DATE: Saturday, July 26, 1997               TAG: 9707260448

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS 

        STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   53 lines

FOR 45 DAYS, GROUP HOME'S RESIDENTS CAN STAY, THANKS TO NEW COMPANY

Three mentally disabled young men living in a Kempsville group home were given a reprieve Friday when a new provider took over their care.

The three were threatened with eviction from their home of two years after two state investigations found the company providing them with 24-hour care, Fidura & Associates, guilty of neglect at the facility.

But an agreement reached this week allowed Support Services of Virginia Inc. to staff the Providence Road home when Fidura & Associates chose to bow out instead of coming up with a plan that would comply with state guidelines.

Kay Myrick, director of Support Services, will have at least 45 days to find a new site for the clients. She could not be reached Friday.

Jennifer Fidura, who surrendered her state license to operate the facility Friday in lieu of a compliance plan to address shortcomings, holds a month-to-month lease on the property. A report that she plans to use the home for less-challenging clients and sign a year's lease with Realty Executives could not be confirmed Friday.

Jay Lazier, director of mental retardation for the Virginia Beach Community Services Board, affirmed Friday that the transition from Fidura to Support Services had been a smooth one.

State guidelines call for clients, parents and guardians to be apprised of all available choices by local officials when they first enter the system and when there are changes in their services.

Lazier said parents were not given a choice of providers in this case because the change had been one of quick necessity.

``We were not able to go through the choice experience as a choice purist would advocate for'' in this case, he said, because the CSB had been ``given a short time frame to put together a new program after Fidura's plan to close'' became known.

In Virginia Beach, four companies provide services to mentally retarded citizens: Fidura, Support Services of Virginia, Volunteers of America and Community Alternatives Inc.

Yet parents of other clients whose cases are managed by the Community Services Board say they were not given a choice as to service providers.

``CSBs need to make decisions as to the expertise'' of providers, said Lazier. ``The general choices families had available were: home, an untenable one; institutionalization, not a choice of any of the three young men's parents; and another provider.'' The last option was unworkable, he said, because ``a lot of things have to happen'' to make that take place, and time was short.

On Thursday, advocate Ken Zelubowski complained to Community Services Board members that state policies regarding choices were not being followed.

``(Executive Director Dennis) Wool says he refers clients to a provider list. But they're getting inhumane treatment, and you are appointed by City Council,'' he said. ``Stop the inept treatment. People are at risk.''

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