Last year, Governor Kasich vetoed Closure Commission language that would have slowed or even halted the process of closing Montgomery and Youngstown developmental centers. Undeterred, OCSEA activists in the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities advocated for an amendment to the Mid-Biennium Budget bill this year that will track individuals who have already moved from MDC and YDC.
OCSEA leaders in DD have known for some time that certain individuals leaving those facilities have failed to thrive in their new setting and have wound up in nursing homes, hospitals, psychiatric facilities or other developmental centers. But because there is little information about how or why they failed to thrive, OCSEA activists and family members from those centers urged legislators to protect these most vulnerable by adopting language to track the placements since the announced closures last year.
On May 25, 2016 the Ohio Senate voted to adopt the language, and the Ohio House concurred. As of this writing, the bill is on the governor’s desk awaiting his signature so that it can go into effect.