SELINSGROVE — Snyder County's largest employer could be affected as a class-action lawsuit alleges residents of five state-operated institutions, including Selinsgrove Center, have not been offered the opportunity to move to community settings.
The Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, a federally funded nonprofit organization that advances and protects the rights of adults and children with disabilities, filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court against the state Department of Public Welfare.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six plaintiffs, including two who live at Selinsgrove Center.
The Selinsgrove Center plaintiffs are Frank Edgett, 50, of Cumberland County; and Richard Grogg, 45, of York County. They have been institutionalized since 1987 and 1988, respectively. Though they were described in the court complaint as high-functioning, their disabilities precluded them from being interviewed, said their attorney, Robert Meek of the Rights Network.
He did say, however, that Grogg and Edgett wish to leave the Selinsgrove Center for a community setting.
According to the lawsuit, the Rights Network claims the state Department of Public Welfare has failed to provide its clients with the opportunity to receive services in integrated, community settings, despite the desires of its institutionalized clients.
The Rights Network claims this is a violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
But state Department of Public Welfare spokeswoman Stacey Witalec said Tuesday that the closing of Laurelton Center in 1998, Western Center of Canonsburg in 2000 and Altoona Center in 2005 makes clear the state's desire to reduce its reliance on institutional care and improve access to home and community-based services for Pennsylvanians living with mental retardation.
Witalec would not comment specifically on the Rights Network lawsuit.
"We look forward to be able to afford a community option to them when it's appropriate," Witalec said. "It's our hope that we can help people continue to move into the community if that's what they wish to do and many of them, they want to be able to live at home or in a home-like setting."
Meek dismissed Witalec's comments as statespeak, and said Pennsylvania does not have an integration plan with specific time lines and discharge benchmarks to develop community alternatives for residents of state-operated institutions.
Meek also said that centers like Laurelton closed many years ago, and said the state has made no real effort to move clients from institutions to the community since then.
"They have not moved anyone out of state centers in any significant numbers, so that doesn't really wash," Meek said.
Selinsgrove Center's population was reported to be 348 last year. Witalec said it dropped by 14 to 334 this year; at least three of those can be attributed to deaths. The average resident age at Selinsgrove Center is 58.
The lawsuit contends that the costs of providing community services to clients is far less than the costs of continuing to institutionalize them.
The Rights Network claims the average annual cost of providing services in a state-operated institution is nearly $228,000 per person, more than double the average per capita cost of providing community services to such an individual.
That estimate is higher than the one provided by Selinsgrove Center last year, whose officials estimated the yearly average cost per client to be about $185,300, according to 2006 figures. The center's yearly budget is about $70 million.
Nearly 900 employees provide medical and mental health care, physical and speech therapy, nutritional care and pastoral services at Selinsgrove Center, making it the largest employer in Snyder County, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry.
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