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Lawmakers taking White Haven fight back to Harrisburg

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Penn State’s running back corps continues churning out yardage and scores

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Frank Bartoli, executive director at NEPA Inclusive, has worked for years to create and support inclusive and sustainable lives for people with disabilities.</p><p>Bartoli said the White Haven State Center is an institution and no matter how you craft the language around it, it is a large congregate setting reserved only for people with intellectual disabilities.</p><p>&#8220;We, as a society, no longer view institutions as an acceptable form of care for people with disabilities,&#8221; Bartoli said. &#8220;Placing people with disabilities in large segregated settings violates their civil rights and is not a human way to treat people with disabilities. They deserve better. They deserve to be treated with more respect and dignity.&#8221;</p><p>Bartoli is passionate about this issue. Bartoli has spent many years in advocacy and services for people with disability and he has raised his daughter with Down syndrome who is now 21 and just received her waiver for services.</p><p>&#8220;Today, she is a former homecoming queen and basketball manager of her high school girls basketball team,&#8221; Bartoli said. &#8220;She graduated high school with honors with distinction. She has attended the (Wilkes-Barre Area) Career and Technical Center to learn audio-visual and has used OVR (Office of Vocational Rehabilitation) services to train to be a photographer.&#8221;</p><p>Bartoli said his daughter, Ellie, trained for two years as an administrative assistant through her high school&#8217;s Transitional Employment Program at the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce. She just recently started her first job at a law firm.</p><p>Early in life, she attended YMCA and other community programs and was included in her public school classrooms. She took pictures of the Little League World Series Challengers Teams and Reggie Jackson as part of WVIA&#8217;s team during her OVR work experience.</p><p>&#8220;This is the same person who 50 years ago would have been directed to the White Haven Center to live out her life in a segregated state-run large institution,&#8221; Bartoli said. &#8220;She would have had none of these opportunities.&#8221;</p><p>Bartoli had this to say for those who say &#8220;but your daughter is different,&#8221; or &#8220;she isn&#8217;t like someone else who is in White Haven Center.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s be clear,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She would not be the person she is today if not for the education and support services she has received in the community and there are many people just like her who have been at White Haven Center and maybe some that still are.&#8221;</p><p>Bartoli said for those who have significant medical needs, there are facilities and services available in the community system.</p><p>&#8220;There isn&#8217;t one person who is in a state center who cannot be cared for in the community setting,&#8221; Bartoli said. &#8220;This is not a local issue &#8212; it&#8217;s a statewide and national issue. The days of state-run institutions are dwindling. We are trending now toward inclusion.&#8221;</p><p>Bartoli said employees at White Haven will have jobs and with the savings realized by closing White Haven, more people in need will be removed from waiting lists.</p><p>&#8220;The trend today is to place these people in enhanced community settings,&#8221; Bartoli said.</p><p>Bartoli said there are 35,000 people in the community system with ID waivers and another 13,000 waiting for ID waivers. That&#8217;s not counting those with autism who have an autism waiver, or those who are not diagnosed and living in the community. There are 700 people remaining in state centers, including 112 at the White Haven Center.</p><p>Bartoli said as those who reside at White Haven decreases, it has become an unsustainable model of support.</p><p>&#8220;I feel for those who disagree with the closure,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I respect their opinions. I just happen to disagree with their position.&#8221;</p><p>Bartoli said there are some 13,000 people waiting for services who need them. So how do we provide them to those people who are also aging and need help?</p><p>&#8220;We need to look to ways to be able to support everyone who needs our support and we need to welcome these individuals into our communities and support them in the best way we can,&#8221; Bartoli said. &#8220;For the employees, we can help them obtain jobs in the providers who will be accepting people leaving White Haven Center. They will also be offered other state jobs through the state union contract requirements.</p><p>&#8220;We all know and accept that the care at White Haven is good and the employees and families are good people. But this isn&#8217;t the same issue as closing a prison or a [Department of Veterans Affairs] hospital. This is a human rights issue.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Bartoli makes case for community system