AXFORD | Is the closure worth it?

• Tweet
• 

The Mount Pleasant Center will be closing by October.

For those who don’t know, the Mount Pleasant Center is a home that helps the severely disabled. These are individuals who have very specialized diets, are prone to chronic seizures and have a multitude of other serious health problems that require 24-hour attention.

I am appalled at the announcement of its closure. The community needs places like this. In a world where everyone is too busy with their own day-to-day lives and their very survival, residents of this home are bound to be neglected and overlooked.

The center is a place where people who need specialized attention for both medical and emotional disabilities are taken care of in a safe environment, outside the realm of society.

I understand that the purpose of the center is to teach and encourage these individuals to become independent or to move out into the community with limited aid and attention, a goal that I applaud wholeheartedly.

As an individual who works in nursing homes, I understand that this task is extremely difficult and at times seemingly impossible to achieve. When a resident of a nursing home does achieve his or her goals and is able to move out into the community, it’s one of the most rewarding experiences to be a part of.

But the center isn’t closing because community health officials think that they can achieve this goal faster by putting these individuals in different homes. They’re trying to conserve money in a dwindling economy where the state budget is shrinking faster and faster each day.

To me, it doesn’t seem like the goals of the center are being met faster by moving the residents out into different homes or into the public. If the Department of Community Health were trying to achieve this goal, it would have done so before closing the center.

And what of the people who work here? I’m not sure if you noticed, but jobs in this area are evaporating quickly. According to Central Michigan Life, there are 405 employees at the center. Four hundred and five adults who gave their time to the disabled for a paycheck in order to put food on the table for their children. In order to put themselves through college. In order to just get by in tough times.

Granted, there are two more centers like this one in Michigan. But I’m beginning to doubt the longevity of such places. How long until the shrinking state budget closes down these other centers and these residents find themselves unable to get the help they so desperately need?

The answer to the problem of disappearing state funds is not in shutting down the center. It is a sign of defeat that states things are continuing to get worse for areas trying to improve the community. Perhaps it cannot be helped and I’m sure that the parties involved with the center would rather see it up and operating.

I can only hope that those living in the center can find success in other avenues and continue to reach for a self-sustaining lifestyle.