Laura
08-04-2008, 12:50 PM
http://www.silive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1217851203141430.xml&coll=1
Developmentally disabled facilities change procedures
After missing woman found, agencies improve communication to better oversee their charges
Monday, August 04, 2008
By DEBORAH YOUNG
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It is a story that ended well.
But until Karen Kelly returned unharmed to her group home Saturday, July 26 after disappearing four days beforehand, the family of the developmentally disabled 55-year-old spent sleepless nights musing on "what ifs" and wondering "how could this have happened?"
The woman with a mental acuity roughly equivalent to a second-grader left her Sunnyside residence run by a Very Special Place on the previous Tuesday to take a public bus to her Travis day program.
Still, the fact that she did not show up that day at a vocational program run by Community Resources did not set off any alarm bells, and it wasn't until later that night -- hours after she didn't show up at home -- that a massive search for her was set into motion.
In the wake of Ms. Kelly's secretive sojourn to see an old friend and her decision to camp unseen in her backyard for nearly a week, the two agencies -- which together oversee thousands of developmentally disabled adults on Staten Island -- say they have improved communication so as to better oversee the movements of their most autonomous charges.
"Anybody who travels now, we are calling their workplace or wherever they were to make sure they arrived," said Genevieve Benoit, executive director of A Very Special Place, where Ms. Kelly has been getting services for years. "We never had this happen before and it never came up before. Now we've instituted a policy so we can assure the person has arrived wherever they set out for that day."
She said agencies which serve the developmentally disabled would be doing a disservice to limit the mobility of people like Ms. Kelly, who have the ability to travel on their own and benefit substantially from the experience," she said.
"There are people who are developmentally disabled who have the skills to travel indecently and do a lot of things independently," she said. "It is really it is our responsibility to promote that and encourage them."
Community Resources, which runs the vocational program where Ms. Kelly and her colleagues perform such jobs as assembling the remote controls for Verizon, will now begin tracking its employees, said Barbara Devaney, director of development and community relations.
"We have instituted a formal policy as a result of Ms. Kelly's absence; we are telling people we want a phone call if somebody is going to be late or not in," she said. "This is a work place, if you weren't going to show up for work you should call. This way we can check those phone calls against our records and know if somebody is missing."
After putting together informal search groups every night she was gone and distributing what they estimate to be 20,000 fliers, Ms. Kelly's family said they welcome the procedure change.
"I hope it doesn't happen to anybody else in any other [residence] in Staten Island and the whole city," said her brother, John Kelly. "What about the clients with no family member left. Who would be there to fight for them if they disappeared?"
Deborah Young is a news reporter for the Advance.
©2008 SI Advance
© 2008 SILive.com All Rights Reserved.
Developmentally disabled facilities change procedures
After missing woman found, agencies improve communication to better oversee their charges
Monday, August 04, 2008
By DEBORAH YOUNG
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It is a story that ended well.
But until Karen Kelly returned unharmed to her group home Saturday, July 26 after disappearing four days beforehand, the family of the developmentally disabled 55-year-old spent sleepless nights musing on "what ifs" and wondering "how could this have happened?"
The woman with a mental acuity roughly equivalent to a second-grader left her Sunnyside residence run by a Very Special Place on the previous Tuesday to take a public bus to her Travis day program.
Still, the fact that she did not show up that day at a vocational program run by Community Resources did not set off any alarm bells, and it wasn't until later that night -- hours after she didn't show up at home -- that a massive search for her was set into motion.
In the wake of Ms. Kelly's secretive sojourn to see an old friend and her decision to camp unseen in her backyard for nearly a week, the two agencies -- which together oversee thousands of developmentally disabled adults on Staten Island -- say they have improved communication so as to better oversee the movements of their most autonomous charges.
"Anybody who travels now, we are calling their workplace or wherever they were to make sure they arrived," said Genevieve Benoit, executive director of A Very Special Place, where Ms. Kelly has been getting services for years. "We never had this happen before and it never came up before. Now we've instituted a policy so we can assure the person has arrived wherever they set out for that day."
She said agencies which serve the developmentally disabled would be doing a disservice to limit the mobility of people like Ms. Kelly, who have the ability to travel on their own and benefit substantially from the experience," she said.
"There are people who are developmentally disabled who have the skills to travel indecently and do a lot of things independently," she said. "It is really it is our responsibility to promote that and encourage them."
Community Resources, which runs the vocational program where Ms. Kelly and her colleagues perform such jobs as assembling the remote controls for Verizon, will now begin tracking its employees, said Barbara Devaney, director of development and community relations.
"We have instituted a formal policy as a result of Ms. Kelly's absence; we are telling people we want a phone call if somebody is going to be late or not in," she said. "This is a work place, if you weren't going to show up for work you should call. This way we can check those phone calls against our records and know if somebody is missing."
After putting together informal search groups every night she was gone and distributing what they estimate to be 20,000 fliers, Ms. Kelly's family said they welcome the procedure change.
"I hope it doesn't happen to anybody else in any other [residence] in Staten Island and the whole city," said her brother, John Kelly. "What about the clients with no family member left. Who would be there to fight for them if they disappeared?"
Deborah Young is a news reporter for the Advance.
©2008 SI Advance
© 2008 SILive.com All Rights Reserved.