Rally supports Valley View residence for the deaf and deaf-blind

Reba Zwanetsky, 93 and deaf, was isolated in a hearing world at a time when she was most vulnerable.

Zwanetsky had broken a hip and was recovering in a rehab facility.

No one understood her, and she couldn't understand anyone.

"It was horrible," said Zwanetsky's brother Bob Katz.

Katz told the story through a sign-language interpreter to a crowd of 100 Saturday at a rally to support his sister's home, the Valley View residence for the deaf and deaf-blind elderly in Middletown Township, Delaware County. When the staff and residents can communicate in the same language, Katz said, it makes all the difference.

The group gathered because the future of financially troubled Valley View is in doubt because of state licensing problems. "We want 24-hour, seven-day-a-week access to communication and quality care," activist Lillian Hoshauer said through an interpreter. "We want to ensure that they are never separated and placed in isolation."

State agencies, county officials, legislators, and managers of Valley View have been working to find a solution for several months, said Erik Arneson, spokesman for state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware). The most recent meeting was Wednesday.

The goal is for Valley View to stay open, Arneson said, and "that is well within the possibility."

On March 15, board members of Elwyn Inc., which operates the home, were told Valley View had been operating under a waiver from state licensing requirements, said Sharon Antal, a vice president of the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf and a board member who attended the meeting.

The waiver relieved Elwyn from the cost of maintaining a state license, which would have put the program in a severe deficit, according to documents distributed at the meeting.

"With the new governor, that is not acceptable, and they are requiring an absolute licensure," Antal said.

Officials did not say how much the license would cost or how deep the deficit would be.

According to state records, a provisional adult day-care license was granted in April 2011 because the facility did not meet the requirements for a full license.

Christina Reese, a spokeswoman for the Department of Aging, said she could not discuss licensing because Elwyn and the agency were in litigation.

Board members were told the current license would expire on Saturday, but the deadline was extended, Antal said.

Reese said, "nothing expires at this point" and the agency is committed to finding a solution.

State budget cuts did not play a role in the matter, Arneson said.

Lew Manges, executive director of Elwyn Behaviorial Health and Deaf Services, said in a statement he was optimistic an agreement would be reached.

But any doubt is too much for local deaf community activists, Valley View residents, and their families.

Residents Hyman Lakin, 85, and his friend Thelma Breighner, 81, called the prospect of leaving the facility "terrible."

"I chose Valley View because I didn't want to be a burden on my daughter - and everyone here is deaf, Lakin said through an interpreter. "When we're with hearing people, we're left out."

Jane Pulver, whose father is a resident, and Nancy Tonnessen, whose late mother lived at Valley View, say they witnessed moments of dispiriting isolation before their parents went to the facility.

When Pulver's father was in the hospital, she walked into his room to find a doctor talking to him.

"I said, 'Don't you see the sign? He's deaf,' " Pulver said.

"Valley View is a godsend," Pulver said.

Activists say they will continue to lobby for the residents to stay together at least in some facility with a staff fluent in American Sign Language if staying together at Valley View is ruled out.

"We consider ourselves an ethnic group, not disabled," said the Rev. Beth Lockard, who provides pastoral care services at Valley View, "We share a language and a culture. The staff here are aware of it. In fact, they are part of it."