School for Autistic Moving to Andover

Boston Globe

By Dan Tuohy, Globe Correspondent – August 31, 2006

School for Autistic Moving to Andover

Officials at a school for autistic children plan to move the institution from Woburn to Andover in about two months, capping a three-year journey fraught with development obstacles and cost overruns.

Melmark New England plans to install a septic system rather than hook into a town sewer line, an issue that had complicated the $4.4 million renovation of the former Christian Formation Center on River Road in Andover.

School officials intend to continue discussions with the Andover Board of Selectmen about connecting to the sewer system sometime in the future, said chief operating officer Peter Troy. He said the septic system was the best choice, despite the cost, because the board turned down an intermunicipal agreement with Tewksbury and Lowell that would have paved the way for the sewer-system hookup. Voters at a previous Andover Town Meeting gave the sewer tie-in their approval.

Facing their own deadlines and goals to better serve students, school officials pursued the septic system alternative in the plans they filed in the spring.

“We’re hoping to be in the building by November,” Troy said.

Installing the septic system adds at least $150,000 to the project cost, according to Troy’s estimate, making the already difficult task of private fund-raising that much tougher. The school raised $145,000 with a golf tournament and benefit last month at the Andover Country Club, and it continues to seek sponsorships.

The renovation also includes a fire-sprinkler system, a new heating and ventilation system, and construction of classrooms. The 66,000-square-foot building is at 459 River Road, not far from Interstate 93 in the northwestern corner of Andover.

The Planning Board approved the site plan in June after Melmark New England chose to seek the septic system, at least as a short-term solution. The intermunicipal agreement involved the other two communities because the tie-in would have connected to Tewksbury’s sewer system, which pumps sewage to Lowell for treatment at its waste-water-treatment plant. Litigation involving a different developer on River Road — unrelated to Melmark — also influenced the school’s project timetable.

“It took on a life of its own when the utilities came into play,” said Paul Materazzo, Andover’s director of planning.

The private, nonprofit school, currently located in an office park in Woburn, operates year-round with an enrollment of 77. The move to Andover will allow for an enrollment of about 108.

An additional benefit is that children will be in a campus setting, complete with an outdoor playground, according to school officials.

Melmark New England was established in 1998. In addition to its students, whose ages range from 4 to 21, the school performs consultations with local public schools. Troy estimated 300 more children are served in their public schools, which span the Merrimack Valley.

Melmark New England serves students from two dozen communities and provides outreach to an additional 40 communities, said Rita Gardner, the school’s executive director.

The recent golf outing and reception, at which political heavyweights were well in attendance, helped raise money as well as public awareness. “Autism is a huge public health issue at this point,” Gardner said.

Autism, a complex developmental disability, is diagnosed in one in 166 people, according to Autism Speaks, a group founded to help find a cure. That incidence rate makes it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined.

The rate is a tenfold increase over the past 20 years, said state Representative Barbara A. L’Italien , an Andover Democrat. In Massachusetts, she said, the conservative estimate is that 10,000 children have autism.

L’Italien has added $4 million to the state budget in the past two years to establish the state’s first division of autism. The goals are to help identify and educate children with autism, and to prevent the affliction. In each of the past two years, $200,000 has been earmarked for Melmark New England to allow the school’s experts to help educators in public schools.

L’Italien said: “I would put Melmark in the vanguard of what is being done for children with autism in Massachusetts.”

Strengthening In-Home Care for Seniors

State Rep. Barbara L’Italien (D-Andover) announced today that the Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously backed legislation to establish a consumer directory of qualified personal care assistants, giving senior citizens and people with disabilities improved access to quality in-home care.

The House-approved measure would create a six-member council, led by consumers, to oversee the management of the directory. The council would also establish a back-up system to ensure that those who need assistants can access one when their primary assistant is unavailable.

“Seniors and people with disabilities who want to live at home but need help with their daily routines have struggled for years to find reliable, quality personal care,” said L’Italien. “This legislation will give these individuals and their loved ones peace of mind and help more people maintain their independence in the settings where they’re most comfortable.”

Additionally, in an effort to address the dual issues of low pay and lack of employment benefits that contribute to high turnover rates, the legislation would provide caregivers with the option to unionize. Reducing turnover will make it easier for consumers to find quality care.

Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage to be raised from $6.75 an hour to $8 per hour in two increments on January 1, 2007 and January 1, 2008.

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/seslaw06/sl060271.htm

Romney signs bill to encourage in-home care for elderly

Bill Championed by Tucker, L’Italien 

By Edward Mason and Zach Church
Staff writers for Eagle Tribune

Yoram and Barbara Shahar of North Andover are more than a decade away from making the hard choices that come with retirement. One choice they do not want to make is having to go into a nursing home.That is why they approve of a bill championed by two local lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday, which allows Massachusetts elderly and people with disabilities to obtain state help to live at home rather than a nursing home when they can no longer care for themselves.

The bill allows the state Medicaid program to pay for that home-based care. Previously, the Medicaid program, called MassHealth, paid mainly for nursing home care.

Andover Democrats Sen. Susan Tucker and Rep. Barbara L’Italien helped write the law and guide it through the Legislature.

At yesterday’s bill signing, they talked about how it gives seniors and people with disabilities control over their lives and the ability to live with dignity.

“The No. 1 issue in the mind of seniors is what will happen to me if I can no longer care for myself,” said Tucker, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Committee on Elder Affairs. “The No. 1 answer is they fear going off to a home.”

“The law signed today backs up the assertion that every person has the right to determine where they’d like to live,” L’Italien said.

Barbara Shahar, 51, agrees with L’Italien.

“I think it’s appropriate we do more for senior citizens,” she said. “Compared to a lot of other countries, we don’t do enough for our elderly.”

To the Shahars, the new law is about “options.”

“As we all know, when you get to that age, you are often on a fixed income,” she said. Her husband, Yoram, 52, observed that many people may not need the comprehensive care that comes with nursing homes.

“People are working out. They’re eating healthier,” he said.

Elliot Aronson, 70, of Andover shudders at the thought of having to go into a nursing home.

“I would never want to leave my house,” said Aronson, who has forgone retirement to continue work as an attorney in Methuen.

Aronson said he is doing all he can to keep fit so he can always live at home regardless of the new law. But he said the new choice is a good one for others.

Under the law, seniors and people with disabilities who qualify for MassHealth long-term care coverage would be told they have a choice of home or nursing home care. They would then have their physical and mental health assessed to determine whether they can live at home.

If they don’t need intensive nursing home care, MassHealth would pay for them to live at home and have access to the same services provided by nursing homes. Those include personal care attendants, homemaker assistants, private duty nurses, day habilitation, adult foster care and medical transportation.

The law is expected to reverse an imbalance toward nursing home care.

“We have learned that a community-based approach to care delivery is cost-effective and that it honors the preferences of elders and people with disabilities to remain members of the communities that they helped to build for as long as possible,” said state Elder Affairs Secretary Jennifer Davis Carey.

MassHealth spends about $1.6 billion per year to care for about 32,000 individuals, or 70 percent of all nursing home residents. Choice proponents believe that could shift to a 50/50 split over the next decade.

It also is expected to bring Massachusetts in line with other states, like Oregon and Vermont, which are giving elders and people with disabilities more say in their long-term care.

Moreover, it should save the state money. MassHealth spends $52,000 a year to care for each nursing home resident. That is expected to be cut in half.

As part of the new law, people choosing in-home care also would be allowed to keep more of their own money.

The state wants to raise the MassHealth eligibility threshold for home care from $2,000 a month to $10,000 a month. The $2,000 current limit for nursing home care would remain the same.

Supporters of the bill described its passage as a matter of civil rights, insistent the state ought to offer equal opportunity for residents hoping to stay in their homes.

Some states spend half their long-term care budget on community-based care, double Massachusetts’ 25 percent – a figure Al Norman, executive director of Mass. Home Care, said would change incrementally.

“What we are doing today is helping to eliminate a form of discrimination in our land,” Norman said.

During his visits to senior centers, Norman said, he frequently asks for a show of hands from those hoping to enter nursing homes. “No hands ever go up. There’s a lot of nervous giggling.”

Although the law was signed yesterday, it is not yet clear when people will be able to benefit from its changes.

State Health and Human Services Secretary Timothy Murphy said the state first needs to get a Medicaid waiver from Washington to make the changes in the law. That waiver is due Oct. 1, 2006.

Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.

Bill Establishing Choice of Long Term Care Signed

Equal Choice Bill Signed

Seniors citizens and the disabled who quality for long term care services under the MassHealth program will have an “equal choice” of care at home, or care in a nursing home, under legislation signed into law.

Chapter 211 of the Acts of 2006 will do the following:

• Modernizes the MassHealth program from one which has historically been institutionally oriented, to one which focuses on care “in the least restrictive setting appropriate” to an individual’s needs.
• Will save state taxpayers $134 million in the first five years after implementation.
• Establishes a more focused “pre-admission counseling” program for people who are being referred to a nursing home, to ensure that they are aware of community alternatives.
• Calls for the state to submit a “waiver” to the federal government which will raise the income and asset levels for the MassHealth long term care program, thus allowing the Commonwealth to capture 50% federal match for some elders who are not fully supported with state funding.

Sales Tax Holiday

2- Day Sales Tax Holiday established:

• Previously done in 2004 and 2005
• Exempts purchases of $2,500 or less from the state’s 5% sales tax
• Not applicable to auto, boat or tobacco product sales, meals, gas, steam, electricity and telecommunication services.

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/seslaw06/sl060204.htm