No relief for ML's Lakeland Village

Final report on closures to be reviewed by governor, Legislature before lasting decisions made

By RYAN LANCASTER

Staff Reporter

A final report on state facilities closures repeats recommendations for cuts to prisons, juvenile rehabilitation centers and Residential Habilitation Centers (RHCs) such as Medical Lake's Lakeland Village.

Apart from new options for how to reduce roughly 1,600 beds from state prisons, the report, issued Nov. 5 by the Office of Financial Management (OFM), is essentially unchanged from a draft released last month.

While the recommendations don't affect Pine Lodge Corrections Center in Medical Lake, they do call for Lakeland to be cut back over eight years from 238 beds to 26 beds for the most severely disabled clients. In October 2010 a “Placement Transition Team” would begin examining housing options for most current Lakeland residents, who would be relocated to state and private programs starting in July 2012.

The state's Fircrest and Yakima Valley RHCs would also become “skilled nursing facilities” under the plan, while Francis Haddon Morgan Center and Rainier School would be phased out over the next several years.

At the urging of last year's state legislature, the OFM commissioned a study to figure how tens of millions of dollars might be recouped through reductions at state-run facilities.

The final report concludes that Washington has more RHC beds per citizen than most other states, which are fast leaving the business of operating long-term care facilities. This is in part because RHCs, with higher-paid personnel and steeper overhead costs, are more expensive to maintain than community support programs.

While the legislative mandate calls for a reduction of 250 beds from the state's RHCs, the final report proposes 880 beds be cut. OFM budget analyst Eric Mandt said Davis Deschaies, one of the consulting firms commissioned for the study, suggested the increase because “They said the only way this makes sense is a complete rethinking of the state system… A new service delivery system was proposed.”

Reductions to RHCs bring the need for a major expansion of Washington's current community supported living services to bring it up to par with what's needed, the report says. Recommendations suggest that one way this process could be facilitated is to have state employees now employed by RHCs operate supported living programs for individuals currently in their care, allowing skilled staff to stay employed caring for those they already have relationships with.

The report also calls for pay hikes, noting that Washington's care workers are compensated at the 35th percentile of competitive wages and that, “Nationally, state reimbursement rate schedules generally set targets between the 50th and 75th percentiles of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wages.”

But regardless of how any changes might be softened for employees or residents of RHCs, the report cautions that “people who live at the RHCs and their families are highly satisfied, do not want to leave and will strongly and actively resist community placement.”

Tim Welch, public affairs director for the Washington Federation of State Employees, agrees. “It's not a fiscal debate, it's an ideological debate,” he said of the plan. “Some in the Legislature believe state centers like Lakeland shouldn't exist – it's part of a larger political agenda.”

Welch and some Lakeland-employed union members have said moving residents – many of whom have lived at Lakeland for more than 50 years – into small group homes or private nursing facilities would be detrimental to their health and could cost more in the long run.

Mandt said he's heard anecdotal evidence pointing to both the success and failure of relocating residents from institutions into community facilities. In regards to the long-term health of residents, Mandt said, “It's difficult to make projections, there's no clear data either way.”

OFM spokesperson Kate Lykins Brown indicated the state may choose to track the progress of residents to learn the outcome of their transfer, but “These are very early days yet, there is a lot of material to digest.” She said the governor will consider the study's recommendations while developing a 2010 supplemental budget – to be released in December – while the legislature could make a decision as late as February 2010.

Meanwhile, Welch and other final report opponents say they'll work to get the governor and legislators to consider other options, such as suspending selected tax loopholes or instigating a temporary sales tax increase. “There are other ways to save money,” said Welch, “The governor didn't ask for this study and isn't bound to these findings.”

Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].