VOR and the Parent Hospital Association of Sonoma Developmental Center’s Position in Support of California Senate Bill 1522

VOR is a national organization that advocates for high quality care and human rights of all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). The Parent Hospital Association of Sonoma Developmental Center (PHA Sonoma) is a VOR affiliate. Together we support the right of individuals with ID/DD to choose from a full array of residential care.

We join together in our support for SB 1522, a bill calling for even more developmental center resident protections.

SB 1522, as amended, will require that developmental centers immediately  report -

“a death, a sexual assault, an assault with a deadly weapon by a nonresident of the developmental center, an assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, an injury to the genitals when the cause of injury is undetermined, or a broken bone when the cause of the break is undetermined, to the local law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the city or county in which the developmental center is located, regardless of whether the Office of Protective Services has investigated the facts and circumstances relating to the incident.”

California developmental centers are licensed Intermediate Care Facilities for Persons with Mental Retardation (ICFs/MR). A vast majority of developmental center residents have severe or profound intellectual disabilities, are multiply disabled and medically-fragile or experience dangerous behaviors.

Families and conservators of these individuals value the high-quality care received by their loved ones and take great comfort in the existing layers of state and federal oversight which ensure adequate treatment, humane and safe care. Families view SB 1522 as further assurance that consistently good care will be received, with any egregious actions against their well-being being reported, investigated and resolved with urgency.

July 26, 2012