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State plan may save home for the deaf elderly

A new state proposal could save the troubled Valley View home for elderly deaf people in Delaware County from a scheduled shutdown in the fall.

A new state proposal could save the troubled Valley View home for elderly deaf people in Delaware County from a scheduled shutdown in the fall.

The Department of Public Welfare (DPW) is considering a plan that would resolve the funding and licensing issues that have long plagued the facility: It would stay open, but management and resident care would be turned over to an outside group.

In June, Valley View's problems prompted its board to vote to close the residence, which houses 40 deaf and deaf-blind senior citizens.

Last week, their families were notified of the state's proposal in a letter from Sandra S. Cornelius, president of Elwyn Inc., a social-services organization that operates Valley View. Both are on the same Middletown Township campus.

State officials caution that no resolution has been reached. Other options also are being considered, including one in which residents would be relocated and Valley View closed, said Carey Miller, a DPW spokeswoman. "Our main concern is to make sure the residents are safe and well taken care of," she said.

Valley View will remain open while the proposal is studied, said Angela Jacobsen, an Elwyn spokeswoman. She offered no timetable.

In the lead-up to the board's vote in June, the facility had been reclassified as a nursing home, with a state reimbursement rate that Valley View administrators said would produce an $800,000 shortfall and force the facility to close.

Since then, state agencies, county officials, legislators, activists, and Valley View managers have been looking for a way that residents could be moved to a new facility, where they could have the companionship of others who are deaf.

The new plan would change Valley View's licensing status from a nursing home to a LIFE/PACE designation. A LIFE/PACE program provides for care and services to the elderly to help them remain independent.

Under the proposed arrangement, one of three Philadelphia LIFE/PACE licensees would take on responsibility for Valley View and provide health-care services. There are LIFE/PACE programs operated by the Penn Nursing Network, a division of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing; Mercy Health System; and the NewCourtland Network, a senior citizen service provider.

In the letter to families, Cornelius said she would work to help Valley View employees fluent in American Sign Language retain their jobs if a new care provider takes over.

That is an important consideration, said Susan Gold, whose father, Hyman Lakin, lives at Valley View.

The residents, she said, need consistency in "their level of care and communication."