Fwd: FCC: APD News Clip -- Adult day care program to shut down Nov. 14 (Sunri...

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Family Care Council Communication:

For your information and sharing.

Bob Wessels

Employment Coordinator, Community Outreach, FCC Liaison

Agency for Persons with Disabilities

201 West Broward Blvd., Suite 305

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

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Email: _Wessels@...

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The Agency supports Persons with Developmental Disabilities in Living,

Learning and Working in their Community.

----- Forwarded by Wessels/APD/DCF on 10/14/2008 12:12 PM -----

APD News/D20/DCF

Sent by: Jeff

Saulich

10/14/2008 12:08

PM Subject

APD News Clip -- Adult day care

program to shut down Nov. 14

(Sunrise of Collier) -- Naples

Daily News

Naples Daily News - October 14, 2008

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/oct/13/adult-day-care-program-shut-down-nov-\

14/

Adult day care program to shut down Nov. 14

By LIZ FREEMAN

NAPLES — Kathy Heider doesn’t know how to tell her 39-year-old daughter,

Amy, who has epilepsy and is developmentally disabled, that she won’t be

going to her adult day program anymore come next month.

Sunrise Community of Collier County, formerly known as TECH, is closing its

adult day program in East Naples on Nov. 14 because of state budget cuts.

“She will be devastated,†Heider said of her daughter. “I just don’t

understand it. Why pick on Naples?â€

Officials with the Miami-based Sunrise Group said state budget cuts and a

revamped Medicaid waiver system for how people with developmental

disabilities are classified for services is making it impossible to keep

the program afloat.

Sunrise is required to give a 30-day notice to the state Agency for Persons

with Disabilities of its plans to close after the Oct. 15 start of the

revised Medicaid waiver system with service caps, hence the Nov. 14 closing

date.

Besides Amy Heider, another 55 adults with developmental disabilities and

their families who have relied on Sunrise’s day program at 3984 Arnold Ave.

will have no place to turn.

Nobody else runs a similar program in Collier, which is effectively a

respite program for the families of the adult children with developmental

issues. The program operates Monday through Friday and offers help with

daily living skills and other pre-vocational activities.

“We have struggled over this,†said Weeks, chief financial officer of

Sunrise Group. “It is something we very much hate to do. It was not taken

lightly.â€

Sunrise will continue to offer in Collier its supportive living assistance

and supportive employment programs, where some adults with functional

levels of disabilities are able to live independently in apartments and

acquire job training skills at an employer’s workplace. Locally, 39 local

adults are involved in the supportive living and supportive employment

program, said Starzyk, Sunrise executive director in Collier.

Families of the 56 local residents who regularly come to Sunrise’s

adult-day center are being notified now of the planned closing. Where they

will turn for help is unclear.

“That is the question we put forth to the state,†Starzyk said, adding that

not operating the day program will save $480,000 a year, but the money for

services for the individuals remains attached to them if they can find

other services.

Some people might be able to go to similar programs in Lee County but

transportation becomes an issue, and the state would have to bend some of

its rules to allow that, he said.

Weeks, Sunrise’s CFO, said the parent nonprofit organization has been

subsidizing the Collier program by $150,000 to $200,000 a year in recent

years, for a total of $500,000 in the last five years. That is no longer

sustainable now that revisions to the Medicaid waiver system with new caps

on services is kicking in, which would make the Collier program operate at

a new deficit of $13,000 a month, he said.

“The debts have slowly grown and the state has not provided adequate

funding,†Weeks said. “The (Collier) program was one of the biggest

losers.â€

Sunrise has not taken steps to close down any of its other programs in the

state, although there has been some consolidations, he said.

If an outside charity or donor stepped forward to cover the $13,000 a

month, the Collier adult day program could be kept open, he said.

“It’s very possible,†Weeks said. “We would be very interested, if we

hadn’t closed. Time goes on and it gets more difficult.â€

“If a miracle comes, who knows,†said Starzyk, the local executive director

of Sunrise. “But it certainly is not something I plan on.â€

The building on Arnold Avenue where the adult day program operates is on a

month-by month lease, he said. The program also has 12 employees, who are

being told they are losing their jobs.

Ernie Bretzmann, executive director of the United Way in Collier County,

learned late last week of Sunrise’s plan.

“We hate to see this happen,†he said.

The United Way chapter had provided Sunrise of Collier with $90,000 this

year and was prepared to allocate $90,000 for next year but was asking

Sunrise to come back by December with a plan to raise $135,000 in 2009 to

help stay solvent, he said.

“We feel they needed to work harder on finding resources elsewhere,â€

Bretzmann said. “We encourage agencies to go out and raise money. They

(Sunrise) decided not to do that.â€

For Heider and her daughter, the impending closing of the adult day program

will mean a disruption to the rhythm of their lives. Every weekday morning,

Amy gets picked up by a special-needs bus outside the family’s home and is

driven to Sunrise five mornings a week. She stays there during the day and

plays bingo, plays on the computer and socializes.

“She knows everybody,†her mother said, adding that her family would be

willing to help somehow keep the program operating.

“That is all she had,†Heider said. “She loved it. (Sunrise’s closing)

is

going to take the joy out of her life.â€

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