I am glad to hear that someone is talking about the problem of abuse of the disabled and the concealment of it. New York appears to have a long way to go to improve the situation, but are at least making an effort.
To read the article in the New York Times, you can copy and paste this URL, or you can read the article that I have copied below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/nyregion/gains-seen-in-reporting-abuse-at-new-york-group-homes.html?_r=1
ALBANY — Roughly 40 percent of the allegations of physical abuse of the developmentally disabled at group homes and institutions in New York in recent months were not reported to law enforcement authorities, a senior state official said on Monday.
Related
A Disabled Boy’s Death, and a System in Disarray (June 6, 2011)
INTERACTIVE FEATURE: Abused and Used
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Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Michael Carey appeared with a picture of his son Jonathan, who was killed in 2007 while in the care of state workers.
The official, Courtney Burke, the new commissioner of the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, revealed that figure as the Cuomo administration laid out initial steps that it said it was taking to reform the state’s care of the disabled.
Ms. Burke and another administration official testified at a State Assembly hearing that underscored the steep challenges facing efforts to improve the system.
Ms. Burke said she had put in place a number of measures to raise hiring standards and improve the reporting of abuse. Among them, she said she had ordered employees to notify law enforcement officials of episodes of physical and sexual abuse that might be a crime. Her order is a sign of the agency’s problems, because notification is already required by law.
Ms. Burke said that since she took over the agency in March, about 60 percent of the allegations of physical abuse were reported to law enforcement, up from about 17 percent before her tenure began.
Nearly 88 percent of allegations of sexual abuse were reported, up from about 75 percent, she said.
While those figures represent progress, they suggest that there are hundreds of serious allegations that are still not being reported. And Ms. Burke said her agency was still reviewing reporting mechanisms to see if the numbers were accurate.
Ms. Burke also proposed legislation that would bar the agency from hiring people convicted of violent crimes or sex offenses; it would not prohibit employing other convicted felons. The bill would make it clear that an individual with a developmental disability receiving state services could not legally consent to sexual contact with a staff member; the measure is aimed at curbing sexual assaults.
In her testimony, Ms. Burke did not directly address what many critics see as one of the agency’s serious problems, its lack of transparency. The agency often cites state privacy laws for refusing to release even redacted copies of reports of abuse.
“My top priority has been the health and safety of people with developmental disabilities in our care,” Ms. Burke said in her opening statement. “Change does not come easily, but I want to make it clear to you that I am changing things quickly and significantly.”
The hearing was the latest of four led by Assemblyman Félix W. Ortiz, a Brooklyn Democrat, prompted by a recent series of articles in The New York Times detailing lapses in the state’s care of the developmentally disabled. Among the findings: The state has retained workers who committed physical or sexual abuse, rehired many workers it had fired, shunned whistle-blowers and rarely reported allegations of abuse to law enforcement.
Assembly members also heard testimony from Roger Bearden, the new chief of the Commission on Quality of Care, a state agency that is supposed to monitor how Ms. Burke’s agency and others do their jobs.
Mr. Bearden, however, struggled to explain the commission’s role.
“The commission has a simple mission, to protect and advocate for persons with disabilities,” he told the lawmakers.
The commission investigates only a limited number of abuse allegations and has no enforcement powers, leaving the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities largely to police its own staff. The commission’s mission statement, Mr. Bearden said, is “under review.”
Assemblyman Thomas J. Abinanti, a Westchester County Democrat, said, “I don’t really understand what your commission is supposed to be doing, and what I’m hearing from you is that your commission doesn’t really seem to know what it’s supposed to be doing.”
In recent years, the commission has produced few reports and taken pains to stay out of public view. The Times reported in March that aides said Mr. Bearden’s predecessor, Jane G. Lynch, never talked to the press in nearly three years on the job.
“The key for us as a commission,” Mr. Bearden said, “is that we have not had, quite honestly, much of a public presence or face, and I am striving to change that.”
Mr. Abinanti expressed a widely held concern over the state’s overlapping oversight structures. State group homes and institutions are monitored to varying degrees by the Health Department, the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, the Commission on Quality of Care and federal regulators, among others.
“Sounds like everybody is overseeing everyone else, and everyone is overlooking the problems,” Mr. Abinanti said.
A version of this article appeared in print on June 14, 2011, on page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Progress Claimed in Reporting Abuse at Group Homes.
