Settlement Opens Doors for Teen - Sacramento Bee 1/27/94

SETTLEMENT OPENS DOORS FOR TEEN {BYLINE} NANCY WEAVER BEE STAFF WRITER

Sacramento Bee

Thursday, January 27, 1994

Section: METRO

Page: B1

-- A few years ago, Billy Coffelt lived in a 27-bed ward in a state institution for severely disabled children. One morning, a janitor found him on the floor in the bathroom, bleeding from a severe head injury.

Small for his age and suffering from a rare genetic defect, Coffelt was hurt by others at the Sonoma Developmental Center. His own frustration and aggression were fed by institutional chaos, so sometimes he lashed out at others, his father said.

Now, the 16-year-old lives in a home. And everybody in his Greenhaven neighborhood, from the bank teller to the grocery clerk, knows him. He loves to go for walks, to run errands and to play in the sandbox at the park near his home.

Coffelt and his family sued the state of California four years ago, and a court settlement approved last week is expected to lead to an overhaul of the state's system of care for the disabled.

Under the terms of the settlement, the state has agreed to reduce the population of six developmental centers where people with disorders such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy and autism receive care.

California officials say they are committed to spending $334 million in state and federal funds to move the disabled out of institutions and into homes, reducing the centers' population from 6,200 to 4,200 over the next five years.

"There will be families who won't have to go through what we had to go through," said William Coffelt, Billy's father, who has been unable to care for his son at home because of two younger siblings and a wife with Alzheimer's disease.

"I saw what the institution did to him," said Coffelt of Pollock Pines as Billy tugged on his arm to go home for a weekend visit. "I've seen what living in a family has done for him."

The Coffelt family was the first name on a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of disabled people by Protection and Advocacy Inc., an advocacy law firm in Oakland.

Dennis Amundson, director of the State Department of Developmental Services, said his agency, the defendant in the case, agreed to the settlement because officials believe it is the best solution for all involved. "It's such a major commitment to give people the opportunity to live in real homes instead of large state institutions," Amundson said.

Ellen Goldblatt, lead attorney on the case for Protection and Advocacy, said, "The settlement is really historic. It's the largest of its kind in the United States."

She said the health of even the most severely disabled improves when they are placed in more homelike environments.

She said patients will be relocated into six-bed group homes, homes with specially trained foster parents, their own homes or apartments with appropriate support services or a paid roommate.

Other provisions in the settlement, approved last week by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Stuart Pollak, include:

* Finding better placements for 300 Bay Area disabled people.

* Creating emergency services to help with placement of severely disabled people during crises.

* Providing additional case management staff and determining what services are needed to live in a private home.

* Implementing standards of quality control for community residential services.

"Over the next five years, thousands of people will get the services they should have gotten in the first place," said Coffelt, who picks Billy up every other Friday for weekend visits. "It's a first step."

Five years ago, he and his wife were hit hard with the lack of alternatives to institutional care for Billy. Counselors said he'd do better in a group home, but none was available.

Even after Billy was injured, he was returned to the center. Coffelt said an investigation by the center failed to determine what happened to his son, but he believes another child hurt him. There was no place else to send him. Finally, Billy was one of the first children selected for a foster home under a pilot program started by FamiliesFirst, a licensed foster care agency in Davis, to provide specialized foster care.

The pilot project, called Extended Family Program, works to involve both the parents and foster parents in the raising of disabled children.

"We get many more referrals than we can handle," said Doug Scott, director of professional foster care for FamiliesFirst. "We are constantly trying to find foster families."

Billy's behavioral problems have lessened since moving into a home. His foster mother, Esther Davis of Greenhaven, said his vocabulary has grown from six to 600 words.

"Everybody in the neighborhood knows him," said Davis. "I think he's secure here."