan said. “We will believe it when we see that someone has been admitted.”
The open admissions policy may be a false hope, Durkan said, and she suspects people will try to make it a real hope by applying to have their loved ones live at Fircrest. Another issue is that people usually apply to the RHC in their area, and this policy does not guarantee local residents that they would be admitted to Fircrest.
For Sandy Hansen, whose son, John, was admitted to Fircrest on a short-term emergency basis, the new admittance policy gives hope that he may be admitted long-term. Hansen, 75, lives in Port Townsend, and is unable to care for her son herself because she is elderly and her health is declining. Her son, who suffers from a personality disorder and has the mental age of a 3-year-old, needs to be monitored all day long, she said. He was admitted to Fircrest only after spending 10 days at Kitsap Mental Health Services. Prior to his admittance to Fircrest, DSHS could not find a place for her son and no one would take him.
“There are so many people that belong there, they have trained staff,” Hansen said about Fircrest. “They don’t have trained staff at the group homes.”
An informational session to discuss the implications of the admissions policy is scheduled for 2-4 p.m. Saturday, April 24, at the Kirkland Library, 308 Kirkland Avenue.
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