Inclusion Daily Express -- Siblings Saved From Squalid Conditions

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Siblings Saved From Squalid Conditions
December 9, 2005

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA--The following six paragraphs are excerpts from a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Robert Prezel greets you with a bone-crushing handshake and won't let go.

In the kitchen, his younger brother Jack Prezel, 51, paces back and forth in his Pirates jersey, muttering so softly that you can't make out what he's saying. Dennis Prezel, who just turned 50, will be along in a little bit. Lisa Prezel, at 42 the youngest and the only woman in the family, is at work, cleaning toilets in the Strip District.

This is the Prezel family, formerly of Plum, now living with 24-hour caregivers in a South Side townhouse under the supervision of Achieva, one of the area's major service providers for the mentally disabled.

"There couldn't be a better situation for them," said Richard Prezel, who thought at one point he'd have to move his brothers and sister to Arizona. "They've got good caregivers. They do a lot of things together, and they've all got jobs. If I'd brought them all out here, I couldn't have done that for them."

It's quite a turnaround from April 2001, when Nancy J. Murray, then with ARC Allegheny, met the Prezels after fielding a phone call that four retarded adult siblings were living by themselves.

"That was the worst situation I've walked into in 30 years," Ms. Murray said.

Entire article:
"Family of four mentally disabled siblings rescued from 'death trap'" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05339/617393.stm

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