WSET.com - ABC13Community Centers: An Alternative to Training Centers

Community Centers: An Alternative to Training Centers

Reporter: Lauren Compton | Videographer: Daniel Heffner

Amherst Co., VA - The countdown to the closing of the Central Virginia Training Center has begun after Gov. Bob McDonnell announced CVTC will close by 2020.

The facility the Southwestern Virginia Training Center in Hillsville has until 2018.

Residents at training centers will have to transition to community based facilities. A lot of them will be working with the state to transition training center residents, and officials say they are ready to accommodate them.

Chief Executive Officer Nancy Cottingham gave ABC 13 Crews a tour of an intermediate care facility run by the Central Virginia Community Services.

"It is like a house. It is their home, and they will live here permanently if they choose to," said Cottingham.

Four residents live in this home. Each has their own room, and each is given the opportunity to participate in the community.

"If people are capable of volunteering or working then they will. If they are not, we make everything tailored to that individual's needs," said Cottingham.

She says CVCS has experience transitioning people from training centers.

"Seventy-five percent of all the people who live in our group homes and intermediate care facilities lived in the training center at one point," said Cottingham.

Cottingham says residents like Brenda are given one-on-one care.

"It provides the same level safety for the level of care that is in the training center," said Cottingham.

A typical Friday at the Vickie Frazier's house involves a cooking lesson. It's one of many household activities Vickie Frazier offers her residents. She is a sponsored residential service provider for Wall Residences, and her house is essentially a group home.

"I tend to service individuals who are dually diagnosed, intellectually and dually diagnosed," said Frazier.

Like at CVSS, each resident has his or her own room. Wall Residences has several facilities like this across the state and offers services for residents who require intense care.

"The nurses are able to provide very intense medical support to individuals who have feeding tubes, individuals who require suctioning," said Alex Jackson, admissions coordinator at Wall Residences.

Neither of these facilities has skilled nursing units to help patients who need intensive care. Representatives from the Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services say the state will be expanding the available services to accommodate people who have this need.