Whatever happened to those individuals with severe developmental disabilities who used to reside at Ridge Home, one of Colorado's institutions that essentially closed down two decades ago?
While some individuals remain under the jurisdiction of the state of Colorado, many have been transitioned to community programs run by the 20 community centered boards throughout the state. Many of these individuals--whose parents had given up their parental rights when their children were institutionalized--still require legal guardianship to oversee delicate financial, ethical and life decisions.
Guardianship Background--
The Arc in Jefferson County assumed legal guardianship status for eleven such individuals when Ridge Home de-institutionalized and the Ridge Association of Retarded Citizens merged with The Arc in Jefferson County. Some of these individuals still have some involvement with family members, but most do not, relying upon The Arc staff and volunteer board members to attend to difficult issues usually assumed by families. We are currently guardians for nine individuals, and authorized legal representatives for more than one hundred.
The Arc provides Christmas and birthday presents to each person for whom we are guardians. Staff members attend nearly every meeting regarding these individuals and assist in the decision-making necessary to safeguard their living situations. (For some of these individuals, there are more than a dozen meetings a year.) Some of these decisions involve difficult issues--life-and-death, change of residence, assurance of safety and suspicion of abuse.
Here are two examples:
