Loftus was among 170 disabled people whom the state "returned home," from 2009 through July 2015 to save money and bring disabled citizens closer to their families. Another 470 would have eventually followed had Gov. Chris Christie not agreed to halt the policy after an intense lobbying effort by about 60 families.
TRENTON -- Tyler Loftus is finally home.
It isn't the home in Hunterdon County in which Loftus grew up and later had to leave because his family could no longer manage his aggressive behavior.
Nor is it any of the five state-licensed group homes that tried but never could handle Loftus, a 23-year-old man with autism and mental illness.
The cycle of struggle and failure ended on Nov. 18, when Loftus moved back to Woods in Langhorne, Pa., a facility that specializes in taking care of people with developmental disabilities and challenging behaviors.
Woods had been Loftus' home for seven years, until nearly three years ago when the Department of Human Services informed his mother, Rita O'Grady, that the state was halting out-of-state placements under its "Return Home New Jersey" policy.
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Loftus was among 170 disabled people whom the state "returned home," from 2009 through July 2015 to save money and bring disabled citizens closer to their families.
Another 470 would have eventually followed had Gov. Chris Christie not agreed to halt the policy after an intense lobbying effort by state lawmakers and about 60 families who argued their loved ones were safer and better cared for, including some at cheaper cost, right where they had been living for decades.
O'Grady said she and her son became the poster child for the policy's failures, and the cautionary tale of what could happen to others if more people were forced to involuntarily return.
State officials had assured his mother they would find a program trained to handle his impulsive and risky behavior, such as running away and making violent threats. But over two and a half years, Loftus spent collectively seven weeks in hospital emergency rooms and psychiatric wards and 19 days in jail after threatening a group home worker.
"In 2013, we were told that Tyler could come back to New Jersey and receive the same services he had at Woods. Boy were they wrong,' O'Grady said. "We were gridlocked in a system that couldn't care for or manage his severe disabilities."
Loftus is the first person brought back to New Jersey under the policy who has returned to their original placement, state Human Services spokeswoman Pam Ronan said.
Loftfus is back at Woods, O'Grady said, because of the diligence of Johanna Burke, an attorney, a mother of a child with autism and a founder of the nonprofit family advocacy group, Fight 4 Autism. Together they met with state officials in the fall for some very frank discussions, she said.
"We asked if they can define a successful placement. Success to me is (Tyler) stable with a job and a day program," O'Grady said. "Every day it's the emergency room or police. That is not showing me any measure of success."
Longtime Hunterdon County resident Rita O'Grady poses outside the governor's office with a homemade sign bearing her son's photo following the Assembly's vote Thursday to end the "Return Home New Jersey" policy that began in 2009. (Photo Courtesy of Rita O'Grady) With her son no longer in daily crisis, O'Grady said she can focus on helping other families. She said she is willing to meet with anyone to discuss her experiences and share ideas on how to improve New Jersey's network of services for people with developmental disabilities and mental illness.
The system is suffering from an acute lack of professional services, she said.
New Jersey has just one 10-bed hospital unit dedicated to stabilizing these dually diagnosed patients. It's inside Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, which became Loftus' second home, O'Grady said.
There should be more of these units scattered across the state so people in crisis won't have to wait, she said. It always took at least a few day for a bed to open up, leaving Loftus lying in an emergency room for days. Once, he waited 10 days, she said.
The 15-year-old "dual disorders unit" at Trinitas is always full, with a waiting list of five to seven people every day, said Jim McCreath, the hospital's vice president for behavioral health and psychiatry.
Sometimes patients stay longer on the unit because the group home employees are overwhelmed by the behavioral challenges and decline to accept them back, McCreath said.
There were 268 admissions in 2013, 280 in 2014, and with less than a month left, the unit is on track to receive about 300 admissions this year, he said.
The rise coincides with the Christie administration's emphasis on adding community housing for for developmentally disabled people while closing two institutions.
There are 1,347 state-licensed and publicly funded group homes in the state, 336 more than 2010, when Christie took office, Ronan said. The number of supervised apartments jumped from 16 five years ago to 272 this year, she said.
"I think one 10-bed unit for the entire state of New Jersey does cause delays, We are not comfortable (these patients) are getting access as quickly as they should," McCreath said.
"With the kind of utilization we are getting, I am surprised other hospitals haven't looked into it or tried to develop one of their own. It's needed." If the state wanted to encourage more of these units - something it would do by issuing a "call" or a solicitation for hospital services, McCreath said he would be happy to help other units open and assemble a treatment team.
Developing a cadre of experienced and specialized staff should also be a priority, O'Grady said.
"We just don't have a minimum standard of care" for people with developmental disabilities, said O'Grady, a hospice nurse. In geriatric care, medical professionals have to complete regulated training and got certified.
"Why don't we have that for people with autism?" she said.
Although some are better trained than others, all group home employees need "is a driver's license," she said.
"They are expected to give hard-core medication. They are thrown into these homes - a baptism by fire. The pay is low, staffing awful. They are trained to restrain (clients) but don't know how to manage the behavior."
When it came time for her son to return to Woods, staff members picked him up, to avoid any separation stress he might feel if his mother took him there. When she and drove him there for orientation, she said he tried to jump out of the car and kick the windows out.
He's living among eight other men with similar behavioral issues and disabilities and supervised by an experienced team of doctors, nurses and social workers, she said.
"It's not perfect," O'Grady said. "He still refuses his meds, he still has behavioral problems, but they can manage it in-house. He doesn't have to go to the emergency room."
Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
