Disabled-Abuse Complaints High In State
By Bill Snyder, Staff Writer
Originally published in The Tennessean, August 21, 2001
A federal health official said she has received more complaints from Tennessee about people with mental retardation being abused or neglected in the community than from any other Southeastern state.
During a hearing in federal court in Nashville yesterday, Dorothy Smith also said she and her staff found the ''worst systemic problems'' she has seen in the two years she has worked for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formerly the Health Care Financing Administration).
State officials assured U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes Jr. that they are taking steps to protect people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities who live in private homes in the community. ''Generally people are safe,'' said state consultant Richard Campbell.
Lawyers for a group of family members have been urging Haynes to order that ''immediate, aggressive steps'' be taken to protect people from harm. In June, a man with mental retardation died of asphyxiation after being restrained by a caregiver in Memphis.
Haynes, however, ordered officials to consider all aspects of the state's ''home- and community-based'' services program to see what works and what doesn't. ''You just can't look at this in isolation,'' the judge said.
Haynes has been monitoring the 4-year-old settlement of a class-action lawsuit that alleged ''harmful'' conditions in the state's developmental centers, including Clover Bottom in Donelson. The settlement agreement, among other things, favors moving people into the community.
About 6,600 people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities receive long-term, state-funded services in the community. Some live in group homes operated by private agencies, and others who live in their own homes receive personal assistance, therapy and transportation.
Developmental disabilities include severe epilepsy; cerebral palsy, a brain injury that occurs at birth; and autism, characterized by severe communication problems and difficulty relating to people. Some of these people also have mental illness.
In November, Smith and her staff began investigating complaints that abuse and neglect in community-based homes were as bad as, if not worse than, conditions in the developmental centers.
An earlier report found that the rate of substantiated abuse and neglect last year was three times higher in the community than in the state-run developmental centers, and that it had increased by 50% since 1999.
Smith's report, mailed to state officials on July 27, documented ''numerous incidents of physical, verbal and sexual abuse, neglect and financial exploitation'' of residents in the homes.
The federal government, which provides two-thirds of the nearly $300 million spent on community services each year in Tennessee, could withhold that money if the state is unable to come up with an appropriate plan for correcting the problems outlined in the report.
Until that plan has been submitted and approved, the federal government also is refusing to help pay for the transfer of any more residents from developmental centers to the community.
A few people have been moved since the July 27 report, but officials said no federal money was used in those transfers.
Meanwhile, to help develop its ''corrective action'' plan, the state will have a series of public meetings across the state, beginning Aug. 29 in Knoxville, to solicit the views of people with disabilities, family members, advocates and service providers, officials said.
After yesterday's hearing, Kay Cox of Memphis, who has complained about her son's living conditions, said she was disappointed more wasn't done to address her concerns.
''I just want them to remember why we're here in this court,'' said Cox, whose son has mental retardation. ''I have a son. He's not a statistic. He's a person.''
Concerns are heightened since the June death of the Memphis man. ''Emergency measures need to be taken to protect against further avoidable deaths,'' said Dudley West, a Nashville attorney who represents Cox and other family members.
But Jack Derryberry, a lawyer for People First of Tennessee, a group representing disabled people who sued to improve conditions at Clover Bottom and the other developmental centers, said he agreed with the judge that all aspects of community services must be addressed.
''They're not separate. They're all connected,'' added Leanne Boyce of Murfreesboro, executive director of People First, which she said represented more than 700 Tennesseans with disabilities.
''Everybody in the room ultimately wants the same thing—what's best for people with disabilities,'' Boyce said. ''We just have different ideas of how best to serve them.''
