RELATED: Families, clients face uncertain future with adult day center closing
Butler County has such a small number of people being served at Liberty Adult Center that a one-year time frame was optimal, said Butler County Board of Development Disabilities Superintendent Lisa Guliano.
“Quite frankly after we announced, our numbers are dropping rapidly,” she said. “Our concern was finding that balance of stretch it out too long — and you have to close anyway because you can’t afford to stay open, you don’t have the resources — and what would be the balance of giving people ample time to work on a transition plan. That’s how we came up with the 13-month plan.”
The county board’s decision to close Liberty Center, 5645 Liberty Fairfield Road, came from a state directive and was prompted by a rule enacted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
County boards of developmental disabilities across the state and country are being required to take the same or similar steps to meet federal guidelines for services paid for using federal money.
The federal rule prohibits organizations from providing direct services to individuals with disabilities with federal waivers if they also provide their case management.
The Butler County DD Board has had talks with private providers, Guliano said, but those organizations wanted the board to subsidize them.
The board is operating with a $3.6 million deficit this year.
Neighboring Warren County already had a private provider under its umbrella of services. That provider will be taking over the county’s entire program in January 2018.
Warren County serves about 1,500 clients, with about 250 receiving adult services.
“Our hope is that for the individuals we serve and families that they see no difference,” Warren County Board of DD Superintendent Megan Manuel said. “The goal is we’ll have the same building, the same employees and it’ll be the same services.”
The only changes, she said, will be from an administrative standpoint.
Employees who are currently Warren County DD employees will become employees of the private provider, Production Services Unlimited Inc., she said.
Hamilton County’s Board of DD will have to relocate 482 people spread across three day centers, and they are still figuring out that transition, according to spokeswoman Jenny Dexter, who added there are hundreds of private providers in Hamilton County.
Still, Dexter said, the changes are a challenge.
“This is a very, very tough time in our system for families,” she said. “We’re basically changing the way we’ve done services for 40 years. It’s very, very hard and we are committed to walking each step, with each person and each family to make the situation the best it can possibly be for that person.”
In Montgomery County, Board of DD Superintendent Nancy Banks said they have a very different and significant problem coming into compliance with the mandates.
There are only 25 private providers for day services and they have about 1,000 clients to place. They have hired a full-time private provider recruiter.
“Every county is kind of in a different place in the transition process and we’re in a very different place than Butler County, ” she said. “We currently still operate five (adult day) centers, so we have a large number of folks and we also have very, very few private providers in our county. So right now we’re focusing on recruitment and development of providers.”
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