Eastern Oregon Training Center Closes – “ICF/MR” No More!

On the day the last person left Oregon’s last institution for people with developmental disabilities, word spread quickly throughout the state and across the nation. Many states had closed institutions, but few had closed all their institutions. Only Oregon has the distinction of having closed all its public and private institutions, as well as having no one in an out-of-state institution. This is indeed a major milestone, not only for Oregon, but for every state that struggles to free its citizens with developmental disabilities from institutional care. 

One small side benefit of closing Eastern Oregon Training Center (aka Eastern) is that we will never again have to use the term “ICF/MR.” The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has long referred to institutions as “Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded” – a string of devaluing words we can thankfully live without.

Take the word “intermediate.” It implies that institutions are bridges to somewhere, but in fact they have been bridges to nowhere for most people. As the old Raid “roach hotel” ads said, “Once they check in, they never check out.”

“Care” is about the best you can expect from an institution, and often even that is lacking. Many institutions have been faulted for not providing “active treatment,” which, among other things, means teaching people how to “care” for themselves. Beyond that, there was never an expectation that institutions would promote self-determination, the bedrock value that drives improvements in our current service system.

“Facility” is certainly a term none of us would use to describe our homes, and institutions were never really homes in the way we think of home. Not even when they had names like Fairview Home (an earlier name for Fairview Training Center). In fact, they were often described as warehouses, so “facility” - as in storage facility - is a sadly accurate term.

And let’s hope we never have to hear “the Mentally Retarded” ever again. Of course, we hear variations on the term all the time, and we should never miss an opportunity to educate even the highly educated who, presumably, should know better.

During its last few years, Eastern was about as homey as an institution could be thanks to the efforts of Bob Clabby, the last superintendent. Thanks also goes to the staff, many of whom stayed on until the end to ensure the best possible transition for the few remaining residents. Some staff even became foster providers so they could open up their homes to people with whom they had strong bonds.

Firsthand accounts reported no tears, but lots of joy, on that final October day at Eastern. In contrast, the scene at the closing of Fairview Training Center almost ten years ago was bittersweet.  The difference probably lies in the fact that, while EOTC faded quietly into the sunset, Fairview closed only after a long and at times nasty battle that dragged on for years and left many people inside and outside of the institution bruised and battle weary.

We must never forget the lessons of the past, but we can put in the past some of the old terminology that ran counter to the values that now propel us forward toward full community participation. 

- Bill Lynch