Developmental center closings cause family hardships

• Families say the closure of the center is ripping their structure apart

WOODBRIDGE –

Anthony Porcile, 68, arrives at Woodbridge Developmental Center between 10:30 and 11 a.m. every Saturday to pick up his 65-year-old brother, Peter, who has lived at the Middlesex County facility for the past 50 years.

In a schedule that his brother seems to anticipate, they first drive to the Netherwood Train Station in Plainfield, where Peter likes to watch the trains. Then they drive around a while before heading to Anthony's home in South Plainfield, where they listen to music, mostly 1950s and '60s rock 'n' roll.

"I prepare his lunch. He loves Italian food. He's born Italian," said Anthony, whose brother is considered profoundly developmentally disabled. Frail at 4 feet 10 inches tall and 65 pounds, Peter recently spent nearly two weeks in the hospital battling pneumonia. He does not speak or dress himself, and he has difficulty walking.

"I feed him myself, little pieces," Anthony said, who at times has had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on his brother to dislodge food. "I can't leave him alone."

Peter listens to more music before his brother serves him ice cream and cake, and then returns him to the developmental center between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Anthony returns home around 6 p.m., exhausted from the nonstop care his brother requires during their weekly outing.

"I always visit him every week," said Anthony, a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

It's a routine the two brothers have shared for several years. Previously, the routine included overnight stays, but that ended when Peter lost sight in one eye following a stroke two years ago. He has suffered seizures as well.

Anthony fears their weekend routine may soon end. Peter is among about 147 residents at the Woodbridge Developmental Center who will be relocated to another developmental center or group home before the facility closes in late December.

Peter is scheduled to be moved to a group home in Monmouth County or a developmental center in Woodbine, both locations a long distance from his brother's home.

"My skills at highway driving are not good," Anthony said, adding the Woodbridge center is about 10 miles from his home while the Monmouth County group home would be a 60-mile round trip and Woodbine Developmental Center is about three hours away.

He would prefer to have his brother placed at the Green Brook Regional Developmental Center in Somerset County or the Hunterdon Developmental Center in Clinton, but those North Jersey facilities are at capacity.

"If I can't see see him, I wouldn't be in his life. I've been very dedicated to him," said Anthony, adding he won't put his brother in a group home for fear he wouldn't get the round-the-clock care he needs. "He knows me. If he doesn't see me, he doesn't live a month."

Anthony hopes to delay his brother's transfer as long as possible until a bed becomes available in North Jersey.

"I constantly think about it," he said. "I constantly pray. I couldn't take care of him myself."

Two centers to close

New Jersey is closing two of its seven state-run developmental centers this year in compliance with a 2012 task force report recommendation. North Jersey Developmental Center in Totowa is closing Tuesday, and all of its the residents already have been relocated. Woodbridge Developmental Center is scheduled to close Dec. 31.

"Some people need to live in institutions. To close two in the same vicinity is ridiculous," said Diana Schneider of Woodbridge, whose sister has lived at the Woodbridge Developmental Center since the 1970s. "Nobody cares. How would they like it if it was their loved ones?"

What North Jersey families are now enduring is what was once feared for families living in Cumberland County and surrounding areas. Gov. Chris Christie originally planned to close the Vineland Developmental Center, one of the region's biggest employers, but legislation pushed by South Jersey lawmakers created the task force that eventually concluded it would be better to shut down the two North Jersey facilities instead.

There are 30 residents scheduled to transfer from the Woodbridge facility to other developmental centers in July or early August, plus five to 10 more who are tentatively scheduled to transfer to community group homes, according to Pam Ronan, a state Department of Human Services spokeswoman.

Families of a developmental center resident initially receive a letter announcing the person will be moved. A second letter specifies the exact date of the move, according to Joanne St. Amand, president of the Woodbridge Developmental Center Parents Association, whose sister was a longtime resident of the Woodbridge facility.

"Everyone who got letters" is going to the Vineland or Woodbine developmental centers, St. Amand said. "They are moving too fast, especially on the receiving end. It's a lot to ask staff to take on."

As the closing dates near, a flurry of legislation has been introduced to halt additional transfers from the developmental centers until an investigation is conducted into two deaths of former North Jersey Developmental Center residents who were moved to group homes. St. Amand said she is under the impression that legislation won't be moving forward.

"It's so heartbreaking," she said. "There have been issues with those who have gone into the community. That why we were hoping for the moratorium bill."

Legislation also has been introduced aimed at ensuring developmentally disabled residents receive comparable care if moved to a group setting. That legislation was introduced by state Sens. Peter Barnes III and Joseph Vitale, both D-Middlesex, and approved by the full Senate on Thursday. It also would require the new group homes be located within 30 miles of the developmental center.

St. Amand would like to see the 30-mile requirement apply to residents moved from the Woodbridge facility to other developmental centers, too.

Woodbine and Vineland

Dave Petruzziello said the proposed legislation comes too late to help him or his sister, Betty Lou, who was moved from Woodbridge to the Woodbine Developmental Center last week.

"I tried to fight this," said Petruzziello, 80, of Toms River. "Woodbine is 75 miles from Toms River. I'm not too happy about it."

He said his 75-year-old sister is blind and has to be hand-fed, and that a group home wasn't an option for her. She lived at Woodbridge Developmental Center for 30 years. Petruzziello wanted his sister to be transferred to Hunterdon Developmental Center, near his friends.

"I don't think the state gave us a fair deal," said Petruzziello, who fears his sister's life will be shortened by the move.

Frances Kauffman's daughter Theresa was moved in April to the Vineland Developmental Center, which was built in 1888 and is a four-hour round trip from her Old Bridge home. The Kauffmans, who are in their 70s, unsuccessfully fought the transfer in court. They wanted their 47-year-old daughter to be transferred to Hunterdon Developmental Center near where they have family.

When the Kauffmans visited their daughter for the first time on June 20, she was screaming and yelling and her hands red and swollen. Woodbridge staff members used to wrap her hands, said Kauffman, adding she and her husband talked to their daughter to calm her down.

Last Tuesday, Kauffman received a call that Theresa had been hospitalized following a seizure and urinary tract infection.

"She would have seizures in Woodbridge, but it didn't happen a lot," Kauffman said. "I think it's a big adjustment. They don't know her, and she doesn't know them."

Kauffman said a report on her daughter's progress was expected to be completed 30 days after she arrived in South Jersey. She's been told the report is now scheduled for September, nearly five months after the transfer.

"It's very hard," Kauffman added.

Diana Schneider of Woodbridge has lived 10 minutes away from her sister, 68-year-old Margaret Toth, at Woodbridge Developmental Center. Toth however, is scheduled to be transferred to the Vineland Developmental Center, a 2½-hour ride away.

At that distance, Schneider said, she would be lucky to be able to visit her sister a few times a year. She would prefer her sister be transferred to Hunterdon Developmental Center because she works in that area.

"I've written letters to everybody. I've told them the hardship. They don't care," said Schneider, 66, adding all the developmental center residents are being moved around like chess pieces. "I find it reprehensible."

Schneider said Toth takes seizure medication, can't use one arm, can't swallow regular food, can't speak and can't do anything for herself.

"She is fragile," Schneider said. "They check on her constantly."

Schneider said her sister has a broken leg and is bedridden. She wants her to stay at Woodbridge Developmental Center until her leg fully heals. She said a long ride in a van to Vineland wouldn't aid in healing.

"I am her legal guardian. I have everything to say about her well being except where she goes," Schneider said. "It's terrible. They don't want to listen, and it's ripping families apart."

AT A GLANCE: WOODBRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER

The Woodbridge Developmental Center was established in 1965 as a residential facility for people with developmental disabilities.

The center is on a 68-acre campus-like setting in the Avenel section of Woodbridge, Middlesex County.

A census on Aug. 31, 2013, indicated 285 men and women living there. The center's population is now down to about 150.