man's climb to group-home rooftop

State reviewing autistic man's climb to group-home rooftop
By ALICE GOMSTYN
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: November 8, 2005)


MONSEY — A state agency is looking into the case of a 22-year-old autistic man who climbed to the roof of a Hamaspik of Rockland group home Sunday evening.

Deborah Rausch, a spokeswoman with the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, declined to offer specifics about the matter, but said, "The safety and welfare of the people we serve is of utmost importance to us, so we're going to look into this."

Meyer Wertheimer, executive director of both Hamaspik of Rockland County and Hamaspik of Orange County — nonprofit agencies that run local facilities for the developmentally disabled — said last night that he was confident the group home's staff did nothing wrong. Wertheimer said the man, whom neither he nor police would identify, was not a resident of the home. He was there, Wertheimer said, with his mother on a visit to help determine if the home "would fit his needs."

Police were called to the group home on East Concord Drive about 6:30 p.m. Sunday on reports that a man had climbed to the roof of the two-story building and was refusing to come down.

Ramapo police Sgt. Robert Lancia eventually coaxed the agitated man to come within reach of rescue workers — two of whom also were on the roof — who lowered him to the ground.

Lancia said the police called the county Health Department about the incident yesterday afternoon and were referred to the state agency. He said the Hudson Valley Disabled Service Office, the state agency's branch in Thiells, was faxed the police report detailing the incident and identifying the man involved.

The man, Lancia said in an earlier interview, apparently got to the roof by climbing out a bedroom window and onto a nearby garage roof, where he then pulled himself up to the larger roof.

Police referred the incident to health officials, Lancia said, because they would be better equipped to evaluate whether the home had committed "an infraction of the law."

"I'm not going to know the laws that govern how a group home is going to be run, so we're going to hand that over to an agency that directly oversees that," he said.

Wertheimer said the group home's safety record was "wonderful" and that the staff could not have prevented the man's ascent.

"It happened so fast," he said. No one, he said, saw the man slip away and climb to the roof.

Wertheimer said that if the home's staff had been more familiar with the man, they would have been able to take precautions to prevent the incident.

The man lives with his parents in Monroe in Orange County and attends a day program there run by Hamaspik. Wertheimer said the man had a tendency to climb to high places — he recently climbed on top of a school bus, Wertheimer said — and "that's why he needs a special residence."