Removal of residents from care is a violation

The plan by the county to move 92 mentally ill people from residential care facilities, many from the Abbe Center for Community Care, to save $400,000 troubles me. I've been a resident advocate for the Abbe Center for over 20 years. An advocate has the responsibility to make sure resident rights are maintained and their needs are met. This plan violates both.

Many residents, with mental illness, are in a transitional stage of their treatment program, between a hospital and a community group home or program. A residential care facility with its medical staff provides the stable and secure environment for the resident to make this transition, usually weeks or months.

About 70 percent of these residents are under court order for involuntary treatment. Where will these people go for this transitional stage during which their medication is adjusted, treatment given for alcoholism, drug addiction, social/emotional problems, etc., and time for all these things to work to stabilize their condition?

These residents will lose the services of Abbe, a residential care facility capable of treating them during this transitional stage. The county needs to know that this is more than a $400,000 budget problem.

Vern Hunstad

Cedar Rapids