Lawmakers question proposal to transfer Rosewood patients

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Lawmakers expressed concern with Gov. Martin O’Malley’s plan to close a troubled state-run facility for the developmentally disabled, saying some residents may be forced to move to community settings.

Members of a House of Delegates subcommittee questioned administrators Tuesday on their plan to close the Rosewood Center in Owings Mills over the next 18 months and move its 156 residents into privately run group homes. Many family members are denouncing reports of abuse at the center and say their loved ones aren’t ready for community life.

“The one word I don’t see in here is choice,” said Del. Steven Schuh, an Anne Arundel County Republican. “Does a family have a choice to keep a loved one in a residential facility, or is this decision going to be forced upon them?”

Lawmakers said the state agency responsible for inspecting private group homes for the disabled — the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of Health Care Quality — is severely understaffed and may not be able to keep up with new homes Rosewood’s closure will require.

Department Secretary John Colmers said funds in next year’s budget will help, and, after prodding, said Rosewood patients who refuse a community setting could go to one of the state’s three other residential facilities.

“This isn’t a state dictation,” Colmers said.

A department study found most Rosewood residents can live in a community setting. Nearly 30 residents were committed by judges who deemed them unfit to stand trial — after committing crimes from shoplifting to assault to arson — 17 of whom could also live in the community, Colmers said.

The state is expected to complete a report detailing plans for the facility’s court-involved population next month.

George Lipman, a Baltimore City district court judge, expressed concern with placing those and future court-committed individuals in remote community settings too far from their families and attorneys.

“More importantly,” he said, “it’s going to impede providers’ ability to make the kinds of after-care services that allow someone to move from a more restrictive environment.”

jmalarkey@baltimoreexaminer.com

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