THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511200077
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
Virginia ranks last among all states in providing group homes for mentally retarded people, and the United Methodist Church wants to change that.
Certain that cutbacks in state and federal funding will further weaken support for the mentally retarded, the Methodist Church in Virginia is laying the groundwork to open group homes across the state.
Arthur L. Wolz Jr., who directs the church's Commission on Ministry to Persons with Handicapping Conditions, said last week that he expects to recommend the homes to the state church's annual conference in June.
A national study by a consulting firm showed that of all states and the District of Columbia, Virginia provided the least in small-setting residential services - serving 3.4 mentally retarded people for every100,000 in population. By contrast, New Hampshire, which ranked the highest, serves 222.6 per 100,000.
The national average of people served is 53.6 per 100,000, showed the 1994 study conducted by Mangan, Blake, Prouty & Lakin.
Virginia was asigned an ``F,'' or failing grade, when the consultants evaluated the quality of service provided to the state's mentally retarded residents.
As a point of reference, Virginia ranks 13th in median income.
If the Methodists' plan is approved at the June conference, the first homes could be ready to care for clients as early as spring 1997, said Robert Pitzer, director of the Southeast United Methodist Agency for Rehabilitation.
Pitzer advised Wolz this month that the 21 public hearings held Sept. 24 around Virginia indicated an overwhelming need and support for the homes.
The agency oversees 39 homes that serve 293 mentally retarded people in Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. Six more are under construction, and 14 are ``on the drawing board,'' Pitzer said.
If approved, Pitzer said, the organization ``will run hard'' to open the first home or homes. They likely would be be in an area where the need is considered most pressing: Norfolk, the Peninsula, Alexandria, Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Danville and Ashland.
Already, the commission has been offered five houses ``with strings attached,'' Pitzer said. The offers have come from parents of mentally retarded adults concerned about their children's future after they die.
While more than half of the supportive comments at the September hearings came from parents of mentally retarded adults who are Methodists, the proposed group homes would serve people of all faiths, Pitzer said.
Pitzer created the Southeast United Methodist Agency for Rehabilitation 27 years ago after working as a pastor with a family that lost its mentally retarded daughter in an institution. Soon after the girl had returned to the institution from an Easter visit with her family, Pitzer got a call from the facility's chaplain, who told him the girl had mistaken a bottle of cleaning disinfectant for a bottle of orange soda and gulped it down, Pitzer said, his voice shaking.
``I buried that little girl, then tried to help the family deal with their guilt for three years,'' he recalled. ``They sent her away, thought they had killed her.''
Since then, Pitzer, whose office is in Lake Junaluska, N.C., has been an advocate for the mentally retarded.
Financing to open and operate the Virginia homes still is uncertain. The only funds available in Virginia to care for mentally retarded people are ``what follows a client from an institution into the community,'' Pitzer said. That leaves ``a bundle of people out there'' - those who for years have been cared for at home by family.
Quality care for a mentally retarded adult in a small group home costs about $2,000 a month, Pitzer said. Most collect Supplemental Security Income and Social Security checks, but that does not buy the kind of care they deserve, he said.
``We'll get it like Minnie Pearl finds things to go on her hat,'' he quipped. ``There is always someone out there who cares.'' ILLUSTRATION: VP graphic
Group Homes: The number of people with mental retardation services
in small settings per 100,000 population on June 30, 1993.
State/Number/Grade
Top Five
Middel of the pack
Bottom five
51. VIRGINIA
[for complete list, see microfilm]
Source: Mangan, Blake, Prouty & Lakin
KEYWORDS: MENTALLY RETARDED GROUP HOMES
by CNB