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With many of its clients living longer, UPARC tries to make its houses fit their needs.
By KATHERINE GAZELLA
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 21, 2000
Frankie Lapinski is mentally retarded, diabetic and has chronic pneumonia. He has started forgetting things, and his guardian thinks he is on the cusp of developing Alzheimer's disease. He has asthma and problems with his feet. He can't hear very well.
Lapinski also is one of the happiest guys around, especially as he prepares for his big move.
"When am I going to go? Next week?" he asks Tom Buckley, the executive director of the Upper Pinellas Association for Retarded Citizens.
"You're going in three weeks, Frankie. You're graduating," says Buckley, who also is Lapinski's guardian.
Lapinski has heard all this before, but that doesn't matter. He practically leaps out of his chair, unable to sit still amid all the excitement.
Lapinski, 63, is about to move into one of two new group homes that will serve mentally retarded people who also have Alzheimer's or other age-related problems. He will live in a home in Palm Harbor along with five other residents. Another six residents will live in a similar home just east of Tarpon Springs.
The homes will be run by UPARC, which operates 29 other group homes in Pinellas County. Group homes have been around for a long time, but the two new homes are a relatively new phenomenon: They are designed to serve a population that, in years past, didn't reach old age.
Now, because of medical advances and a better understanding of the needs of mentally disabled people, many are living longer. Buckley and others in the field think the extended life expectancy is wonderful, but they also know that it creates new problems.
Traditional group homes for mentally retarded people and nursing homes for elderly people do not offer the personal attention that people like Lapinski require, Buckley said.
If all the mentally retarded people in Pinellas County who need nursing care were sent to nursing homes, he said, the homes simply couldn't afford it. Lapinski and others who will live in the homes need a ratio of about two residents for each person on staff, as opposed to 15-to-one at many nursing and group homes.
"We would literally bury them financially overnight," Buckley said.
The group homes, which are at George Street and Keystone Road near Tarpon Springs and on Indiana Avenue in Palm Harbor, are designed to accommodate the needs of aging people. They have handrails lining the hallways, low kitchen counters for people in wheelchairs and a room that will serve as a nurse's station. The lights don't create shadows on the floor, eliminating a possible hazard for elderly people who think shadows are objects they need to step over.
Bill Conklin, program manager for UPARC, will pick out wallpaper for the houses and furnishings that will give the houses a warm feeling.
"We've definitely come a long way from the days of institutions," he said.
Nurses and nursing assistants will be on hand at the homes to deal with a variety of medical problems. Some of the residents -- who range in age from a 35-year-old who is aging prematurely to an 85-year-old -- have developed profound medical problems that are likely to worsen as they get older.
"We can keep them now until the very end," Buckley said.
Not everyone is happy about the group homes. A year ago, the county's Board of Adjustment ruled that UPARC couldn't open a 10-resident group home at George Street and Keystone Road. Many residents of the East Lake neighborhood had argued that the group home didn't fit in with their residential community.
That's one of the places UPARC is opening a six-resident home, which doesn't require county approval. Some nearby residents still don't want it there.
"Nobody wants it on our street," said Merry Jane Dey, who lives next door. "Everybody on the street is a single-family home."
Buckley hopes residents will withdraw their objections once the homes open. He hopes UPARC ultimately can get approval to house 10 people in each home.
"Once we're in the community, I feel we will get the support," Buckley said.
In Buckley's office, Lapinski jumps into a conversation by making a few disjointed announcements.
"One thing I can't do -- call 911," he says.
"Gotta play the rules," he says.
And, "I miss my mom."
His mother died about 13 years ago, and Lapinski was moved into a facility near Hollywood. Buckley visited him there and found the conditions unsatisfactory. He had Lapinski assigned to an apartment in Pinellas County, and soon after to a UPARC group home.
Buckley became his guardian. He has watched Lapinski grow happier and more confident in his years of living at UPARC group homes and working at Checker's and Denny's restaurants.
Lapinski understands that he is moving to a new group home as a reward for good behavior.
"I'm playing the rules. I must've did something great," he says.
Buckley wants Lapinski to live out his final years with dignity. He wants him to live in a group home with people he considers family members, where nurses will understand his special needs, where he will have regular activities to keep his mind working. Where he will be happy.
Buckley says, "Yes Frankie. You've been very good."
- Staff writer Katherine Gazella can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or gazella@sptimes.com.