We’ve written previously about the incredible story of a former patient being able to get the staff at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) to apply electrical shock to two of its current patients. Any safeguards the Center had in place to prevent such a tragedy apparently were not operating that night. We also noted in the comments how the Center destroyed videotape evidence relating to an investigation of the incident, against the direction of the investigator.
A few days ago, The Boston Globe detailed one of the incidents that night in its article, Parent details toll taken by shocks at group home. One of the patients is still there, the other has been moved to another facility.
The details are heart-breaking:
But after that, the staff tied Dumas’s son to a board, restraining all four limbs. The teenager, resigned to his fate, said, “Let them know I’m being compliant.”
During the next hour, he received dozens of rapid-fire shocks to his abdomen and limbs, which in fact violated his treatment plan. At one point, he complained, “Mister, I can’t breathe.”
On tape, the staff recounted the reasons for different shocks, including swearing, verbal threats, and noncompliance. Of the two power levels of shock treatments used by the school, Dumas’s son received the most powerful each time, school officials have said.
Shift supervisor Michael Thompson, on the job for two months, left the room at one point, saying he wanted to “either cry or throw up,” the report said.
The father of this child tried to “keep perspective” on the incident:
The father [... blamed] poor weekend staffing for what transpired that night. He said the home had many immigrants who had difficulty giving even simple directions in English.
“On the weekends, they have a lot of people who don’t speak good English and are fearful of losing their jobs,” Dumas said.
Ahh, well, there you go. Can’t afford legitimate health care workers who speak the language? Get whoever you can, give them a few days of training, and just trust nothing will go wrong.
Unfathomable.
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Mental Hero (1/23/2008)
9 Comments to
“A Night of Shock Horror”
I have wondered myself, why the prevalence of immigrant staff and owners of personal care homes? This makes a difficult situation (dealing with a mentally ill family member) even more difficult because of miscommunications. With Medicaid and Source being my son’s only funding for medical help and living expenses, we do not have any choice.
Why the prevalence? Because the wages suck and the work sucks. Working with the mentally ill, the emotionally disturbed, or the elderly is a tremendously noble thing, and the right person could find it tremendously rewarding, but the average person finds it emotionally and physically demanding well beyond its financial and emotional rewards. I have a mentally disabled daughter at home, and while I love her and take care of her gladly, you couldn’t pay me enough to do it for a stranger’s kid, let alone a whole home full of them. My dad works with some of the most emotionally disturbed kids in the state and I have marveled for years that he can get up and go to work each day, but I think he does find it rewarding. Aside from a small minority, though, most of the people doing it are doing it because they don’t have better options, and that group is mostly immigrants or those with limited educational background. Which does make everything more difficult.
For an accurate summary of what the Judge Rotenberg Center is really about, please go to [Ed.- url to propaganda removed; please see original article for link]
Matthew, this is the second time you’ve posted this link to an entry about the Rotenberg Center. It doesn’t even begin to answer all of the questions raised by this incident, and instead is simply a defense of the status quo at the JRC.
If you want to enter into a real conversation and discussion about your facility, please do so. But we’re not going to be a constant publisher of your propaganda (readers can find the link to the unchanged responsetoblogs PDF on the original entry about this issue).
That Dr. Israel continues as a licensed psychologist shows just how impotent the psychological associations are. Here are the APA’s guidelines for use of aversives
http://www.apa.org/divisions/div33/effectivetreatment.html
There is no way what JRC conforms or pretends to conform to these guidelines; it even removed this paper from its website immediately after NY published its damning report in 2006. I ask all psychologists: What value is your license if your profession will not police its own members?
Has state or federal intervention occurred at this time? And I agree with Phil. I worked as a nurse in a long term care facility, as it is the same story. Low wages, no education, back breaking, depressing.
State regulators are investigating the JRC as we speak.
Matthew Israel is apparently a member in good standing with the APA, since 1962.
FYI – one probable reason Dr Israel is defending the use of the shock device is that he owns the patent.
I’m kyle dumas and this school sucks and if you have any questions please call me @ (781) 571-9127
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 23 Jan 2008
