Baltimore County's Rosewood Center, which has been home to some of Maryland's most severely disabled residents for more than a century, will close within the next 18 months after a string of reports detailing sometimes gruesome cases of abuse and neglect.
Gov. Martin O'Malley's announcement on the steps of Rosewood's administration building yesterday drew a mix of cheers and boos from advocates for the disabled who stood nearby.
Those who have pushed for shuttering the center argued that community settings provide more freedom and independence for the disabled, but many of Rosewood's workers say its closing will traumatically disrupt the lives of its residents, some of whom have known no other home. The workers said reports of abuse have been exaggerated.
The state's plan also raises a major question for the surrounding Owings Mills community: What will happen to the center's 300-acre grounds, one of the largest potentially developable parcels in the county?
Rosewood opened in 1888 and at its peak, housed nearly 3,700 people. About 150 disabled people live there now, some of whom were sent by the courts after they were found incompetent to stand trial.
O'Malley said he worries how some residents will adjust to the change but decided to close Rosewood after consulting with health care experts.
"The decline of this facility is not something that happened recently. It's a decline that has happened in the course of many decades," O'Malley said. "To turn around that sort of decline, it was my decision, on balance, after a lot of consideration ... that we can do a better job of providing the service in different settings than here in Rosewood."
Last month, the state Office of Health Care Quality reported 130 incidents of "abuse, neglect, mistreatment and injuries of unknown origins" in a two-month period. The state has barred new admissions at Rosewood three times in the past year, and the facility has been in danger of losing federal funding because of poor conditions.
The report detailed how residents were given incorrect medication, were improperly restrained and were allowed to assault other residents or not given appropriate "behavior plans."
A Sept. 13 report by the state documented problems at Rosewood ranging from the inability of staff members to control aggressive residents to missed feedings of intubated residents.
