See Ya, Gramps: Motion Picture Television Fund Offloads Old Folks
As all of Hollywood gears up for the uber-expensive glitter of the Academy Awards, plus the oh so fancy pre- and post- parties, 100 aging entertainment industry veterans face eviction as the Motion Picture & Television Fund long-term care nursing home and the acute-care hospital close down over the next few months. The closure will also cost 290 employees their jobs, representing roughly a third of all MPTF’s hourly workers and a third of its managerial staff.
Thursday residents who were able to leave their rooms, some in wheelchairs, joined nurses in scrubs and family members at a union organized rally outside the hospital located in Woodland Hills. Myra Torres, who works at the facility said:
Many residents have stopped eating. They’re scared in there. They’re scared they won’t have anywhere to go to and that they’re going to be separated from their family and friends.
Anger, frustration and despair was leveled at super-producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of the Motion Picture & Television Fund Foundation Board, and other board members who decided to close the nursing home and hospital after revealing last week they had lost $10 million annually for the past four years. Um, what no one noticed? Oh wait they undertook
more than three years of study and analysis by MPTF staff and outside experts
and came to the conclusion that the oldest, frailest patients had to be cut loose. John Schneider, who played Bo Hazzard on the television series Dukes of Hazzard fumed:
This decision was indeed a fiscal decision made in a vacuum.We didn’t lose the debate. We weren’t even invited to the debate.
Opened in 1948, the facility–known as the Country House with buildings designed by William Pereira–will continue to maintain independent- and assisted-living facilities which house 185 clients and six health care centers, as well as its Harry’s Haven memory care facility, named for Kirk Douglas’ father in recognition of the actor’s support of the MPTF. Additionally the fund provides financial aid, healthcare, health plans, childcare and wellness programs.
Just last year a new $20 million Saban Center For Health And Wellness opened on the facility’s grounds, funded in part with a $10 million donation from Jodie Foster, for whom the therapy pool is named. Yvette Simoneau, whose father–suffering from dementia and Parkinsons disease–has lived in the in the nursing home for five years and will have to leave in April, wondered:
If one person can donate $10 million and that’s how much the fund is losing running the hospital and long-term care facility, then why not give us the chance to raise the money, to find donors to help? A lot of us feel betrayed and feel lied to.
Katzenberg’s original statement citing "declining demand and challenging economic outlook" said in part:
The decision to close the hospital and relocate patients was only reached after a great deal of analysis and discussion. It was determined that this course of action was the only one that would preserve the long-term health and viability of MPTF…The problem is that the vast majority of hospital and LTC patients are covered by government insurance programs whose reimbursement rates have not kept pace with fast-rising operating cost.
A follow-up statement issued to the press carried this cruel gem:
MPTF is a leader in the development and implementation of services and programs for senior citizens. Charity has always remained at the heart of the Motion Picture & Television Fund…
A job fair for those laid-off in the closures and referrals for the elderly patients to other care facilities are planned.
The nonprofit fund was founded in 1921 by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith. To qualify for a place at the Country House, clients must have worked for twenty years in the industry. Fees are based on an ability to pay and covered part or whole by insurance, pension and Medicare.
The MPTF is supported by donations and investments (some of their individual donors were affected by Bernie Madoff, though that doesn’t offset the $10million a year shortfall annually for the past four years, a hideous hemorrhage). Some families protesting the closure stated their parents and loved ones had donated to the fund anticipating that it–in concert with their own money–would support them in their old age. Said Schneider:
Many people look forward to coming here, and I’m one of them. They all paid for their rooms in there, and they shouldn’t be forced to move out. There’s still time to do something about this.
In their statement, the board said the LTC facility and acute-care hospital
will be phased out in favor of community-based programs aimed at assisting the growing number of seniors who prefer to “age in place”—that is, live safely and independently in their own homes for as long as possible.
But then what? The people living on MPTF long-term care have lived in their own homes for as long as possible. And what happens when current residents of the independent and assisted living facilities need long term or acute care? Under the new plan, they’ll be moved away from familiar surroundings, away from their friends and staff they have known, and in the words of Schneider, sent to
a frightful death, rather than the peaceful one they envisioned.
Now comes the big question, if Hollywood can raise millions for political candidates and causes, can it raise money for its own senior citizens?
Welcome to the future.