Inclusion Daily Express -- Final Months Of Institution Announced

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Final Months Of Institution Announced
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 25, 2007

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA--The state of Indiana has been officially notified that 540 employees at Fort Wayne State Developmental Center will be laid off between now and June 30, when the last large state-run institution to house people with developmental disabilities will be closed.

Liberty Healthcare Corp, which was contracted in early 2006 to operate the facility while downsizing it and getting it ready for closure, filed the notification earlier this week, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel reported.

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration announced in October 2005 that the now 117-year-old facility would close at the end of June 2007 and most of its 210 residents moved to homes in the community. Officials said at the time that community-based services would save taxpayers at least half the cost of housing people in the institution.

That announcement came just a few months after the closure of Muscatatuck State Developmental Center.

Seven years ago, architects projected that it would cost taxpayers $124 million just to refurbish and maintain the aging facilities.

The decision to downsize and close both institutions came, however, after they had come under scrutiny for several years because of allegations of resident abuse and neglect, and the June 2002 beating death of John P. Reed, 38, a longtime resident of FWDC.

Related:
"540 to be laid off at Fort Wayne State Developmental Center" (Fort Wayne News-Sentinel)
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/16544052.htm
"Trouble In Indiana's Institutions" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/in/indiana.htm

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