Still, some family members fought to keep Rosewood open, hoping to preserve stability for patients. As it is, scores of patients are now adjusting to new environments.
Michael Jarowski, 61, lived at Rosewood for 32 years until January, when he moved to a group home in Carney that he shares with three others supervised by three staff members. Jarowski has a history of seizures and profound mental retardation. He wears a protective helmet, uses a wheelchair and does not speak.
"It is still a learning curve for his service provider," said his sister, Joan Druso.
The transition has been rough on Harry Yost, 81, who fought hard to keep Rosewood open. His 53-year-old son Larry, who cannot see, hear or speak, had lived there since childhood.
"Things starting going downhill this spring," Yost said, when the hospital lost all his son's clothes and replaced them with items that did not fit.
'They sent temps'
In April, Larry Yost was moved to a group home run by Catholic Charities. Officials at Rosewood had promised to send some of its staff to the home to help him with the transition, the same promise they made to Druso.
"They had laid off the people Michael was used to," she said. "They sent temps who really didn't care."
Harry Yost said his son "is doing all right, but I can't say he is better off."
Another former Rosewood resident, General Lee Oliver, 60, remains hospitalized after being severely beaten on June 10 by one of his caretakers at a group home in Windsor Mill, according to a Baltimore County police spokesman. The caretaker was arrested but has not been charged while the attorney general's office investigates the incident, Cpl. Michael Hill said.
While reports of beatings are uncommon, the level of care in some group homes has long worried relatives of the disabled.
"There is a great concern among Rosewood families that there will not be the kind of oversight and accountability a state facility provides," said Joelle Jordan, an advocate for a group of family members who were fighting last year to keep Rosewood open.
But the litany of incidents left state officials with little choice, they say.
'Inappropriate' to continue
"The magnitude of the problems there were such that to continue operations at Rosewood was inappropriate," said John M. Colmers, secretary of health and mental hygiene, who said the issue landed on his desk at the start of the O'Malley administration.
The group homes to which most of the Rosewood residents have been sent are being adequately supervised and monitored by visiting state inspectors, he said.
"Can we catch everything? No, we can't," Colmers said. "When bad things happen, the most important thing is to prevent them from happening again."
