4 Homes for the Mentally Disabled Put on Probation : Social services: State officials also revoke the same operators’ license of an Antelope Valley facility where a patient wandered away and died.

Four San Fernando Valley homes for the mentally disabled will be on probation for three years, an action prompted by the closure of a sister facility in the Antelope Valley where a mentally disabled patient wandered away and died last August.

The state Department of Social Services revoked the license of the Sunshine Home in Littlerock, which had been closed under a temporary order since Aug. 19 following the death of the patient.

In a settlement this week, home operators Aurora and Chalit Nakpawan of Northridge, operators of the five facilities, admitted that they “failed to provide adequate care and supervision” to patients and failed to properly store and record medications at the Littlerock home.

State officials in mid-August seized a cache of prescription drugs at the home, saying the amounts were in excess of those needed for patients and concluding that they might not have been getting their proper doses. But state officials on Thursday did not know the status of that matter.

State records show the Sunshine Home, which the couple had run since September, 1990, had already been placed on probation as of July, 1992, because of poor conditions. Then on Aug. 1, a retarded cerebral palsy patient wandered into the desert and was found dead of exposure two days later.

In the accusation filed Aug. 19, state officials accused the home of failing to properly supervise patients and to take appropriate steps to find the missing patient. They also accused Aurora Nakpawan of telling others that the victim had left on an outing when she did not know that was true.

The same accusation cited about three dozen alleged instances of patients at the Littlerock home fighting in 1991 and 1992, resulting in some injuries. And it cited more than 20 other occasions where patients either left without permission or were late in returning.

The state also accused the operators of being “unqualified” and having inadequate staff. The state initially sought to revoke the licenses of the other four Nakpawan homes before finally settling for probation.

The San Fernando Valley homes, which also were on probation from 1990 to 1992 for other problems, are Aurora’s Group Home in Sylmar, Lil Care Center in Arleta, Aurora’s Group Home III in Arleta, and Aurora’s Group Home IV in Van Nuys. Neither the Nakpawans nor their attorney could be reached for comment Thursday.

The Littlerock home was the largest, licensed for 26 patients. The other homes are permitted six patients apiece. As part of the probation, Aurora Nakpawan, 55, and Chalit Nakpawan, 58, cannot obtain any new state licenses for three years.