WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JANIJARY 16. 1985, PAGE 3 Durham Centre stifi closing but local MPP promises mentaliy retarded will be better off min ew facilities Over the next two years, 130 residents of the Durham Centre for the Developmentally Handicapped wili be placed in other facilities and programs in preparation for the facility's losure on April 1, 1986. Tom Fields, a senior member of the Ministry of Comuuty and Social Services, told the Social Planning Council of Oshawa-Whitby last week that these facilities will be "as good as or better. then the resodents' current placement". Fields also told the -council that the closure has built-in safeguards to ensure that ministry officiais are "Iguided by the principal o! what is best for the individual." He also told the coun- cil that D'Arcy Place in Cobourg wll not- be closed as originally in- tended but 'will be renovated to accom- modate those mentally retarded residents o! Durham Centre who are unable to adapt to life in a group home or their community setting. Also at the social planning , council meeting was Durham West MPP George Ashe who gave his wholehearted support to the plan. "il support the program," he said ad- ding, "I'm not a professional in this field. " Ashe, who is also Minister o! Government Services in the cabinet o! Premier William Davis, said that because his colleagues are laymen in the field they have to be guided by the advise they receive !rom professionals working for the gover- tnment. "They are saying it is right, it's the thing to do," he said, "lSo, I can only be guided by my conscious" While the minister- noted that "this is a very emotional issue, especialiy for the paren- ts" o! Durham Centre residents, he pledged that they shahl continue to receive a level of care and service that meeta their needs. He aiso urged the parents to ask themn- selves: "is this going to be better for my of- fspring, my loved one? " To which he replied: "This will be to the bt. terment o! those per- sons affected. " Ashe also admitted that not all Durham Centre residenta will be discharged into the community. Some will, indeed, continue to live in an institutional set- ting. "Somne (residents) will always need some form of instîtutionalized care," he said adding that closures ln other communities across the province have been suc- cessfully completed. "The people involved in those programs are generally satisfied," Ashe told the meeting. However, countering the assurances of Ashe and other government officiaIs was Oshawa MPP Michael Breaugh. While the NDP mem- ber o! the Legislature gave guarded support to the concept o! dein- stitutionalization, he is critical o! the gover- mnent's plan to close Durham Centre. Bringing the developmentally han- dicapped into the com- munity "has a certain amount of appeal to me," Breaugh said ad- ding, "But it's not the theory that bottiers me - it's the plan." He pointed out that the government StUR hasn't approved new programs and funding for the local associations for the mentally retarded who will become responsible for these people once Durham Centre closes. "The approval for* new programs hasn't' happened yet," he said, 111 don't see the new money coming in." Breaugh also called for the government to delay the closure in an effort to prepare the community and local service providers to prepare for their new responsibilities. He also noted that Durham Centre acta like a "lightenîng rod" for such services. Because the centre exista, many com- munity programs for the retarded also exist and he doesn't want to see that change. Durham Centre, he added, is "an anchor for commumity based programs." Ashe's commenta also didn't impress at least one member of the social planning council. "I really don't think your assurances have a ring o! reality about them," was the com- ment o! council member Don Warne of Whitby. Dr. Garry Baker o! the Ministry of Com- munity and Social Ser- vices told the council that under the closure program the gover- nment will be "spending more money on the in- dividual in the com- munity." Facilities such as Brock Stop, a vocational workshop for the developmentally han- dicapped in downtown Whitby, will continue to operate. Liberal and NDP candidates cali for Durham Centre to remamn open Both of the men who hope to unseat Durham West MPP George Ashe after the next provincial election have called on the government to delay the losure o! Whitby's Durham Centre for the Developmentally Han- dicapped. Both NDP candidate Don Stewart and Liberal standard bearer Brian Evans have severely criticized both Ashe and the Ministry of Community and Social Services for the way in which the centre is being closed. The commenta were had after last week's meeting of the Social Planning Council of Oshawa-Whitby when Ashe and ministry of- ficiaIs attempted to ex- plain and defend the closure. Stewart said that one thing that wasn't discussed at the meeting was the possible negative reac- tion to the developmen- tally handicapped residenta o! the centre by other members of community. "'The community placements are going to have to bo handied carefully because of possible negative reac- tion from the com- munity,"- he said adding that the residenta them- selves "could be har- med by sloppy im- plementation." He is also critical of Ashe and the officiais at the meeting b>ecause, no !irm time table stating when group homes and other ser- vices will he in place was presented. III don't think the real information that was neederi was given," he said. Stewart also noted that Durham Centre provides services to handicapped persons and their families who are already living in the community. He wanta to know what's going to happen to those services when the centre closes. "II'm opposed to the closing Durham Centre not only for the residen- t' sake but because o! the role it already plays in the community. " Like many other people and organizations, he also blieves that the losure o! Durham Centre and similiar facilities acros the province is primarily a cost cutting measure. "The implementation la designed as cost cut- ting," he said. "It's the shifting of costs off provincial books to someone else's books. " Stewart was also highly critical o! Ashe. "As a cabinet minister, he's preaching the line," Stewart said, "He probabiy agresa with it as a fiscal con- servative." He also accused Ashe of not being adequately prepared on the issue. 'When a minister opens his statement saying 'the experts tel us', he's obviously reading a policy paper.' Liberal candidate Brian Evans echoed many of Stewart's CONT'D ON PG. 9 MAID SERVICES ç * TTREND HAS A TIDY SERVICE TO MEET VOUR BUDGET AND CLEANING NEEDS 666-3534 60 WITH TME TREND "I presume Brock Stop will stay open as part of the community based service," Ashe said. Baker said after the L E meeting that the ministry will annouce the developmnent of group homes and other programs after "very private negotiations" with the parents and the Whitby, Ajax, Pickering Association for the Developmentally Han- dicapped have been completed. SOLID OAK AND PINE FURNITURE ALL MERCHAN DISE REDUCED FOR JANUARV CLEARANCE 124>9 ~ 'O4~ " CN :NBLLBES *Ds N OOS " POTE BD *ROK S 110 DUNLOP ST. E., WHITBY 666-1331 Open Mon.-Wed. 10-6, Thurs.-Fri. 10-9, Sat. 10-5 r. 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