NORWICH – Change is afoot once again at Valley Ridge, but state health officials confirm that there are no plans to close the maximum security institution in the Town of Norwich.
Valley Ridge Center for Intensive Treatment has a new director, James Skrzeczkowski. He replaces interim Director John Gleason, who came on board last May. Skrzeczkowski is the sixth director the facility has seen since being built back in 2002 and the fourth since Valley Ridge came under the auspices of Broome Developmental Disabilities Services Organization in mid-2009.
Both Valley Ridge and Broome DDSO are programs of the New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities. Originally, Valley Ridge fell directly under the auspices of OPWDD (formerly known as OMRDD).
The leadership change resulted from personnel and best practices reforms made at 13 OPWDD institutions last year, a spokesman said last week. The transformations will eventually result in four to five Local Intensive Treatment facilities closing over the coming years, including the Wassaic LIT, and one DDSO institution in the Finger Lakes.
The Valley Ridge CIT is not on any closure list, OPWDD’s Travis Proulx confirmed.
“There will always be a need for some institutions to remain open, because of the severity of behavioral challenges. People with violent criminal histories would not be people that we feel should be moved to the community,” he said.
Of the 1,100 individuals in nine OPWDD-operated LITs and CITs in the state, Proulx said only about 300 of them will always need to be institutionalized. The total cost of services per individual in an institution is approximately $375,000 annually. OPWDD primarily receives its funding through the federal government.
The 23-acre Valley Ridge campus, located on the hill above state Rt. 12 and behind Lowe’s in the Town of Norwich, employs approximately 215 people, down five from the start, and houses 45 mostly 18-35 year-old male consumers who live in five housing units.
The individuals may or may not criminal records, but all have aggressive behaviors that require a highly-specialized treatment setting. There are currently 11 Level III sex offenders residing there.
There were originally 60 consumers at Valley Ridge, but the OPWDD found that the lesser number is better suited to successfully implement individualized treatment plans, said Proulx.
“Not only have there been leadership changes, but the agency as a whole has really undergone a transformation starting when Governor Cuomo appointed our new commissioner (Courtney Burke) in April,” he said.
Some of the transformations include more stringent hiring standards and mandatory training and continuing education requirements. Commissioner Burke also defined a consistent disciplinary system that more clearly identifies terminable causes from less aggressive issues, Proulx said, as well as implemented the investigative process for when consumers and employees make accusations of abuse.
After cutbacks in both staff and consumers, followed by last spring’s leadership change, Chenango County lawmakers were so concerned about the facility closing that they sent a letter to the region’s state representatives and to officials at the New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities to protest.
David C. Law, R-Norwich, said closing the Chenango County employer would be “a huge blow ... what with the $52,000 in annual salaries on average up there.”
The switch to Broome DDSO also resulted in less Chenango County representation on a Board of Visitors monitoring group that is charged with oversight at Valley Ridge.
Skrzeczkowski was previously the treatment team leader at the Finger Lakes Local Intensive Treatment center, part of the DDSO office in Rochester.
OPWDD and its network of nonprofit providers provide services and supports to more than 126,000 individuals with developmental disabilities, which include intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, the autism spectrum, and more.