Staff Perspective on Working at Sonoma Developmental Center

Earlier this week the Sonoma Index-Tribune published an article that provides valuable insight from one staff person's perspective and adds some context to all the recent news about problems at Sonoma Developmental Center. You can follow the link at the bottom of the following snippet to read the article in its entirety.

SDC: an insiders’ perspective
by Emily Charrier-Botts, Sonoma Index-Tribune
Dec 31, 2012

Katrise Fraund sometimes hesitates when someone asks her where she works.

“There’s nothing like having someone ask you where you work, and you say SDC (Sonoma Developmental Center), and they say, ‘Is that where they rape people?,” she sighs, obviously annoyed that the actions of a few bad employees have damaged public opinion of the historic institution.

“I wish they understood how hard people work to make things better. I wish they saw all the good work that goes on there.”

Fraund has been a senior psychiatric technician at SDC for 12 years, but has spent more than 25 years working with the developmentally disabled at state centers and places such as Becoming Independent and People First. When she thinks of SDC, she thinks of her fellow staff
bending over backwards to track down Beatles swag for a client who loves the British pop band’s music. She thinks of teaching a fashion-forward client how to climb a step-stool to access his clothes so he can dress himself. She thinks of the time spent helping another client write to
her cousin. (...)

read more...