The South Dakota Developmental Center at Redfield is under review this year in Pierre. And Wednesday, Laurie Gill, Secretary of the Department of Human Services, presented to a house committee an overview of the Redfield work group that was conducted last summer. Driving the discussion is an average daily population that has been in decline. The facility is being used primarily as a short term treatment center to address issues that have made it difficult for individuals to live in their own community. Gill says that, in the last year, they have been working on a rebalancing initiative and that the emphasis has been on moving individuals into a community setting to reduce the population at Redfield:
Secretary Gill says, despite changing the salary structure and ramping up recruitment, that it has been difficult to attract and hire employees at Redfield, particularly in direct support positions:
Gill says, through attrition, that an effort is being made to reduce staff at Redfield in the direct support positions, while moving individuals with high needs out of the Redfield facility into a community setting:
To date, the initiative has resulted in a reduction of 10 full time employees at the Redfield center. At present 145 persons with developmental disabilities are served at Redfield.