Developmental center closings cause family hardships

• Peter Porcile%2C a 50-year Woodbridge Developmental Center resident%2C does not speak%2C or dress himself
• He is to be moved to a group home in Monmouth County or a South Jersey developmental center
• That would mean a nearly two-hour drive for his brother in S. Plainfield%2C who now can see him weekly
• Families say the closure of the center is ripping their structure apart

WOODBRIDGE – Anthony Porcile, 68, arrives at the Woodbridge Developmental Center between 10:30 and 11 a.m. every Saturday to pick up his 65-year-old brother, Peter, who has lived at the Rahway Avenue facility for the past 50 years.

In a schedule that his brother seems to anticipate, they first drive to the Netherwood Train Station in Plainfield where Peter likes to watch the trains. Then they drive around a while before heading to Anthony Porcile's South Plainfield home where they listen to music, mostly 1950s and 1960s rock 'n' roll.

"I prepare his lunch. He loves Italian food. He's born Italian," said Anthony Porcile whose brother is considered profoundly developmentally disabled. The frail, 58-inch tall, 65-pound Porcile recently spent nearly two weeks in the hospital battling pneumonia. He does not speak, or dress himself and has difficulty walking.

"I feed him myself, little pieces," said Porcile, who has had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on his brother at times to dislodge food. "I can't leave him alone."

Peter Porcile listens to some more music before his brother serves him ice cream and cake, and then returns him to the developmental center between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. Anthony Porcile returns home around 6 p.m. exhausted from the non stop care his brother requires during their weekly outing.

"I always visit him every week," said Porcile, a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

It's a routine the two brothers have shared for several years. Previously the routine had included overnight stays, but that ended when Peter Porcile lost his sight in one eye following a stroke two years ago. He has suffered seizures as well.

Anthony Porcile fears their weekend routine may soon end. Peter Porcile is among about 147 residents remaining at the Woodbridge Developmental Center who will be relocated to another developmental center or group home before the Woodbridge facility closes in late December.

Peter Porcile is scheduled to be moved to a group home in Monmouth County or a developmental center in South Jersey, both locations a long distance from his brother's home.

"My skills at highway driving are not good," Anthony Porcile said, adding Woodbridge is about 10 miles from his home, while the Monmouth County group home would be a 60-mile round trip and the Woodbine Developmental Center in South Jersey is about a three hours away.

He would prefer to have his brother placed at the Green Brook Regional Developmental Center in Somerset County or the Hunterdon Developmental Center in Clinton, but both locations are filled to capacity.

"If I can't see see him I wouldn't be in his life. I've been very dedicated to him," said Porcile, adding he won't put his brother in a group home for fear he won't get the round-the-clock care he needs. "He knows me. If he doesn't see me he doesn't live a month."

He's hoping to delay his brother's transfer as long as possible until a bed becomes available in Green Brook or Clinton.

"I constantly think about it," Anthony Porcile said. "I constantly pray. I couldn't take care of him myself."

Closing Woodbridge and Totowa centers

New Jersey is closing two of the seven state-run developmental centers this year in compliance with a 2012 task force report recommendation. North Jersey Developmental Center in Totowa is closing Tuesday, July 1. All the residents have already been relocated. Woodbridge Developmental Center will close Dec. 31.

"Some people need to live in institutions. To close two in the same vicinity is ridiculous," said Diana Schneider of Woodbridge, whose sister has lived at the Woodbridge Developmental Center since the 1970s. "Nobody cares. How would they like it if it was their loved ones."

There are 30 residents who are scheduled to transfer from the Woodbridge Developmental Center to other developmental centers and five to 10 people are tentatively scheduled to transfer to community group homes in July, or early August, according to Pam Ronan, state Department of Human Services public information officer.

Families initially receive a letter announcing the developmental center residents will be moved. A second letter specifies the exact date of the move, according to Joanne St. Amand, president of the Woodbridge Developmental Center Parents Association whose sister was a longtime resident of the Woodbridge facility.

"Everyone who got letters is going to Woodbine or Vineland," said St. Amand referring to state developmental centers in South Jersey. "They are moving too fast, especially on the receiving end. It's a lot to ask staff to take on."

As the closing dates near there has been a flurry of legislation introduced to halt additional transfers from the developmental centers until two deaths of former North Jersey Developmental Center residents who were moved to group homes are investigated. St. Amand said she is under the impression that legislation won't be moving forward.

"It's so heartbreaking," she said. "There have been issues with those who have gone into the community. That why we were hoping for the moratorium bill."

There also has been legislation introduced aimed at ensuring developmentally disabled residents receive comparable care if moved to a group setting. That legislation, introduced by state Senators Peter Barnes III, D-18th District and Joseph Vitale, D-19th District and approved by the full Senate last Thursday also requires the group homes to be located within 30 miles of the developmental center. St. Amand would like to see the 30-mile requirement apply to residents moved from the Woodbridge facility to other developmental centers.

Moving to Woodbine and Vineland

Dave Petruzziello said the proposed legislation comes too late to help him or his sister, Betty Lou who was moved from Woodbridge to the Woodbine Developmental Center in Cape May County just last week.

"I tried to fight this," Petruzziello, 80 of Toms River said. "Woodbine is 75 miles from Toms River. I'm not too happy about it."

He said his 75-year-old sister is blind and has to be hand fed, and that a group home was not an option for her. She has lived at the Woodbridge Developmental Center for 30 years. He wanted her to be transferred to the Hunterdon Developmental Center in Clinton where he has friends.

"I don't think the state gave us a fair deal," said Petruzziello, who fears his sister's life will be shortened by the move.

Frances Kauffman's daughter Theresa was moved in April to the Vineland Developmental Center, built in 1888 in Cumberland County, a four-hour round trip from her Old Bridge home. Frances and Thomas Kauffman, who are in their 70s, unsuccessfully tried to fight the transfer in court. They wanted their daughter to be transferred to the Hunterdon Developmental Center located near where they have family.

When the Kauffmans visited their daughter for the first time on June 20 she was screaming and yelling and her hands red and swollen. Woodbridge staff members use to wrap her hands, said Kauffman, adding she and her husband talked to their daughter to calm her down.

On Tuesday she received a call that Theresa, 47, had been hospitalized following a seizure and urinary tract infection. Kauffman questions if her daughter's screaming had been related to pain.

"She would have seizures in Woodbridge, but it didn't happen a lot," Kauffman said. "I think it's a big adjustment. They don't know her and she doesn't know them."

Kauffman said a report of her daughter's progress was expected to be completed 30 days after she arrived in South Jersey. She's been told the report is now scheduled for September, nearly five months after the transfer.

"It's very hard," Kauffman added.

Diana Schneider of the Colonia section of Woodbridge has lived 10 minutes away from her sister, Margaret Toth, 68, at the Woodbridge Developmental Center. Toth however, is scheduled to be transferred to the Vineland Developmental Center, a 2-and-a- 1/2 hour ride away.

At that distance, Schneider said she would be lucky to be able to visit her sister a few times a year. She would prefer her sister be transferred to the Hunterdon Developmental Center because she works in that area.

"I've written letters to everybody. I've told them the hardship. They don't care," said Schneider, 66, adding all the developmental center residents are being moved around like chess pieces. "I find it reprehensible."

Schneider said Toth takes seizure medication, can't use one arm, can't swallow regular food, can't speak and can't do anything for herself.

"She is fragile. They check on her constantly," Schneider said.

Schneider said her sister has a broken leg and is bedridden. She wants her to stay at the Woodbridge Developmental Center until her leg fully heals. She said a 2 1/2 -hour ride long ride in a van to Vineland wouldn't aid in the leg healing.

"I am her legal guardian. I have everything to say about her well being except where she goes," Schneider said. "It's terrible. They don't want to listen and it's ripping families apart."

Staff Writer Suzanne Russell: 732-565-7335; srussell@mycentraljersey.com

At a glance

The Woodbridge Developmental Center was established in 1965 as a residential facility for people with developmental disabilities. The center is located on a 68-acre campus-like setting off Rahway Avenue in the Avenel section of Woodbridge Township. The census on August 31, 2013 was 285 men and women, according to the state Department of Human Services Division of Developmental Disabilities web site.