To the Editor:
My name is Donna McHugh and I am writing in response to your article [“Moving: From Institution to Community”] printed on April 2 regarding the Northern Virginia Training Center.
I am the sister and co-guardian of my 58-year-old brother Joseph F. McHugh (Joe) discussed in the article. He lives at the Northern Virginia Training Center (NVTC). Joe is minimally verbal, non-ambulatory, has serious digestive issues with spasticity and without continual preventative medical routines, performed by others at NVTC, he would be dead.
The article states that we have been provided a multitude of community placement choices. The choices presented to me and Joe’s other legal guardians have been inappropriate. The community does not have the skills or supports necessary for his real medical needs for his survival. We are actively investigating and reviewing choices — but nothing is available. There are not comparable and appropriate choices in Northern Virginia like we were promised. Currently, my only choice is the Central Virginia Training Center in Lynchburg, Va., which is slated to close in 2020 and go through the process of placement/discharge all over again which is stressful and full of anxiety.
No one can predict the future of the state-funded a-la-carte waiver, currently funded at 60 percent, which is being offered as my brother’s source of funding while currently he has a fully-funded (100 percent) Medicaid/Medicare federal waiver which means whatever his needs are they are met, so from a fiduciary standpoint as a legal guardian why would I change that? I can’t predict how he will react to a new home, staff and routine. My hope is this will be a positive transition. But, I strongly feel that the impending closure date is unrealistic and makes me wonder if the department/state is more interested in “discharge” and closure than fostering the correct and appropriate placements.
Finally, the Commonwealth of Virginia has had 40 years to develop community homes and resources. Virginia has the solution to serve many of its citizens including the medically fragile by using the property they already have and renovating it to meet individual/group needs. This is a solution that involves compromise and cooperation and would have Virginia leading the country.
I fear that my brother as well as many of the remaining residents will not find good, appropriate placements.
Donna McHugh
Centreville