Fircrest School in Shoreline serves the developmentally disabled with the most challenging needs. The majority of clients living in the facility have been diagnosed as severely to profoundly mentally retarded. Many also have medical and behavioral concerns that make living in community group homes potentially dangerous if not life threatening. There is an assumption by community advocates that I, as an employee at Fircrest, am willfully denying my clients their human rights to live in neighborhood houses where they could borrow sugar from next door and join in block parties because I am desperate to save my state job.
As someone who has dedicated more than a quarter of a century to the welfare of my clients, I take personal offense at this accusation. It borders on libel. All citizens with developmental disabilities do not need to live at Fircrest. Not all sick people need to go the hospital and not all geriatric patients require nursing homes. But some do. It should remain a matter of need and choice, not of policy driven by political correctness. It is time to think of the clients’ needs and put aside philosophical differences.
To close Fircrest is to deny choice to those who already have the least. Fircrest offers medical and dental services, occupational/physical therapies, vocational training and emergency and planned respite for overburdened families provided by a staff with expertise unrivaled in the nation. And, it is centrally located and easy to get to with plenty of free parking. These services are nearly impossible to find elsewhere, regardless of any funds that might be redirected from Fircrest to the community. You may rob Peter and give it to a starving Paul only to discover there is no food left to buy.
Mark A. Johnson
Everett
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