ENID — A Department of Human Services proposal to be presented to the DHS Board of Commissioners today calls for greatly reducing Southern Oklahoma Resource Center in Pauls Valley, but Northern Oklahoma Resource Center in Enid would remain in operation.
Local legislators also say there will be negligible loss of jobs. Legislators received a copy of the report Monday for review.
According to the report, a large number of the residents of the Pauls Valley facility would be sent to community resources, which some families believe will not be good for loved ones, the 87-page report stated.
An example from a report on the residents at Hissom Memorial Center, which was closed in 1989, shows a large percentage of those residents died soon after their relocation.
The report calls for reducing the patient census of SORC to about 15 by August 2013 and transferring the remainder to either NORCE or community housing. According to the report, a total of 245 residents currently are housed in the two facilities. The end result would reduce that number to 112 at NORCE.
Implementing the plan will require 171⁄2 months from March 1, 2012, to Aug. 13, 2013. To reduce the combined census from 245 to 112 will require community placements for 130 people, who would be transferred at an average rate of eight to 10 per month, according to the report.
Richard DeVaughn, a retired Enid dentist who has been a member of the DHS board for eight years, said the impact on NORCE will not be deeply felt.
“After the report, it looks like NORCE will lose a few residents, but probably overall it will be a neutral blow to us,” DeVaughn said.
Some board members reportedly have questioned whether the residents can be moved as quickly as 17 months, because the department has neither the money nor the available community facilities to relocate those patients.
State Rep. Mike Jackson, R-Enid, said the report states there are no reductions of medical staff at NORCE.
“NORCE jobs are safe based on the report, which has been presented,” Jackson said. “NORCE loss of residents is basically a wash.”
State Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid, also is optimistic about the future of the Enid facility.
“There is a clear intent to keep NORCE in operation,” Anderson said.
He said one building at NORCE will be shut down, because it does not meet fire safety codes, but the net impact is 22 beds. The Pauls Valley facility will be shut down, except for a 15-bed hospital, leaving NORCE to become the major state institution.
This plan will be adopted by Department of Human Services unless the Legislature takes action and disapproves the plan, Anderson said. SORC is being shut down mostly because it does not meet federal safety standards, and the majority of facilities at NORCE do meet them.
“It would cost several million dollars to fix the problems at SORC, and there isn’t the money to do it,” he said.
Family members of residents in the two facilities overwhelmingly want both to remain open. At the SORC family input session, 47 of the residents were represented; At the NORCE session, 50 of the residents were. Affected staff also presented their opinions, according to the report.
The recommendation of the families was to keep both facilities open.
Among the comments from unidentified family members were those calling NORCE is an “outstanding” facility. One family member’s son has been at NORCE 44 years and is happy. Another said a brother has been at NORCE since he was 5; he now is 48, feels safe and has a job, and relocating him could be disruptive, according to the report from the family sessions.
The report presented eight alternatives for the centers, ranging from renovating both to having one center where resources would be consolidated while establishing other streams of income to support the centers. The report concluded most of the family members’ concerns are based on fear, primarily of the unknown.
The report seems to lean toward placing the residents in community facilities rather than resource centers.
“It was obvious that most families had not had experience, nor did they fully understand what has been made available in the community, over the past several years,” according to the report.
The report concluded families see a group home as a place where people with mild disabilities are provided minimal supervision.
They have no picture of a group home set up and operated specifically to meet the needs of physically involved and medically challenged individuals — a facility in which nursing services are available at all times and adequate equipment and space is provided to meet the needs of the population.
Those fears must be addressed in response to HB 2184, and there are a number of options available to address the fears driving “considerable opposition,” as well as the needs of families and affected staff, according to the report.
Families and staff have identified a broad range of ideas worthy of consideration that might be used to find an acceptable way forward.
To date, it appears the Enid facility will remain open, although some resident numbers will be slightly reduced, but medical staff and other jobs at NORCE essentially will remain.