North Jersey developmental center to close its doors

WOODBRIDGE – For some families of residents who lived at the Woodbridge Developmental Center, emotions are running high this holiday season, as the Middlesex County facility closes on New Year’s Day.

“There is a lot of heartache at this time of year,” said Joanne St. Amand, president of the Woodbridge Developmental Center Parent Association, a group representing relatives of people with developmental disabilities living at the state-run facility.

“People had traditions that had to be changed. Some people didn’t get to celebrate with friends and staff,” St. Amand said. “Others had celebrations, but they were different.”

Some families were unable to travel to see relatives who had lived in developmental center but now have been moved to facilities farther away.

St. Amand said one family with a daughter at the center used to reserve hotel rooms nearby so that the family could gather and celebrate the holidays together. She said the daughter now lives at a developmental center in South Jersey, far from friends and center staff with whom she was familiar.

She said another family has two sons who have been moved to Woodbine Developmental Center in Cape May County, and are both suffering from eating problems.

“When it should be a joyful time and time with family, there is disruption, separation, anxiety and stress,” St. Amand said. “We worry about the year to come.”

Two years ago, a state task force addressing declining enrollment at state developmental centers called for the closing of the North Jersey Developmental Center in Totowa and the Woodbridge Developmental Center, and relocating their residents to other developmental centers and group homes.

The task force’s decision resulted in the state scrapping an earlier plan to close the Vineland Developmental Center, a move that Cumberland County officials feared would have severely disrupted the local economy.

The state Treasury Department’s Division of Purchase and Property will determine what happens with the 68-acre campus-like site in Woodbridge, which opened in 1965.

About 95 percent of Woodbridge Developmental Center residents were severely or profoundly developmentally disabled, according to St. Amand, whose sister was a resident at the facility for many years before being moved to another state center this year. Many residents are in their 50s with elderly parents unable to travel great distances.

“It made no sense to close it (Woodbridge). Those people were in the most need,” said St. Amand, adding many had seizures and medical complexities and are unable to communicate. “They can’t use words to say what’s wrong. It’s heartless.”

Residents relocated

The Totowa facility closed July 1. The last residents at the Woodbridge facility were moved out on Dec. 11, according to Pam Ronan, a state Department of Human Services spokeswoman.

When the Task Force on the Closure of Developmental Centers made a binding recommendation in July 2012 to close the Woodbridge and Totowa facilities, there were 196 men and 137 women living at the Woodbridge center.

Since then, 83 have moved into community homes and 236 moved to other developmental centers: including 76 to Vineland Developmental Center and 74 to Woodbine Developmental Center. A few were admitted to nursing home facilities or moved by their families to different states.

St. Amand said 70 percent of the Woodbridge residents were moved to other developmental centers, mostly in South Jersey.

She asked Gov. Chris Christie several times to visit the Woodbridge facility, but he declined.

“To make a decision to close the developmental center and move 333 individuals out of their homes and not come to see it is poor leadership,” she said.

Lost jobs

The closure also resulted in about 622 layoffs and 110 retirements, and affected about 2,910 employees throughout the state Department of Human Services system, according to Sherrie Preische of SPM Solutions, who has been working with St. Amand and other relatives fighting the closure of the developmental centers.

As a result of the layoffs and retirements, many developmental center residents who moved out of Woodbridge are now cared for by staff they do not recognize, and some have not responded well to the change in location and caregivers, St. Amand said.

“The speed in which they did the closure didn’t allow for proper planning and having supports in place. A little bit of compassion and planning would have gone a long way here,” said St. Amand, believes the state may look to close other developmental centers.

When the closure dates were announced earlier this year, St. Amand said, there was rush to relocate residents.

“If they went slower, they could have planned and had more openings. They moved people around without caring,” said St. Amand, who plans to continue supporting efforts to enhance the lives of all residents in developmental centers.