A losing battle for Fernald

A RECENT RULING by a federal appeals court is the beginning of the end for the Fernald Development Center in Waltham. Families of the severely retarded residents fought bravely for years to keep the facility open. But there is little, if any, legal recourse remaining for the 163 residents, many of whom have lived there for decades.

Like the Romney administration before it, the Patrick administration views Fernald as both a throwback to the days of large, impersonal state institutions for the disabled, and wasteful if compared with the less expensive system of smaller group homes. But unlike the Romney administration, the Patrick administration's health and human services officials appear willing to help Fernald residents make the transition as painless and unrushed as possible.

The appeals court found that federal Judge Joseph Tauro overstepped his authority in 2007 when he forced the state to keep Fernald open. But this matter of law should not be the last word on whether all of the roughly 900 residents with severe disabilities living in the few remaining state institutions for the retarded are best served in smaller group homes. The intensive level of nursing care and staffing found in state institutions is not easily duplicated in community settings.

The Arc of Massachusetts, the state's leading advocacy group for intellectually impaired and disabled people, offers strong assurances that the group-home network in Massachusetts is more than capable of offering equal or better treatment for Fernald residents.

A system of monitoring would be comforting, however. Last year, Tauro asked US attorney Michael Sullivan to examine conditions at Fernald. Sullivan expressed concern in a report that forced transfers out of Fernald "could have devastating effects" on residents, undoing the gains from years of consistent treatment. Continued attention from the US attorney's office would go a long way to assure families that their loved ones will find proper placements.

State officials and advocates for the retarded who subscribe to the belief that "the only good institution is a closed institution" will be buoyed by the recent ruling. But such a rigid ideology can be a barrier to good treatment. Tauro, the principled protector of disabled residents since the 1970s, got it right last year when he cautioned that the state's policy was hampering its ability to assess the needs of Fernald residents "on an individual, as opposed to a wholesale, basis."

Correction: An editorial Thursday should have said that the Patrick administration proposed extending the deadline for fully funding the state pension to 2025, not 2028.