Posted by Ann H (209.240.205.60) on December 31, 2003 at 18:39:44:
In Reply to: Calling In Assistance From Public Health posted by RaChelle Holmberg on December 31, 2003 at 09:07:35:
: Has anyone called in Public Health for an investigation on the treatment of a resident, and,if so, do you have any tips on how to best support an investigation?
: Here is the sitaution: We have a Developmentally Delayed young man, with OBRA documented RARE impulsive verbal and physical aggression tendencies, and who is very active and possessive over his many personal belongings. He lives in a facility Group Home. He is very social and many staff have adopted him, taking him to their homes for visits and out for beers. He is allowed to do that; he has no meds or documented behaviors why he couldn't)
: He works in the community, has a girlfriend within the facility and many, many friends. He has been at this placement for two years.********
: We had an in-house transfer of this young man four months ago to be with a new roommate. This roommate is profoundly deaf, profoundly autistic, a wanderer, and it has since come to light that he is a known sexual predator. The reason for the transfer of roommates is that there was an incident with the OLD roommate and they thought that MY young man would be less approachable and woudl not be victimized. So they moved him in with this predatory type resident. The staff told my young man thet the guy went over to his old roommate, while he was sleeping, and bit him in his "private area."
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: My young man went in to his room one evening, found the other guy on his side of the room, and literally tossed him back on to his own side of the room.
: The facility did not witness the incident, and now is saying that my young man is a "danger to others" and they are evicting him.
: I feel it is best to move him to a better facility, and we are in the process of advocating every way I can for my young man. I HAVE called Public Health because the facility knowingly placed him in a position of danger, and set him up to have this disastrous problem.
: I am emotionally involved, and need unbiased opinions. We have also had EXTREMELY unhappy holidays! I have called in everybody I can, including the State and am waiting to hear from them, but it still looks as if a private facility can just cancel someone's life and decide they no longer like a resident.
: If anyone wishes to discuss this privately, my personal email is
: flamingo-kid1@att.net
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Hi. Sounds like a stressful situation for you and your yong man.
I managed a group home for MR/DD for 3 years. My home was the "behavior home" of the agency. I had 8 Residents, 4 men, 4 women. My staffing pattern was 7 staff members, excluding the manager and assist manager and nurse, but actually 7 direct care workers per shift, while residents were awake and at home (not at workshop)
I had 2 young women as room mates, one day "c" physically attacked her room mate "s". so for safety, we moved "s" out of that room. did some re-arranging and didn't have any more problems with "c" and "s"....but that's not the end of the story. A few months later we had our annual survey, we got KILLED for moving the victim and Not the aggressor. We had involved the ombudsman prior to the move and everything seemed ok, but it wasn't in the eyes of the state.
So I would contact the agency that is responsible for certifying the group home. It should be posted in the group home. Good luck
Ann H.