• Health care workers, 'Families Opposed' group file petition to intervene with Office of Health Care Access (OHCA);
• Legislators funded facility, but Rell Administration continues to pursue closure; and
• OCHA hearing reconvenes next week to consider testimony from parents and staff.

HAMDEN – Despite a state budget that includes funding to keep the High Meadows residential treatment facility open and caring for boys and youth with severe psychiatric, medical and developmental disabilities, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) has closed admissions and continues to discharge boys even before the state's Office of Health Care Access (OCHA) can rule on the application for a 'Certificate of Need' to close.

A group of parents, the Ad Hoc Organization of Families Opposed to Closing High Meadows ("Families Opposed") has joined the state's largest union of health care workers, District 1199/SEIU, in a Petition to be Designated an Intervenor, filed on October 13 with OCHA. The group will announce the status of that petition tomorrow and the next steps in their fight to preserve services at the 43-bed residential treatment facility.

Those parents who have objected to DCF's plans for placement and discharge of their sons say they are under extreme pressure from the Department to agree to the new placement and fear their children will be shipped out-of-state if they continue to object.

WHO: House Speaker Christopher Donovan, area legislators, families, advocates, and facility staff.

WHAT: Protest of DCF's ongoing discharges and pressure on families; announce status of petition to intervene.

WHEN: 12:00 PM -- Wednesday, October 14

WHERE: High Meadows Residential Facility, 825 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden, CT
               At the bottom of the driveway entrance.