TIVERTON, R.I. (WPRI) — Donna Goulet-Truppi and her husband Paul Truppi are frustrated. They say the abrupt closure of St. Mary’s Home for Children — and then of the George N. Hunt School on the home’s North Providence campus — has been very difficult for their grandchild, a former resident.
“My grandchild has a seizure disorder, has depression, and was suicidal due to a lot of death in our family,” Goulet-Truppi told 12 News. “It got to the point where they had to move my grandchild out of Hasbro [Children’s Hospital], and the only availability was St. Mary’s Home.”
Goulet-Truppi and her husband said they’d heard stories about St. Mary’s Home and were clear with social workers from the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) that they did not want to see their grandchild placed at that residential psychiatric treatment facility.
“It came down to, ‘Well, if you don’t go to St. Mary’s, he could end up in Tennessee, other parts, like Florida,’” said Goulet-Truppi, who lives in Tiverton. “And we didn’t want that, because that’s not going to keep our family together. So we went with St. Mary’s.”