DATE: Tuesday, July 1, 1997                 TAG: 9707010280

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   54 lines

BEACH FACILITY DELAYS EVICTION OF MENTALLY RETARDED YOUTHS

Three mentally retarded youths were not forced out of their group home Monday as planned but were given more time to find other living arrangements.

Fidura & Associates, the Richmond-based company that operates the Providence Road facility, reached an agreement with Social Services to keep the home open and allow investigators to monitor it until the youths find other placements.

Fidura, which contracts with the city's Community Services Board to provide the care, had told the youths' parents in a June 20 letter that they must move out within 10 days. Fidura's actions followed a recent investigation in which Social Services investigators found that the clients had been neglected.

While the youths were given a reprieve Monday, Fidura said the youths must move out.

There is simply not enough money to pay for round-the-clock supervision of difficult clients, said Jennifer Fidura, company president.

Mediation is the first option to resolving the dispute between families and Fidura, said Jay Lazier, director of mental retardation services for the city's Community Services Board.

He said that if the families agree that Fidura is doing the job to their satisfaction and more money is found to support the program, a long-term solution might be found.

Parents had complained to Fidura since last summer about unexplained injuries, unsanitary living conditions and lack of supervision. They said the issues were not addressed by Fidura, the only for-profit provider in Virginia.

Investigators from Social Services agreed with the parents and said greater monitoring of the facility would be required.

Fidura objected to the watchdog approach and told families to make other arrangements.

But families of the youths have few places to turn when it comes to finding other services, Lazier said. The youths could be returned to their parents' homes with in-home support services or placed in the Southeastern Virginia Training Center in Chesapeake or with another provider. None of the above is a long-term solution.

Parents say that they are not equipped to care for their children, and as far as the training center goes, ``there's no room at the ranch,'' Lazier said. Finding another residential service provider could be just a stop-gap measure because state matching funds are in jeopardy, he said.

Lazier said allocating money for the care of the mentally retarded is not high on the state's list of priorities.

Fidura also did not comply with state regulations when it failed to report evidence of abuse, but the state licensure board apparently has not yet concluded its investigation. The board launched its investigation after Social Services reported its findings to licensure officials.

Meanwhile, Social Services Director Daniel Stone said his department doesn't have the funds to offer even emergency shelter for handicapped adults whose health and safety are in jeopardy.

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