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No More Residents at JDC
The heart of Jacksonville beats no more. The final residents of the Jacksonville Developmental Center moved out on Tuesday.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s office is touting the transition of patients from the now-shuttered state run facility as a success. His critics, though, say the assessment is far from the truth. They’re questioning just how many JDC residents were moved to another state-run facility.
On Thursday, both Quinn’s office and the Committee to Protect the Residents of the JDC put out news releases. Quinn’s called the move “a historic milestone for improving the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges in Illinois.” The committee, however, is calling the move misleading.
“We did what was in the best interest of the residents,” Januari Smith Trader with the Illinois Department of Public Health said.
She said there were 185 residents at JDC in the beginning of 2012.
“Many of these people are still on what we call pre-transition visits, so they're not officially discharged, but they're not at JDC either,” Smith Trader said.
There are exactly 80 in those pre-transition visits. Overall, though, Quinn’s office said the transitioning of the former residents to community care is indeed a success.
“I think it comes down to what your definition of community care is, and what your definition of success is,” Republican State Senator Sam McCann, who represents Jacksonville and Carlinville, said.
According to the Committee to Protect Residents of the JDC, at least 50 former residents have been moved to other state-run facilities.
“I'm not quite sure how you can issue a press release touting your success of moving folks into community care when four dozen or more residents are just shipped off to another SODC,” McCann said.
Smith Trader admits that some former JDC residents are living in other state-run developmental centers, but she said fault doesn’t lie with the state.
“Obviously, we're not going to go against anyone's wishes if they don't want to go, so therefore we did transfer some folks to SODCs at the parent or guardian's request,” Smith Trader said.
She couldn’t tell us how many former JDC residents are now living at other state-run developmental centers, because the information is being compiled by someone else. Smith Trader also could not say when that information would be available.
McCann said he has asked the Executive Inspector General of Illinois to investigate the transitions. McCann believes medical files may have been altered to increase the chances of residents being accepted into community homes. It’s an allegation Smith said is false. According to McCann, the investigation is in the preliminary stage.
