We urge lawmakers to give the residential-care system a thorough investigation, starting with what is an adequate reimbursement to keep an individual healthy and secure and on inspection and system reforms. The Missouri Department of Mental Health exists for the purpose of being the voice for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Globe editorial: State oversight of grpup homes was inept
State oversight of group homes, including the Anderson Guest House where a Nov. 27 fire killed 11 people, was inept, according to an editorial in today's Joplin Globe:
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4 comments:
Globe: We are inept.
Even if Anderson Guest House had never burned to the ground, the Department of Mental Health failed their clients. That is because for years they chose to warehouse mentally ill people with providers like Bob DuPont where a basic respect for dignity and rights was left at the doorstep, where direct care staff were often marginal at best so all types of abuse to residents was not uncommon. Remember the Drake Hotel in Carthage?
DMH would say they had no other place to house their clients which is an intolerable excuse. With the funds they paid to bums like DuPont over the many years to keep their clients off the streets and keep DuPont in business, they could have been instrumental in recruiting/developing alternative housing. Instead, they took the easy, institutional way out, and quite frankly sometimes looked the other way or did not take the issue seriously when there were questionable occurrences that adversely affected their clients.
I think DMH let the communities and the folks down when they closed the Nevada Hab Center. It seemed that suddenly people (most of whom were happy) were suddenly on the street and forced to live in this style. At the time it may have seemed kinder to release people back into the communities but the hab centers are nice places with trained stable staff. Most people didn't get to go back to the community they came from, they got stuck in Joplin or Anderson. Tax dollars down the drain, once again.
I think you mean group homes that grpup homes!!
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