Father on a crusade - Stockton Record 3/30/97

Stockton Record

Sunday March 30,1997

Father on a crusade to help house disabled

By Dianne BarthCapitol Bureau Chief

SACRAMENTO -- William Coffelt is disappointed. Not about the closures of the

state's developmental centers. "There is no place for the institutions, not

now, not ever. No way." But eight years after Coffelt's teenage son was found

beaten in a pool of blood in a shower at Sonoma Developmental Center, he

says the state still hasn't done enough to help the developmentally disabled

live quality lives. The father who led the charge to move people out of

the developmental centers still is fighting for people like his severely retarded son,

who until recently had no choice but to live in one of the state's developmental centers.

In 1989, Coffelt and a small group of parents and advocacy groups sued thestate,

charging it forced their developmentally disabled children to live in institutions because

it did not provide the resources for them to live anywhere else. Against Coffelt's

wishes, the plaintiffs settled the case after the state agreed to move 2,000

of 6,300 developmental-center residents into the community by 1998. As part

of the settlement, the state won waivers enabling California to spend federal

dollars it had received to pay for the costs of developmental centers on

community care and independent-living arrangements. The settlement was hugely

supported by the state Department of Developmental Disabilities, which

already has more than met its Coffelt obligation by quickly moving people who

had been housed in the centers into communities -- most into 15-person and

six-person care homes. Some of the original plaintiffs are happy with what's

happened so far. But Coffelt says the state hasn't done enough, by a long

shot. "My vision for the developmentally disabled is that they live as

closely as possible to the way people who are not developmentally disabled

live, and that isn't in institutions, and it isn't in group homes," Coffelt

said. "In our society, children live with families, and adults live in their

own homes. You have to ask what would it take, and for some, it will take

more than others." The state, Coffelt contends, has saved millions of dollars

by closing developmental centers in Stockton and Camarillo, money that could

help parents get the services they need to keep their children at home or

at least in foster homes. If it's done right, Coffelt said, most

developmentally disabled adults should be able to live in apartments, some on

their own and others with roommates.

Denny Amundson, director of the Department of Developmental Services, has

publicly defended moving people out of the institutions. He said he has leftthe

decision to move with the disabled and their families.In some cases, that means

that the people Coffelt wants to see living in thecommunity will remain in the developmental

centers. But California's developmental-center population has been decreasingsteadily

since 1968, Amundson said, largely because of the state's supportfor more independent

living for the disabled. There is, nevertheless, a long lineup of advocates who agree with

Coffelt. "Overall, the objective of creating more normalized living options for adults with

developmental disabilities is still lagging behind expectations," said Ellen Goldblatt of

Protection & Advocacy Inc., a BayArea group that joined the suit. Some regional

centers -- nonprofit organizations contracted by the state toprovide services to the

developmentally disabled -- have worked hard to comeup with community care homes

for former developmental-center residents, but advocates say few have shown much

success in finding foster families or placing adults in their own homes or apartments.

"I know they are trying," Coffelt said. "But people still just don't get it.They still have that

institutional, group-home kind of thinking. They are talking about developing facilities

for children. That's not what children need. Children need to be with families."

Billy Coffelt lived with his parents until he became a teenager and too difficult for them

to handle. The family had two smaller children, and Billy, born profoundly retarded and

developmentally delayed, became too aggressive around them. William Coffelt, 55,

a retired Mare Island naval shipyard technician who was living in Vallejo, was told his only

option was to send his son away -- either to a group home near Los Angeles or to the

Sonoma Developmental Center. He said he was told the center was professionally

staffed to care for teenagers and was the safest place for his son. Two weeks later,

Billy was hospitalized with serious injuries after he wasbeaten by teenagers at the center.

The Coffelts moved to the Sacramento area and placed their son with a foster family near

them. Coffelt said the new arrangement was outstanding. "There were a lot of people

and kids and a real home," he said. Most weekends, the Coffelts brought their son home.

This month, Billy, 19, will do something his father was told never could happen: He is

moving into his own home in Fair Oaks. He'll have some one there to help him, and

Coffelt hopes to move a high-functioning, developmentally delayed friend in as a

roommate for his son. The important thing, Coffelt said, is that Billy will have his own place.

"So if a caretaker doesn't work out or somebody somewhere quits, it doesn'tmean he

moves or is disrupted," Coffelt said.He has made a few calls for caretakers to help his son,

and, with his name recognition in the community, he's gotten immediate responses. He wants

the same for other parents. And he isn't done shaking things up in the world that governs

how California's developmentally disabled are cared for. Only two weeks ago, Coffelt

persuaded the Sacramento Alta Regional Center to give a Sacramento mother the money

to build a room onto her home for her 14-year-old daughter and to pay for her to get help

in the house. In the past, families rarely have been given supports afforded care homes or

even foster homes to enable them to keep their grown children at home, but in this case the

mother, a special-education teacher, had been fighting regional-center recommendations

to keep her daughter in a home in Southern California or place her in an institution.

For Coffelt, the decision to help that family is a breakthrough for everyone. "I'm unhappy

about some things that have happened since the closures, but that just means some things

need fixing," Coffelt said. "The trend is there. It's better now than 30 years ago, much

better. "Coffelt blames supporters of institutions for slowing the state's progress with the

developmentally disabled. Given real support and resources, California could close all

the centers and direct regional centers to do what it takes to help families help their

children, Coffelt said.

He has gone up against opposition on this before, mostly from the very people he strives

to help -- other parents. Coffelt said he hangs tough, with an image clear in his mind.

"I see someone who has spent maybe their whole lives in an institution, and now they are out,

living in their own home," Coffelt said. "That is really powerful to me."