So, gross abuses of the mentally ill are a thing of the distant, unenlightened past, ey? Note that one of the patients is a Vietnam Vet. What can the Iraq and Afghan vets expect in the future when our country has even less financial wherewithal?:
The Justice Department is investigating whether chronic problems at St. Elizabeths Hospital are violating the civil rights of mentally ill patients.
...
In the past year, several St. Elizabeths patients have been assaulted by other patients, and care at the psychiatric hospital has been criticized by regulators and by an internal review commissioned by the Mental Health Department.
Last April, Martin Allan, 55, was stomped into a coma by a male patient, and just a few weeks later, a frail older woman, Willie Faley, was fatally beaten by another female patient. In both cases, family and workers blamed inadequate staffing.
A review prepared in January by a Mental Health Department consultant found that the hospital had "dangerously low" staffing and needed considerable improvement in its management and use of restraints. The consultant, Richard Fields, said in the report that he was most concerned by the risk posed by staffing problems.
In his review, Fields found that more than half the wards inspected in December were understaffed, nurses were working overtime and staff members routinely were asked to work in wards where they were not familiar with procedures. A third of the staff members lacked the required training for their jobs, wrote Fields, who concluded that the staffing problems represent a "significant risk over time" to patients.
The request for an injunction filed by University Legal Services includes several declarations from 13 patients and their families in which they pleaded for help from the court.
"Staff undresses some of the other patients in the day room while the rest of us are in there. I have seen other patients' private parts. I feel horrible for them because they should be treated with dignity and respect," writes a former Vietnam veteran, whose identity, like that of the others, is not provided. "I don't want to be here. This is a terrible place to live."
A father warned that his son's life is in danger and reported that the son suffered a black eye in February. "My son tells me he has been intimidated, threatened and hit," the father wrote. "Staff personnel are unable to control such activity, they tell me, because they are short-handed."
more
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home