Editorial #2 rough draft

There are more than 200 stories of neglect and abuse at the Beatrice State Developmental Center, but we'll focus on the most recent one.

In the month of January, four people died at BSDC. One was Olivia Manes, who was only 18 years old. Olivia was loved by her parents. They visited her three to four times a week. Nobody told them that she was taken off her seizure medication.

Olivia began to have a seizure between 11:30 and 11:45 p.m. on January 15. She was given shots twice; the first time the needle broke in her leg. Both times the nurse left the untrained staff with no instructions, except to "wait and see" if the medication worked.

Nobody did anything for Olivia until she stopped breathing at about 1:15 a.m.

Some staff members started CPR while others were sent to call 911. At the center, the switchboard must be called first. From there, the call may be made outside of campus. Yet those working on the switchboard stalled for 12 minutes before calling an ambulance. Olivia died at 2:20 a.m. at the Beatrice Community Hospital.

Some staff members did not know that Olivia had a history of seizures.

They didn’t know what signs or symptoms to watch for or what action to take.

They didn’t know how long they should wait before calling for medical help nor whom to call.

Olivia's death, along with others, have prompted Nebraska’s chief medical officer, Dr. Joann Schaefer, to order the movement of 47 "medically fragile" residents to hospitals in Lincoln and Omaha.

But these residents are not safe in community programs with a constant turnover of less trained staff. A quick move to a hospital will be emotionally disruptive to residents who do not adapt well to change.

“This is a harsh practice that can result in people with significant disabilities being moved from the only home many of them have ever known to live and die among strangers who do not understand their limited communication skills or care needs,” said John McGee, who was appointed by the U.S. District Court to monitor a settlement between the state and the Department of Justice to resolve civil rights issues.

“It slams shut the door of hope to individuals who could be supported in more intimate and personalized community homes.”

The residents and their families have the right to make the decision; not a state official who only knows the facts, not the emotions.

And it gets worse. The state is expected to lose $29 million in annual and federal funding to run the center, and it could take two years to regain federal certification.

It is not the direct care staff's fault, it is those in the administrative department who are to blame.

Staff are improperly trained.

Background checks are not through enough.

Punishment for those who abuse the residents is not harsh enough.

The center should stay open. BSDC should be kept a close eye on by the Developmental Disabilities Special Seven Committee; a group of representatives from the state.

In a December report to the Nebraska State Legislature, the special committee recommended that top state Health and Human Services and developmental center staff be removed.

BSDC needs to improve dramatically, significantly and quickly.

More needs to be done. The state needs to bring together organizations to assure that appropriate services will be provided to the residents and that staff are throughly trained.

“The lives of the residents at Beatrice are at stake,” said Senator Steve Lathrop, chairman of the special committee. “The lives of families depending on the state for services is at stake. The $29 million in federal funds is at stake. And how we treat or are perceived to treat the most vulnerable in the state is at stake.”


Sources Cited

Expert says progress made at BSDC, more needed, Nancy Hicks, Lincoln Journal Star,
Feb 10, 2009.

Beatrice center committee will continue its work,Nancy Hicks, Lincoln Journal Star
Feb 09, 2009.

The Story So Far: Beatrice State Developmental Center, Lincoln Journal Star, http://media.journalstar.com/comments/?mid=M4989d8b988a41.

Claims

Four people died at BSDC.
Olivia was loved by her parents.
They visited her three to four times a week.
Nobody told them that she was taken off her seizure medication.
Nobody did anything for Olivia until she stopped breathing at about 1:15 a.m.
Yet those working on the switchboard stalled for 12 minutes before calling an ambulance.
Olivia died at 2:20 a.m. at the Beatrice Community Hospital.
Some staff members did not know that Olivia had a history of seizures.
They didn’t know what signs or symptoms to watch for or what action to take.
They didn’t know how long they should wait before calling for medical help nor whom to call.
These residents are not safe in community programs with a constant turnover of less trained staff.
A quick move to a hospital will be emotionally disruptive to residents who do not adapt well to change.
The residents and their families have the right to make the decision; not a state official who only knows the facts, not the emotions.
The state is expected to lose $29 million in annual and federal funding to run the center, and it could take two years to regain federal certification.
It is not the direct care staff's fault, it is those in the administrative department who are to blame.
Staff are improperly trained.
Background checks are not through enough.
Punishment for those who abuse the residents is not harsh enough.
The center should stay open.
BSDC needs to improve dramatically, significantly and quickly.
More needs to be done.
The state needs to bring together organizations to assure that appropriate services will be provided to the residents and that staff are throughly trained.

Improvements made to BSDC

This was written on Feb. 10 from the Lincoln Journal Star.

It was interesting to see how much progress the staff and leaders of the facility are making, but there is room for a lot of improvements. The U.S. District Court hired John McGee of Omaha to monitor a settlement between the state and the Department of Justice to resolve civil rights issues.

I liked McGee's comment regarding the moving of clients over the past year:


“This is a harsh practice that can result in people with significant disabilities being moved from the only home many of them have ever known to live and die among strangers who do not understand their limited communication skills or care needs,” he wrote. “It slams shut the door of hope to individuals who could be supported in more intimate and personalized community homes.”

I also like how he said that when moving the clients that they must think of the safety of the public. There have been cases of patients with sexual assault charges. Last year, a patient had walked off of campus when there was only 1 staff member watching 16 people. He was found about a mile away from campus in a resident's home. She called the police and they safely returned him. There was no harm done to either the resident or patient. I remember that, it was a little spooky because most people in my neighborhood don't lock their doors, and this could happen to anybody.

This will be great support to my arguement that the facility needs to stay open despite it's set backs for the sake of the patients. A rough draft is in the works...

More on BSDC

I'm getting most of my sources from Journal Star.com,

I found it interesting in this article that retired speech therapist said that she blames former Gov. Ben Nelson for the issues because combined five separate agencies into a single massive health and human services system, in which, McConnell said, there were more levels to hide and more levels to confuse people.

A seven-member committee was created last year to oversee the problems at BSDC. After review, it was decided that they should continue to oversee the facility.

"'This spring, the center will likely lose about $29 million in annual federal funding because of those problems and will be completely state funded for the one or two years it takes to get recertified by the federal Medicaid program,' special committee chairman Sen. Steve Lathrop said Monday."

See, this is where I get confused. If this facility is in such poor shape, why take away federal money from it? How is that supposed to fund better facilities, new equipment, medicine, doctor and therapist visits, food and proper training for employees that is routinely checked on? There is no way that the state can fund all of that, unless taxes are raised or something gets cut. Which, by the way, has happened. BSDC used to have a hospital on it's campus to treat it's patients, so this made is easier in an emergency situation because the patient could be taken under care until an ambulance came (if it was that severe). It shut down last year.

Nebraska Issue: Beatrice State Development Center

I've been doing some research and decided to write my next editorial on the Beatrice State Developmental Center, since it is in my hometown and my younger sister works there. I, too, have experience in working with the mentally disabled when I worked at Mosaic, a private instuition that is also in Beatrice and throughout the Midwest.
Here, the Lincoln Journal Star has been doing a lot of work coving the issues at hand.

The latest issue stated that BSDC had to get 50 residents moved to Lincoln and Omaha facilities my 5:00 p.m. today due to concerns of their ability to handle, "medically fragile" residents. Concern arose when two deaths occured in March 2008 and mid-January 2009. Proper emergency procedure was not followed.

My younger sister only works in the kitchen of this instuition, and from her experience it is very relevant that abuse in almost a natural thing. Her boyfriend works directly with the clients. He has not abused his clients, but he has had to turn in co-workers for it. The lastest "de-de-de" moment from the workers there was that when temperatures were below zero...just a few weeks ago. The boyfriend's co-worker came to visit him at his house with a client in the passenger seat. The client already had a cold and typically is sleeping by 8:00, it was 8:30 when he visited. Now, what would posess this kid to think that it's a good idea to drive around a sick client in the evening in temperatures below zero with icy driving conditions? Why didn't someone stop him? This is relevantly minor compared with other events that have happened on the campus.

As a resident of Beatrice, I understand that those who work there do not want to see the instuition shut down, this means our town unemployment rate will skyrocket...a large chuck of people who work in town work there. Otherwise, it's manufacturing plants or Wal-Mart (which most jobs are taken by the elderly, who have to still work well over their retirement age for minimum wage pay just to afford groceries and perscriptions, but that's another story).