State to Ease Pain of Center Clients, Workers

While Charlestown’s Life Focus Center will this summer, the state’s Department of Developmental Services aims to minimize the pain suffered by the center’s customers and employees.

Jennifer Kritz, a spokesperson for the department, said that the department is currently contacting families to connect them with new care providers.

“We are very committed to developing a thoughtful transition plan,” Kritz said. She added that that plan includes Life Focus Center employees.

Kritz said her department will encourage providers taking on former Life Focus Center customers to interview the center’s employees for any available positions.

Doing so, Kritz said, could help ease patients’ transitions.

While commenters on Charlestown Patch have been of Life Focus Center’s leadership—particularly Executive Director Jack Millerick—they have defended the group’s employees.

On the decision

According to copies of two letters provided to Charlestown Patch, the Department of Developmental Services notified Life Focus Center on Tuesday that the department would terminate the center’s 13 state contracts effective June 16.

Following that, Life Focus Center informed Charlestown Patch that it would shut its doors around the same time.

Kritz said that coverage of the state of the Life Focus Center, which highlighted sensational details, played no part in the department’s decision.

Following the report, she said, the department attempted to work with the center but found that it couldn’t have confidence in the center’s board.