From
The Caller-Times in Corpus Christi, Texas. In the picture, Sean Yates separates hangers in the vocational annex of the Corpus Christi State Supported Living Center.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi State Supported Living Center is safer than it was two years ago when staff organized fight clubs between disabled people, but improvements still must be made, a federally commissioned review found.
The center made strides toward improving care and security by installing cameras, adding vocational and recreational activities and instructing staff members how to properly identify and report abuse, according to the review, part of a 2009 settlement agreement with the federal government over statewide mistreatment of the disabled.
The review, released Monday, found there still are areas for improvement in the center, including the need for more staff members, improved reporting and better intervention.
The 352-page report, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice, is the first of several planned for the Corpus Christi center and others in Texas in the coming years.
“We’re here today to recognize that this facility has many challenges to resolve, but this report issued today shows we’ve made remarkable progress in a very short period of time,” said Chris Traylor, commissioner of the Department of Aging and Disability, the state agency that oversees state facilities for the disabled. “There are no quick fixes here. Given the facility’s previous challenges, it’s going to take considerable time to get where we need to be here in Corpus Christi. But this report shows we’re off to a solid start.”
The center, formerly known as the Corpus Christi State School, was the site of staged fights between people with mental disabilities from January 2008 to February 2009. The fights led to the firing of 42 employees and the conviction of four on charges of injury to a disabled person. One former worker has yet to be tried.
Last year, Texas reached a settlement agreement with the justice department after the agency found mistreatment of the mentally disabled at state facilities. Investigations revealed that at least 53 people died between September 2007 to September 2008 from conditions the justice department considered preventable, such as pneumonia, bowel obstructions or sepsis, according to The Associated Press.
In the past year, five people died of pneumonia in the Corpus Christi center, leading monitors to point out in the compliance review that the center’s medical department should review the standard of care provided to those with respiratory complications.
However, the center has made significant improvements in assuring safety and security of the 292 residents living there, said Chris Adams, the assistant commissioner of state supported living centers.
Corpus Christi State Supported Living Center employees wear badges outlining a seven-step process to identify and report abuse, a practice trumpeted by monitors in the compliance review.
The center also was the first of the 13 state facilities to install security cameras in common areas in accordance with a law approved last year. The 247 cameras are monitored constantly by a surveillance team, and footage is kept on file for 60 days. Director Iva Benson said the cameras have turned up incidences of abuse and staff acted accordingly, but she could not say how many times that happened.
Staff members also have posted brightly colored signs across the campus, promoting a zero-tolerance policy toward abuse and urging residents and staff members to report allegations to the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services.
The fight club incidents were regrettable, Benson said, but those organized fights do not reflect operations, policies and procedures in place today at the Corpus Christi State Supported Living Center, she added.
“We report even if there’s a bruise that we find and no one knows what happened,” Benson said. “We report that. We take it very, very serious. We do not tolerate abuse and neglect.”
The number of abuse and neglect allegations reported to the state at the Corpus Christi center is down from 1,531 between September 2008 and August 2009 to 692 between September 2009 and July 2010, Adams said.
However, fiscal 2009 appeared to be an anomaly, with an unusually high number of allegations, Adams said. The percentage of confirmed abuse cases at the center is about the same in fiscal 2010 as it was in 2009, he said.
Of the allegations reported so far in fiscal 2010, 52, or 7.5 percent, were confirmed by investigators, while 112, or 7.3 percent were confirmed in fiscal 2009, Adams said.
Monitors will continue to visit the Corpus Christi center and 12 others in the state every six months per the settlement agreement.
According to The Associated Press, 1,100 employees have been suspended or fired for mistreating, neglecting or abusing mentally disabled residents between 2003 and 2008. That number does not include those fired in connection with the fight club in Corpus Christi.
The 13 state centers house more than 4,000 people with differing degrees of mental and developmental disabilities.
From The Caller-Times in Corpus Christi, Texas. In the picture, Sean Yates separates hangers in the vocational annex of the Corpus Christi State Supported Living Center.
