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The
Birth of Services for the Mentally Retarded in Connecticut
An overview by a Parent
My daughter Mary Wood was born March 29, 1960 in Trumbull
Connecticut. At the time of our daughter's birth and
before we had seen her, our doctor told us she was a
Mongoloid baby and we should place her some where have
another baby and go on with our lives.
We did in fact place her some where but only for a short
time until we decided we were going to bring her home
and raise her. When Mary was five years old we enrolled
her in the special education classes in our local school.
Mary worked her way through special education classes
until she graduated at age 21. During her time in school
she participated in the Special Olympics each year.
There were no other programs or services available for
the mentally retarded at that time. There was no Department
of Mental Retardation in Connecticut neither.
We did learn during those years that Mary had Down Syndrome,
which indicated she was mentally retarded and the title
of Mongoloid was soon dropped in referring to these
children. We suddenly came to realize that except for
special education classes there was nothing else for
Mary and more than that when she left school she would
have no place to go except home with us.
One of the very earliest legislative acts of the Connecticut
legislature was the Special act # 506 "Creating
a commission to select and purchase a site and to build
thereon another State Hospital and Training School for
the feeble-minded". The leadership in this innovative
plan was provided by Governor Wilbur Cross who sought
to establish alternatives to the state programs long
in effect at the aging "barracks type' structures
at the Mansfield depot facility. In 1940 Southbury Training
School opened on a 1200-acre campus. In 1965 there were
more than 2,000 in residence.
In 1943 Mrs. Evelyn Kennedy's first experience in hearing
the term "Mental Retardation" was when her
doctor told her you have a mentally retarded son. Their
lives were now centered on their son and they soon found
out there was no place to turn for help, not even books
in the library. When her son Brian was 5 she went to
the Superintendent of Schools in Bridgeport only to
be told there were no programs for children like hers.
Special Classes were for children with IQ's over 50
there was no obligations for children like her son Brian.
On a snowy February night in 1951 12 families came together
at Mrs. Kennedy's house to see what they could do for
their children. They pleaded with the Board of Appropriations
in Bridgeport to help them to keep their children home
and out of that came funds for two classes to start
at Columbus School in Bridgeport. These trainable classes
were the first of its kind in the New England States.
They named their association "The Parents and Friends
of the Mentally Retarded" and held meeting twice
a month.
Other communities wanted help in starting their parent
groups so they traveled around the state in helping
other groups get started. Their next need was a center
for a nursery program. The Bridgeport Brass Good Neighbor
Fund purchased a lot and with the money they had in
their treasury designed and built a building with help
from local contractors. It than took 18 months to complete
it.
Their programs soon expanded to their full capacity
and it was time once again to move. The Mayor of Bridgeport
gave them 3 acres of land on Virginia Ave. And Washington
D.C. gave them a federal grant for $100,000. They also
raised $375,000 to cover the cost of the new building.
They realized all to soon, after the building opened,
that they could not continue the expense, the demand
was so intense for services, and it was overwhelming.
Their only alternative was to have the Department of
Mental Retardation take the building over and provide
the services desperately needed. Evelyn Kennedy made
a trip to Hartford to insist that Bridgeport was past
due in having a Regional Center. They than turned the
building over to the DMR for $50,000 the amount owed
on it. That was the beginning of the Bridgeport Regional
Center. In 1951 they decided to take the older children
and open another facility. They opened in one building,
moved later to another one and finally to a factory
building on Garden Street in Bridgeport that was donated
to them. They also received a donation of about 1 million
dollars to renovate the building and the Kennedy Center
opened in the early 1970's.
During this period in time several Associations for
Retarded Citizens organizations were being formed all
across the state. Founded in 1951, the HARC (Greater
Hartford Association for Retarded Citizens, Inc.) Was
one of them. HARC is a grass roots organization that
provides advocacy and supportive services to individuals
with mental retardation and their families. Throughout
their 48 year history, their families worked together
to advocate for opportunities for their sons and daughters.
HARC's services include family support, supported/competitive
employment, and adult Day programs residential, birth-to-three
services, behavioral health, recreation, elderly services
and whatever else it took to keep the family together.
In 1959 The Office of Mental Retardation was established
in the State Department of Health. In 1975 the Department
of Mental Retardation was established headed by a Commissioner
directly responsible to the governor.
In the year of 1958 several Valley parents, having difficulties
with their retarded children, contacted George Hegyi,
who at that time was one of the Directors of the Kennedy
Center in Bridgeport. George arranged to drive the children
to the Kennedy Center but after a while the Kennedy
Center could not take anymore children. After much discussion
it was decided to form an organization for the valley
children.
In February of 1959 a meeting was held to discuss the
problem of mental retardation. More than a 100 people
attended and the Valley Association for Retarded Children
and Adults, which was incorporated April 21, 1959, was
born. The Derby Methodist Church offered the use of
a room in their Fellowship Hall for the day-care and
pre-School class. It has been said that George Hegyi
put ads in the local newspapers asking any parents with
a handicap or retarded child to call him, he would than
invite them to bring their child to his classes. Not
long after that an evening class for the teenagers was
instituted. The service of a Speech Therapist was acquired
for the eligible retarded. Soon after that the Derby-Shelton
Community Center gave permission for them to use the
facilities of the Center.
VARCA also offered two scholarships, to a training program
at Southbury Training School for public school teachers,
for students who intended to specialize in teaching
the retarded. VARCA's president George Hegyi said the
first goal of the organization was educating the community
to the abilities and needs of the retarded. During this
time parents were conducting various fund raising drives.
This money, plus donations from various local manufactures,
organizations and personal donations, keep the programs
operating.
When the State Legislature passed the mandatory education
law for the retarded, grants were allocated to such
organizations as VARCA. One third of the cost of educating
the retarded child was granted. VARCA raised the other
two thirds from public functions and solicitations.
The first workshop opened in 1962 and moved several
times to bigger sites because of its growing need to
accommodate more people.
In 1978 VARCA moved to its present site in Derby. In
January 1977 the City of Derby was allotted $1,095,000
under the Federal Public Works Employment Act to finance
construction of an addition to the George Hegyi Training
Center operated by VARCA. That grant is believed to
be the largest awarded to a human-services project in
Connecticut under the $3.9-billion Federal anti-recession
program. Today VARCA serves over 100 clients of the
Department of Mental Retardation with day programs,
activities and operates 3 group homes. My daughter Mary
works in VARCA and lives in one of their group homes.
In the 1976 The Lower Fairfield County Regional Center
opened up. The Ella Grasso Regional Center opened in
1981 in Stratford. The Waterbury Regional Center and
several other ones across the state also opened up.
{March 1, 1984} during this period in time started the
formation of a new state association for the benefit
and advancement of all mentally retarded persons. The
name of that association was FORConn (Friends of the
Retarded Citizens of Connecticut) and it was formed
to help put an end to the dissatisfaction and frustration
that had resulted from the polarization of mental retardation
issues in Connecticut - a polarization that had confused
legislators and had stymied the development of appropriate
services for the mentally retarded of this state. All
of the board members of FORConn was and still are made
up of parents of mentally retarded children.
In
the belief that the treatment of retardation is not
an exact science and cannot be resolved by any unilateral
approach or philosophy, however well meaning, FORConn
supported the development of community programs for
the mentally retarded, particularly those that assist
families in keeping their retarded member at home. But
they also supported the continued use and maintenance
of congregate service facilities, such as the Training
Schools and Regional Centers, for those who would most
benefit from them. They believed that the salvation
of the Mental Retardation program in Connecticut lies
in the continued development of a wide range of programs
and services, in order to attack effectively the problems
of the retarded at ever age level and severity of handicap.
The needs of retarded citizens of this state must be
addressed with broad-based programs and services that
take into consideration the varied needs of all the
retarded. Every retarded person possesses a unique individually,
with likes and dislikes, and various personality discrepancies,
just as all Other persons do; and this uniqueness exists
regardless of the degree of retardation.
Given these basic premises, it becomes obvious that
no single, narrowly focused philosophy can provide meaningful
support and aid to all retarded persons. Generalized
philosophies, such as "de-institutionalization,"
"Normalization," "least restrictive setting,"
etc. tend to create confusion because they are interpreted
in any number of ways and thus prove to be too indefinite
for common agreement. Each of these philosophies has
been heralded at various times as the ultimate in salvation
for the retarded. And yet any success that have been
achieved have been limited to those retarded persons
who were able to cope with the specific opportunities
offered. Many of the more severely retarded have other
handicaps (physical and emotional) that limit their
capacity to make use of the opportunities offered in
living "in the community". Indeed, a significant
number of these people may best be served by living
in a protected environment with specialized services
close by.
FORConn's
Mission statement states: There is a wide range of disabilities
among Connecticut Citizens with Mental Retardation.
Many of them also have complex health problems and serious
behavior problems. We advocate for a full range of choices,
which include both congregate and inclusive community
options in all areas: residential settings, work settings,
training and support settings, health services and recreational
activities.
We
oppose any limitation of the rights of individuals with
Mental Retardation, or their guardians and families
acting on their behalf to choose from a full array of
services and supports. This includes being able to live
work and play in protective segregated settings such
as Community Work Centers, Regional Centers and Southbury
Training School. We oppose the elimination of any program
or residential option based on an ideological viewpoint.
Changes should occur only if the DMR client involved
and/or their guardian/parent involved want to move to
other programs or settings. We believe the wishes of
the individuals who receive the services and their families
must be the driving force in the planning and delivery
of these services. We believe that all parents and guardians
of Mentally Retarded Citizens of Connecticut should
work together for the common good of all and speak with
one voice to our State Legislators and Officials.
I
guess the message I am trying to get to the parents
of the mentally retarded is that it was Parents and
only the Parents that started the ball rolling for services
for their children. The thing to remember now is that
those parents, and that includes me too, are getting
to old to carry that ball and unless the younger parents
decide to pick up the ball and carry on for us, what
we fought for years ago for our children well not be
around for the parents and their mentally retarded children
in the future.
For more information on any of these subjects please
contact me.
Robert Wood
Past
President FORConn (www.forconn.org)
35 Robinwood Road
Trumbull, CT 06611-4923
(203) 375-1796
E-mail
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