More Information Needed on Level of Abuse and Neglect at California Care Homes

Concern is growing among family members and advocates that the safety of those developmentally disabled folks still resident in California's state-run developmental centers is threatened -- not because of conditions at the centers but by the prospect losing the centers' protections when residents are moved into the community.

After years of downsizing and center closures, California's four remaining developmental centers may soon be slated for closure, if recent recommendations of a state appointed task force are anything to go by. The centers' residents would be dispersed throughout the community to smaller privately run care facilities.

Little data is available on patient deaths, incidents of abuse and neglect, or even the success of residents at the many care homes contracted with by the State's Regional Centers to provide care in the community. What is known is that oversight, reporting requirements and even facility safety requirements are much less stringent -- or nonexistent.

If specifics are not available, perhaps inferences can be drawn from comparable state programs.

For example, in the belief that it would better serve children and be less expensive, the State of California has similarly moved to privatize the state's foster family system. Despite that intention to better serve children, with the loss of state oversight, children in fact suffer. Last December the Los Angeles Times reported that, based on their analysis, those living in private agencies’ homes are a third more likely to endure physical, emotional or sexual abuse. And the state system has become more expensive, not less. (See Private foster care system, intended to save children, endangers some, by Garrett Therolf, in L.A. Times, December 18, 2013.)

Relaxation of standards in community care extends to the buildings themselves. Last year NBC News in the Bay Area reported that thousands of California residential care facilities are not required to have certain protections that fire officials say save lives in emergencies. See Safety Measure Not Required in Thousands of Homes for Elderly, Disabled, by Jenna Susko, Julie Putnam and Felipe Escamilla, NBC Bay Area, June 4, 2013 -- or watch the news report below.



If data on the extent and nature of problems is not available, reports of some incidents do make it into the news -- and serve as reminders of the risks to people who need and deserve protection and the failures of the current systems in place. One particularly disturbing case came to light two years ago in the Los Angeles area when a package was left at L.A. County Sheriff's Department headquarters containing 100 hours of footage of men who appeared to be assaulting severely disabled women. Investigators were left looking for leads not only on who was involved but even where the attacks took place.

see:
:: Video shows men sexually assaulting disabled women, in L.A. Times, January 6, 2011
:: Authorities seek identity of men videotaped sexually assaulting disabled women, by Robert Faturechi, in L.A. Times, January 07, 2011
:: L.A. detectives identify two suspects in disabled rape case, by Michael Martinez and Casey Wian, CNN, January 7, 2011

Without improvements to the standards of care, availability of services and reporting requirements at privately run community homes, the developmentally disabled citizens of California are not safe -- and are not better served -- if the option of residence in a state-run center is eliminated.