My Hub's Job...GONE

87 pink slipped yesterday...


State officials will seek community placement for many of the remaining 88 residents and eliminate more than 400 jobs as they work to close the Mt. Pleasant Center by October.

Budget constraints and a goal of placing residents with developmental disabilities into communities were cited as reasons for closing the facility, one of only three left in the state.

Employees of the center were told of the pending closing Thursday.

In addition to saving money, officials at the Michigan Department of Community Health have been working toward moving developmentally disabled residents at state facilities into community-based housing, James McCurtis, MDCH spokesman, said Thursday.

"We're still committed to providing service for persons with developmental disabilities, but at the same time incorporate them into the community," McCurtis said.

The Mt. Pleasant Center has housed developmentally disabled residents with major medical needs, with dual diagnoses of being both developmentally disabled and mentally ill, as well as a program for mentally handicapped people accused of crimes but who cannot understand the charges against them.

There are some residents at the facility, however, who do not meet the criteria for community placement; those residents will be sent to other state facilities, McCurtis said.