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January 15, 2008 By a Sun reporter Gov. Martin O'Malley announced today that he will close the Rosewood Center, the state facility for the developmentally disabled that has been the subject of a series of reports of abuse and neglect over the past several years. O'Malley said the state will phase out use of the center, which dates back to 1888, over the next 18 months and place the residents in other institutions or in community settings such as group homes on a case-by-case basis. Advocates who have pushed for the center's closure have argued that community settings provide more freedom and independence for the disabled, but others have fought to keep Rosewood open to avoid what could be a traumatic change for residents who have lived there for years. "On balance, we can do a better job of serving the residents there if we do a phased closure of Rosewood," O'Malley said in a news conference at the facility today. "It's a decision that is quite frankly a very difficult one when one walks these halls and talks to these individuals. It's the only life many of them have ever known." About 150 disabled people live there now, some of whom were sent there by the courts after they were found incompetent to stand trial. Last month, the state Office of Health Care Quality reported 130 incidents of "abuse, neglect, mistreatment and injuries of unknown origins" during a two-month period. The state has banned new admissions at Rosewood three times in the last year, and it has been in danger of losing federal funding because of poor conditions. Previous reports documented dozens of cases of resident-on-resident violence, including an instance in which a 22-year-old patient shoplifted a knife on a field trip to a Target store and used it to stab another patient. Neglect findings by the state monitors included improper administration of medicine, delays in providing meals to residents who rely on feeding tubes and a case in which staff members did not change a resident's diapers until he developed "redness, maceration and excoriation of the skin." "You've seen time and again that they're not getting the quality of care that they should get," O'Malley said. However, the guardians of some patients say the facility can provide excellent care and that some residents who have spent virtually their entire lives there would have difficulty adjusting to a new setting. The facility is located on a 300-acre campus in Owings Mills, making it one of the largest developable parcels in Baltimore County. Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
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