This is a letter from a very close family whom I love and respect. Anyone with a friend or family member with disabilities should read and go to the link and sign. Hello Family and Friends. As many of you know, Bob and I have been in a year-long battle with the State of NJ’s Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) to keep our son Drew at Woods Services in Langhorne, PA. Approximately 13 years ago, after much soul searching we, along with professional guidance, made the difficult decision to find a residential placement for Drew who was 18 years old. The placement at Woods has been very successful in all areas of Drew’s life and it is our belief that he is extremely well cared for and has developed loving relationships. A year ago New Jersey’s DDD began an effort entitled “Returning Home New Jersey” which means all out-of-state residential placements will be brought back into group homes in NJ with the excuse that DDD can better monitor the health and safety of those individuals if they return to NJ. This is somewhat ironic because Woods Services is a 10 minute drive from downtown Trenton and some of the recommendations for group homes have been in Frenchtown, Cinnaminson, and Manalapan. The bottom line is money. DDD indicates bringing individuals back to NJ will save money but the “savings” appear to be in the form of less services with less care. Our position is why remove our son (and many others like him) when he is receiving exceptional services in a safe, caring environment since 2001. Families need choices and one type of housing (groups homes) is not a proper placement for everyone. If DDD changes its out-of-state placement policy they should at least grandfather those individuals with long standing placements to avoid disrupting lives. Sorry this is so long-winded but we are reaching out to you in hopes that you will read the attachment and follow the directions in order to send a letter—either the prewritten form or your own words—to your state representatives. By inserting your zip code and verifying your address the correct representatives will pop up. You then type in your name which acts as your signature if using the prewritten form. We know that numbers are important to bring an issue like this to light and it will be appreciated if you will forward this to any of your NJ friends and family who would support our struggle. Thanks for any support you can give us.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 20:47:02 +0000
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