---

Advocates for Southbury Training School
Our Choice for Quality of Life and Care for I/DD Loved Ones

There is a crisis in Connecticut concerning long-term care and quality-of-life support services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Thousands of I/DD individuals are waiting for residential placement in a group home environment – some for as long as 25 years. They, and their care-giving families are aging. There are also younger families with I/DD children who are facing an uncertain future in finding long-term, quality-care solutions for their loved ones.

We are the advocates for our loved ones living at STS.  We have a choice. We can move our loved ones into an uncertain group-home environment. Or they can age in place, within the safe environment of STS.

We choose STS.

Our concern is that other families of I/DD loved ones in Connecticut can’t make that same choice. Because we’re concerned for them, and for future generations
of I/DD individuals, we intend to do something about it.

The Home and School Association of the Southbury Training School (STS), is working in partnership with VOR, the national advocacy voice for I/DD individuals.

We seek to protect the interests of I/DD individuals living in Connecticut and to help their families overcome the wait for long-term, quality-of-life care and services.

Contact us for short and long-term care solutions for I/DD individuals.

Get Involved
Become a Member
The STS Home and School Association seeks to protect the interests of I/DD individuals within the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services (DDS) system by advocating for their right to long-term, quality-of-life care and services at the Southbury Training School. 

Join our Mailing List
​
Consider making a donation today:
Home and School Association of
Southbury Training School
P.O. Box 872 
Southbury, CT 06488-0901
855-200-0490
or contact our President, Marty Dwyer
​[email protected]

​Like  us on Facebook:

Donate Today

---

---

What's New at STS?

​​State-Issued PPE Halted For Home Health Aides
Connecticut’s Department of Social Services has announced that, effective August 29, it cut the provision of PPE to consumers who have home care aides to a request-only distribution system in the Community First Choice Medicaid program unless the client has symptoms of COVID-19 or has tested positive for the virus.  It is unclear if DSS has also stopped routinely providing PPE to other home care programs.

The directive halted the regular shipment of gloves, gowns, surgical masks and face shields to such individuals to five cloth masks per quarter.  Prior to that date, the State was providing biweekly shipments of 50 surgical masks and five to 25 sets of gloves.
The move will impact approximately 16,000 predominantly low-income and disproportionately Black and brown women who rely on or who are employed through these programs.  They serve approximately 6,000 consumers who need help with their daily needs, many of whom severely disabled and a large portion of whom are on the waiting list.

If DSS can do this to people receiving home health care, they can do it to others, such as group homes, the regional centers and STS.  If you can, please contact Julie Kushner, who is running for re-election as a state representative from Danbury (http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/kushner-contact or 860-240-0509; 1-800-842-1420) and Governor Lamont ([email protected] or  860-566-4840) and your local state representative.

​COVID-19 UPDATE INFORMATION
 STS NOW 
Family members and friends can now visit STS residents, in designated locations. For information about visiting please contact Susan Zabit at 203-586-2617.  STS residents can also visit family members in their homes when accompanied by a staff member. Please contact the resident’s cottage if you wish to make arrangements. You can also be in touch with your STS resident by calling the cottage and asking if a staff member can connect you by video call on their phone.  STS Director Eugene Harvey is the process of
obtaining tablets to make that easier. All clinics, including the dental clinic, are now open.
__
STS WHEN COVID-19 CAME
COVID-19 first appeared on the campus on March 30.  Nineteen residents who tested positive have now tested negative (after 2 tests) and have returned to their cottages. Fortunately, there have been no new positive tests of STS residents since April 11. Fourteen staff including six nurses have tested positive. There have been three staff deaths. Memorials are on our home page. 

STS Director Eugene Harvey began implementing precautions to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in early March.  These include restricting staff members to a single cottage and minimizing the cottages in which nurses work.  In addition, all campus and community recreational activities were discontinued, no visitors, including family members and guardians, were permitted on campus, and all quarterly and annual IP meetings were
being held remotely.  Only off grounds medical appointments deemed critical by the medical staff were allowed and only on grounds specialty clinic appointments deemed necessary to maintain residents’ health were taking place, and only in a staggered fashion to prevent infection. All on and off grounds day programs were cancelled.  Temperatures of both staff and residents are taken twice each shift.  All staff are wearing masks and
gloves and, if they are in contact with anyone who has tested positive or is getting CPAP or nebulizer treatment, N95 masks, eye protection and gowns.  Cleaning protocols have been intensified and increased. 

Due to a cluster of positive tests (12) in Cottage 36, its residents were moved to Cottage 30 for easier social distancing.  There are four common areas in Cottage 30 and there was only one in Cottage 36. That move is permanent.  The move to 30 from 36 was accomplished in 4 hours! 

Cottages 16, 4 and 15 have been reopened.  Cottages 16 and 36 are available as isolation units for residents who test positive.  Cottage 4 is for residents who are awaiting test results.  When individuals completed their 14-day quarantine, they were moved to Cottage 15.  There are presently no residents in any of these cottages, but STS is prepared in case there are additional COVID-19 cases. STS is very fortunate to have buildings available for isolation of affected individuals and that the maintenance staff and others
have worked diligently to effect the moves. 

Volunteer Services paid for staff to purchase additional TV’s, so all of the rooms in these cottages have or will have TV’s. STS presently has enough gowns, masks, gloves and eye protection and Eugene is making arrangements to continue to have an adequate supply.  Some of the extra supplies are being provided to DDS staff who work with individuals in their own homes.  Staff and others have been making cloth masks and gowns. Everyone from STS Director Harvey on down is committed to keeping our loved ones safe and healthy.  The entire staff deserves great commendation.

Stay safe.

Like Home & School on Facebook:

Please enjoy this video tribute to the employees of Southbury Training School.
We can't be more grateful to them for their dedication during this crisis.

Remembering Three STS Staff

Watch John Hirschauer and Diana Mennone deliver testimony to legislators in Hartford about Southbury Training School on February 25, 2019:

Essential STS Reading
Home & School Report on Considerations for Future of Southbury Training School
​
Huffington Post on STS, and building "life-giving places"

We Support VOR
Please Join VOR!
VOR is a national organization that advocates for high quality care and human rights for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

VOR Supports a Full Spectrum of Services for Individuals with I/DD   Learn More

 VOR Legislative Action Alerts - take action!

---