Wednesday, April 16, 2008

State Abuse Scandal Is Brewing


It looks like Texas has another scandal brewing -- this time in our state schools and centers for the mentally disabled. The Justice Department has announced that it will investigate charges of abuse at the largest state school -- the Denton State School. An investigation of the Lubbock State School in 2006 revealed widespread abuse, and there is little doubt that the new investigation will find the same.

The 13 state facilities service about 5,000 clients and have around 12,000 employees. According to figures relesed by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, over 800 employees have been fired for abuse in the last four years (239 in 2007, 200 in 2006, 203 in 2005, 180 in 2004).

These are incredibly high numbers. It means nearly 7% of the employees have been fired in the last four years. Last year, 450 incidents of abuse were verified. The bulk were instances of neglect at 51%, while 31% involved physical abuse, and 16% involved verbal or emotional abuse. Less than 1% involved sexual abuse.

Governor Perry pointed to the large number of people fired as proof that something is being done. He is wrong! The fact that over 200 people are being fired every year just means the abuse is continuing unabated. We can't believe the problem is being addressed sufficiently until the number of firings starts dropping.

Our state leaders have done nothing except mouth platitudes about better training is needed. That's easy to say, but very hard to do under current conditions. The conditions must change before increased training can be effective.

The fact is that these are very difficult and frustrating jobs, and the employees get little recognition and abysmally low pay. Nearly all state employees are underpaid, but the employees in this field are among the lowest-paid state employees. This results in a large turnover and an unstable work force. Training can barely keep up with turnover.

There is a solution, but our state leaders must be willing to do what is necessary. The only solution is for leaders to bite the bullet and raise the pay significantly for the rank-and-file workers at these facilities. And I'm not talking about a paltry $40 or $50 a month for workers while management gets huge raises (which is what usually happens).

I'm talking about a large raise for line workers -- a raise that will attract good employees and keep them for a long time, thus eliminating the huge job turnover. This way, they can be properly trained and put those skills to use on the dorms.

Our Republican leadership must stop pumping big money into the pockets of rich corporations, and put that money into hiring and keeping good employees. Until they do, we are just spinning our wheels and the abuse will continue.

1 comment:

  1. I had a friend fired from the Lubbock State School for abuse. I helped him draft a letter in his defense in order for him to fight for his job. The abuse claim was ridiculous. But, nevertheless he was fired. My mother worked at the Lubbock State School years ago as well. There's an amazing amount of causes for these claims of abuse. The protections for the mentally retarded are high, complex and sometimes self-defeating. I agree, paying the staff would help the situation, because being better paid makes an employee more likely to put up with the amazing amount of regulations and the catch 22s that persist in such an environment. There are going to be actual abuses in these environments- with helpless individuals, I am not discounting that. I would argue that the bulk of these "abuse" claims stem from physical altercations ON Staff by the mentally disabled themselves. These altercations are a daily situation that has to be dealt with. If these chaotic situations are not dealt with in a highly specific (and a lot of times unrealistic manner) then the staff member is subject to broad definitions of "abuse" (such as raising your voice). These protections are in place to protect the 'inmates' of such 'schools'. Not many employees can deal with this type of situation for long. I curse the people who put their own children in such institutions out of their own laziness and selfishness.

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