Nurses, social workers, teachers, and elected officials spoke out at a press conference after an Office of Health Care Access public hearing on the process for closing the residential facility

HARTFORD – Parents of special needs children and the clinicians, therapists, social workers, teachers and support staff who work with them at High Meadows gathered at the Capitol today to testify before the Office of Health Care Access (OHCA). Advocates for the youth at the residential center came to lambaste the request by the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to expedite Governor M. Jodi Rell's proposal to close the facility despite the legislature funding its services in the new 2010 - 11 biennial budget.

High Meadows is the state's only facility that treats male youth with psychological and physical issues with on-site, round-the-clock medical care. Governor Rell has moved ahead with her proposal to close the facility, which she first announced in February, and DCF has been rapidly discharging patients and transferring children to out-of-state facilities for the past six weeks.

Legislators have questioned the legality of the Governor's actions. At a joint hearing convened by the General Assembly's Public Health and Human Services Committees earlier this month, Representative Toni Walker (D-New Haven) raised doubts about the Governor's authority to close a facility with a budget in place that calls for it to stay open. Speakers at the hearing also questioned the so-called cost savings the Governor has claimed will result from the closing of High Meadows.

At the hearing, OHCA Commissioner Cristine Vogel granted additional time for District 1199/SEIU to petition for and secure intervenor status in DCF's certificate of need process. District 1199, along with CSEA/SEIU Local 2001, represents the facility's professional workforce. She recessed the hearing until the week of October 19, and several lawmakers, including Representatives Walker and Elizabeth Esty (D-Cheshire), joined members of both unions for a press conference to renew attention to the "High Meadows boys" who have been left out of this process.

Stacy Tattersall’s twelve year-old son Raymond has been living at High Meadows in Hamden. At six, Raymond had a brain tumor removed resulting in eating, anger and behavior issues that necessitate around-the-clock medical care.

"My biggest goal for Raymond is to get him out of the institution setting. He's been doing it for two and a half years now. He's a little boy. I'm tired of seeing him moved around, getting attached and making friends with the children and the staff and building bonds and then being moved again. It's not helping him. He takes steps backwards every time he's moved. It's horrible for him," said Stacy.

Dr. Victoria Soovajian is a board-certified Pediatrician with twenty years of experience in working with DCF-involved patients. "The greatest gap in service for these children is residential and community resources for the medically complex population and that gap continues. High Meadows bridges that gap and that gap will widen further if we are closed" she said.

"The expense, patient trauma and general chaos associated with using emergency rooms for dealing with ill and troubled children who have been ejected from group homes, private residential settings, foster homes and families will become a greater and greater problem if OHCA approves DCF's rush to close High Meadows" Soovajian added.

Kathy Fenton, a special education teacher at High Meadows, said "in thirty-six years of providing services to a constantly changing special education population, I can honestly say that while at the High Meadows facility, I have seen countless success stories. I have seen large and small changes in our boys. Changes that don’t make the evening news, and they don't bring any money into the state. But, to a child who learns to read, make change, follow a recipe, read a bus schedule, or navigate the Internet, they are far more important."

District 1199/SEIU and CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 represent the healthcare, social, and education workforce at the Connecticut Department of Children and Families' High Meadows facility, and have advocated for keeping it open since the Governor proposed closing it.