Wednesday, January 31, 2018

The Role of Hospital Executives In Furthering Historical Failures To Do The Right Thing. And that of state health care officials circa January 31, 2018, in doing the same damn thing. 

"No one patient's experiences are ever unique in settings like ASH, just like mine weren't during my time as a patient there. Retaliation, overt suppressions of patient generated concerns about staff misconduct,  and other criminal like actions directed towards me and my patient-peers were prevalent on a near day in-day out basis circa my time there. And as we all know today, things have not, in fact, much improved at ASH. If at all." (From this blog, January 30, 2018.)

“History repeats itself in the large part because human nature changes with geologic leisureliness.”  

Will Durant, American historian (1895-1981) 

"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change in absolute there remains no being to improve and no direct to is set for possible improvement; and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. 

Those who cannot remember the past are condemn to repeat it." 

From "The Life of Reason." By George Santayna. Gutenberg Project 1905-06.

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."

Fred Hampton (1946-1977)

2018 UPDATE: Good news on this day. My friend John Mancini has finally been discharged from Arizona's sole long term mental health care facility. Very much looking forward to joining forces with this man as the process of getting ASH up to speed with contemporary medical standard plays out. 

As discussed in yesterday’s article, “Human Rights Committee. Arizona Revised Statute R9-21-105”, highly entrusted state officials in the Arizona Department of Health, including at least one identified attorney of law (Greg Honig of the Arizona Office of the Attorney General), routinely go around the proverbial mountain and back in order to preserve status quo in Arizona’s sole long term public mental health care facility. Status quo that relates to arguably substandard care practices and conditions at ASH, which have been recognized by a range of reasonably good faith advocacy resources, including local media (ABC Ch15), this blog publication (since its inception in spring, 2012), as well as the federal government itself, which has repeatedly sanctioned Arizona State Hospital (ASH) no less then four times over the last 20 years. 

While the 2014-15 shakeup at ASH as it extended into ADHS, specific to the information provided in this publication since spring, 2012, and the related firing of seven individuals associated with the operation of ASH only three years later, made some degree of difference, I contend that this “difference” merely has to do with the changing of names, in effect, in relation to various supervisory titles. 

The name of current ASH chief executive officer, Dr. Aaron Bowen, for example, who was brought into replace former-since fired CEO Donna Noriega; and the current on-site legal counsel to ASH, Louis Caputo, who replaced former-since moved onto to safer climes, Joel Rudd, a still licensed attorney  100%  involved in all issues that led to that shakeup; and finally but far from least, the current director of Arizona Department of Health Services, Dr. Cara Christ, who was appointed to that position following the hasty, backdoor, unexpected resignation of Will Humble, a chicken-hearted bureaucrat who, following the election of Governor Doug Ducey in November, 2014, most definitely ran away from emergent issues that Ducey recognized as needing immediate resolution, and the shakeup itself, in order to avoid being held accountable of having promoted- near literally- the now known criminal misconduct of each and every person fired in spring, 2015.  

The problem, of course, is that simple changing of names is hardly what is needed to ensure today that ASH has been legitimately bought up to speed with contemporary law and policy specific to health care standards. Likewise, to hear revised claims of the so-called quality of care practices at ASH, wherein for example, the Humble created phrase “Culture of Care” (yuck!) and the much more recent Christ endorsed cliche’ “Center of Psychiatric Excellence” (double yuck!), are obviously designed to defer any/all attention to the actual conditions at ASH.

It was circa 2013 and the long overdue establishment of the legally required Human Rights Committee (HRC) at ASH, that in-house produced evidence to the effect that Hospital administrators were engaging in unlawful misconduct began to emerge, at last. In-house evidence, that is, not produced by someone like me when I was a patient at ASH. As I have described at length in this publication, while hospitalized at ASH, I did provide both state and federal authorities ample evidence to the effect that someone needed to step in and take a good hard look at the operation at ASH, with no consequent results. Everyone from Will Humble to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services miserably failed when they had a chance to do the right thing. This failure did, in time, directly contribute to the preventable deaths of at least three individuals- and not limited to actual Hospital patients!- on the basis of the substandard care practices and administration of ASH circa 2012-2015.

As such, ASH’s HRC is the one mechanism that I know can and will continue to best serve the standards of treatment and defend the rights of the Hospital’s patient community. It has been proven time and time again that the citizens of Arizona, including ASH patients, cannot rely upon state employed officials when it comes to ensuring that ASH functions in a manner consistent with what federal regulations demand, by which the very licensure of ASH exists in the first place. This is precisely why HRC must function independent of the influence of state officials and employees.

"You, Dr. Cara Christ , are 100% responsible for doing the right thing today. So do it, already."


Dr. Cara Christ.
Director, Arizona Dept. of Health Services
2015-the present. 
Since her appointment to the highest ranking position in Arizona’s public health care system in 2015, Arizona Department of Health Director Dr. Cara Christ has repeatedly stated that there have been “great improvements” in the state’s sole long term public mental health care facility, Arizona State Hospital (ASH). To date however, January 2018, Dr. Christ has never provided any evidence or information about just what these “improvements” at ASH are, in fact. This is of very real concern to the staff of this publication, given that Dr. Christ’s immediate predecessor (Will Humble ADHS Director 2009-2015) willfully relied upon producing a pattern of overt and untruthful propaganda that served to delay a subsequent process of critically needed oversight and accountability at ASH. Propaganda that defied the realities specific to the ASH operation, including but not limited to preventable patient deaths, the tragic murder of a young Phoenix woman, and a wide range of patient generated concerns expressed in grievance submissions; and as such, granted the former administrators of ASH further opportunity to continue operating ASH in a manner deeply harmful to the welfare of the Hospital’s patient community. These issues have been exemplified by the information provided in this blog since 2012, as well as in a number of scathing investigative findings of the staff of ABC Ch15 circa 2013-2015; (As reported previously in this publication, at least three preventable deaths occurred due to this fact). 

The following article was originally published sometime in the first twelve months of the life of this blog, PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital Patient Abuse. We are republishing this information as one means to remind our readers of how dismally substandard the operation at ASH was circa 2010-2012, and in order to raise consideration as to whether in fact any legitimate improvements have in fact come about since Dr. Christ was granted directorship over Arizona’s public health care system. 

These issues have been exemplified by the information provided in this blog since 2012, as well as in a number of scathing investigative findings of the staff of ABC Ch15 circa 2013-2015.
------------------------------------------
Deceiving the Public on Prime Time Television: Wherein the director of the Arizona Department of Health, Will Humble, acts in complicity with Cory "crazycorycorner.weebly.com" Nelson in order to misrepresent the truth about the experiences of staff at The Arizona State Hospital. 

(Originally published February 14, 2013)

RE: Security Cutbacks At The Arizona State Hospital. Phoenix Channel 15 (ABC) is not the first source of reporting specific to the fact that the number security staff at The Arizona State Hospital has been markedly reduced since fall, 2011. 

The fact is that, a number of staff at ASH, as well as myself, have been attempting to draw attention to the issue of Cory Nelson's intent to scale back ASH security staff for many, many months, an issue which I first learned about while I was still hospitalized at ASH in late 2011. This is a republished article that I originally posted on February 11, 2013, based today on an August 14, 2012 live interview with Cory "crazycorycorner" Nelson in relation to these drastic security cuts at ASH.

    TO SEE THE ACTUAL VIDEO, VISIT: 
    
"Security Changes at the State Hospital." (www.azfamily.com.  August 14, 2012.)
   
   ONE CAN ALSO VISIT THE ABC CH15 WEBSITE, AND CHECK OUT THEIR MORE RECENT COVERAGE OF THIS  ISSUE, ENTITLED:

“Insiders tell ABC15 investigators security cuts at state mental hospital put the public at risk.” (David Biscobing, Mark Lemet. February 11, 2013.) 

Cory "crazycorycorner.weebly.com" Nelson was interviewed last August 14, 2012, by a reporter from Phoenix based Channel 3/AZFamily.com, in relation to his capacity as supervisor of The Arizona State Hospital, and in response to reports that the station had received about the out of control conditions at ASH, conditions which over the last 9 months or so have directly led to an increase in patient on staff assaults. Specifically, the issue revolves around the fact that Nelson has implemented fairly radical changes to ASH's security staff, most markedly by downsizing the actual number of employed security guards at ASH, and establishing a alternative approach to episodes of violence that has been assigned the happy face title of "Culture of Care." In the minds' of Nelson, and his boss in the Arizona Department of Health Services, director Will Humble, there is no need for security to be involved with most of these sorts of events and incidents at ASH. They contend that it is better for non-security to respond to most episodes of violence, or, as Humble put it in the interview:

      "We weren't really responding to those incidents in a way that's the most effective…. So no longer is their job to step back and call security, their job is to engage." ( ADHS Director Will Humble, 2012)
   
I find it ridiculous for someone like Will Humble, who undoubtedly came to his conclusion of what's most effective in this context via references to spread sheets and related cost/benefit analyses, to state what is or is not most beneficial to the staff persons who directly interact with the ASH patients themselves, because Mr. Humble himself sure as hell doesn't have any personal experience as suchAnd I furthermore know for a fact that the members of the ASH workforce who do spend the most time in direct contact with patients by far than anybody else in that god forsaken place (the nurses and technicians) weren't consulted or otherwise involved in the process by which these these changes actually transpired. I know this because the finalized plan for these changes was introduced in writing before my discharge from ASH, and several ASH staff who I was on very good terms with discussed that basic fact with me, which only serves to illustrate how deep their concerns already were at that time.

If Humble was only willing to be honest and forthcoming about the fact that these changes were put into effect due to fiscal concerns, and not much more (this with respect for the drastic cuts to public health funding that Arizona's state government implemented in 2011), these changes might be acceptable, in some sense or another. But no, he has to try and hoodwink the public by asserting that the priority of these changes stems from well intentioned concern for the patients and staff at ASH, and the only reason for that, in my opinion, is because he is unwilling to face the truth in his own right. The truth, for example, as provided in the following Hospital employee statement, which was provided to former-since fired ASH CEO Cory Nelson on his personal website,  “www.crazycorycorner.weebly.com”

“FRIGHTENED  JULY 12, 2012

I FINALLY HAD TO QUIT. MY REG UNIT WAS GOOD BUT THEY KEPT FLOATING ME OVER TO THE BAD CIVIL UNIT. I AND OTHERS KEPT GETTING ATTACKED IT'S LIKE OPEN SEASON ON TECHS THERE NOW AND THEY DO NOTHING. TOO MUCH FLASHBACKS AND TERROR FOR ME TO STAY. SORRY TO ABANDON YOU -THE FRIENDS THAT I LEFT. THERE ISN'T ENOUGH STAFF AND NO MORE SECURITY GUARDS TO HELP.

LAST WEEK ANOTHER AWOL AND DIDN'T HE TRY TO KILL HIS DAD BEFORE GOING TO ASH?? WHERE ARE THE STAFF AND GUARDS?”    (END OF PASSAGE)

Again, that site is:

www.crazycorycorner.weebly.com

I have seen other such reports in several different places, including the above site. But this interview and the related news video described is the first time the complaints have hit prime time television. And with that in mind, the most disturbing aspect of this interview arose when Nelson was asked to respond to the reporter's direct inquiry about one staff person in particular, who was very severely injured on more than one occasion (nearly blinded), arguably as a consequence of the changes in question. Nelson looked the reporter in the eye, and in a more than slightly argumentative tone, stated: 

"I'm not saying it didn't happen, but we don't have a record of it…. I am not aware of it." (Former-since fired CEO Cory Nelson.)

It is an astounding thing to witness, this man’s overt lack of conscience. It sure doesn’t take a rocket scientist to spot a liar, and Nelson's very body language and facial expressions in this instance state the truth about the man's lack of moral character more clearly than I ever could. "I'm not saying it didn't happen… I am (just) not aware of it." This is like watching a four year old trying to manipulate the facts about a missing candy bar, it really is. Nelson's statement that such an incident may have occurred without him knowing about it is both confounding and infuriating, because if anyone is obligated to be aware of such issues, it is the supervisor. He is not permitted to perform his duties with his head buried in the sand, in other words. The fact is, anytime a person is seriously injured on ASH property, be it staff, patient, or visitor, all administrative staff are required to be apprised, and to further file well documented reports about such events. This need is requisite in the context of the state of Arizona's risk management office and related insurance concerns, as well as with respect for several regulatory agencies at the state and federal level that are assigned the task of recording such events, such as The Joint Commission (on the accreditation of hospitals). 

The reporter also inquired about an issue that relates to fundamental rights in the context of due process and equal protection under the law. Issues arising under constitutional law, in fact, which bolsters my feeling that federal intervention is exactly what the administrators at ASH deserve. Specifically, Nelson was asked to respond to claims about staff having been refused the opportunity to notify police following being violently assaulted, an issue that staff suggests is an attempt to hide how seriously dangerous these working conditions have become. And here again, the man in charge of caring for the needs and interests of Arizona's most seriously mentally ill citizens blatantly ignores the significance of such concerns by blaming the problem on staff, as follows:   

     "I've been very clear with staff. I'm not telling anyone not to call police, what I'm asking staff to do is really step back, take a look at the situation, after the immediate emotion of the situation has settled a little bit, so they can make that decision on what they want to do." 

(Former-since fired CEO Cory Nelson.)

This statement is shocking and disturbing and disturbing to the core, because Cory Nelson has absolutely no right to ask any such thing of ASH staff; and in doing so, he is grossly abusing his authority, to such a point that I believe he should be criminally charged. Not that these sorts of abuse are unusual at ASH. For on at least three occasions wherein I was physically assaulted during my 13 months of hospitalization at ASH (including one incident wherein an ASH staff assaulted me), I encountered this exact same pattern of resistance to allowing outside authorities access to the things that go on behind the walls and fences of ASH, and I knew exactly what was going on at the time. This is what's so damn insulting to the conscience when it comes to these matters, the audacity of these people in presuming that the citizens of Arizona and the United States haven't the intelligence to recognize bullshit when we see and hear it. In Nelson's case, I think he's the one lacking in intelligence, for in making this statement, he directly affirms his wrongdoing with his very words, and yet he doesn't even seem to know it. But the fact is, by "asking" staff to delay a phone call to authorities so that they can "really step back" until their emotions have "settled", Nelson is effectively directing them to not call police. This is man who runs the entire facility! Will the lunacy of these matters ever end?!? In conducting himself in this way, Cory Nelson, ASH's highest ranking executive officer, is willfully deceiving his staff and the greater public, and knowing as we do that administration and senior staff at ASH have the employees walking on egg shells for fear of losing their jobs, his statements to this effect have the effect of a veiled threat. What do you do, in other words, when a boss like Cory Nelson asks you to do something? What do you risk if you answer him as I would, by asserting that he has no right to interfere on any level with another person's decision to exercise their fundamental privileges under the law? 

I contend that Cory Nelson is a bald faced liar, a bully, and a chicken shit who would have done well to stay in South Dakota. These statements prove it. As a tax paying citizen of Arizona, I am fed up to the gills with Cory Nelson's ineptitude and his bottom feeding dishonesty. It was hard   enough as a patient to have to experience his egregious misconduct while I was at ASH, undermining as it did my faith in the very ones whom I had been advised to rely upon, and aggravating my state of mind and emotion as a mentally disabled adult. But to realize today that this man's selfishness extends to every facet of the Hospital's operation greatly troubles me, because I have trusted friends at ASH, staff and patients alike, and I have vested concern for the citizens of Arizona as a whole.

Cory Nelson is an overpaid, unqualified bum who came to Arizona after being involved in a scandalous career while employed by South Dakota's public system, and seeing him lie through his teeth like this literally makes me sick.

As I have stated before- FACT: If staff at ASH cannot feel reasonably safe and secure in their respective positions, the attendant stress and discontent is going to land squarely on the heads of ASH's mentally disabled patients.

But Cory Nelson doesn't give a rat's ass about the experience of ASH' staff, any more than he does that of ASH's mentally disabled patients. His most formal training occurred when he was employed in South Dakota's corrections system, a prison manager, in effect, and the patients at ASH are not prisoners, just as the staff at ASH are not corrections employees. They are medical professionals, sand and every one on them, and for this yokel, Cory "crazycorycorner" Nelson, to be mistreating his trusted staff is utterly unconscionable. End of story.
  
This interview shows Cory Nelson doing all he can to mischaracterize the good faith reports by ASH staff, who out of fear for their physical safety chose to seek meaningful support and resolution. He patently denies the significance of staff concerns in this context, and he never actually offers a straight answer to the interviewers most pointed questions. It is all a game of dodge ball to this man. By attempting to evade the issues most at stake, Nelson effectively demeans the merits of these staff concerns, concerns which were explicitly oriented towards staff safety and related incidents wherein certain staff were gravely injured; and then he goes on to conclude his statements by claiming that the changes in question have led to a reduced need to subject unruly patients to the use of mechanical restraints. Which sounds great, all told, but is still somewhat suspicious. And it has nothing to do with the safety of staff. 

I also know that each and every time security is called upon to directly respond to and control any patients' behavior, the entire event is documented as a "critical incident report", which are designed to become of the documented Hospital record, whereby aforementioned regulatory agencies such as The Joint Commission can utilize such records in considering how well hospitals are doing their jobs. But now that security is not as involved in this context, critical incident reports are not entered into the official record (this could very well be the basis of Nelson's claim that he is "not aware" of such goings on there at ASH). This aspect of these changes is huge, and has enormous implications, for it suggests that Will Humble and Cory Nelson may very possibly be engaged in a highly unlawful scheme designed to fraudulently mischaracterize the realities  at ASH, including in the case of potentially avoidable assaults and other like events. I am of the learned opinion today that anytime these people implement changes such as this, the well being of the patients are the last thing they are thinking about; and it's clear, as well, that the lower ranking staff, who just so happen to be the ones who spend the most time directly interacting with ASH patients, are just as likely to be of little to no concern to these Rat Bastards. This is very, very wrong, and it cannot be allowed to continue, because I don't care who you are- nobody deserves to be subject to such nefarious misbehavior and administrative abuse of authority. 

I heard something of the security changes in question while I was still at ASH. The rumor was well in the air that some number of security staff were to be laid off in order to implement a different approach to critical incidents, such as patient on patient violence, patient on staff violence, and other like matters requiring immediate attention. And not long after I discharged from ASH in late February, 2012, the first waves of staff reports began appearing, reports about being attacked and feeling unprotected and at risk of serious physical harm, and these reports included the belief that it's been caused by this changed approach. It's strange, too, sensing today that ASH staff are in a crisis that has been caused by Cory Nelson, because I recall many of them feeling that he was a really good candidate for the job at that point in time when the hiring process for a new ASH supervisor was in effect. Increasingly, I sense that the nurses and technicians at ASH are somewhat in the same boat as the patients, and it is directly due to the ineptitude and immorality of the Hospital's highest ranking authorities. This is of critical concern, for a trickle down effect occurs in situations such as this, an effect that allows for the presence of senior clinical staff (the psychiatric doctors) who grossly fail to meet their responsibilities to patients, which in turn contributes to patients being less stable in there won right, and ultimately creates heightened tensions and related events in the context of ASH's direct care service providers.

IN CLOSING: I directly communicated with one ASH staff person about this matter in June of 2012, and I encouraged that person to contact media, telling them in no uncertain terms that this issue directly relates to the public interest and welfare; and I also reminded them that ASH staff are protected by many of the same provisions of law and policy that ASH's patients are protected by, but that those protections are worthless if staff don't take it upon themselves to proactively address these matters however they possibly can. Whether that communication led to the interview with Nelson in August, or not, I cannot be sure of (and I don't' really care). What's important is the fact that the interview itself is both enlightening and very revealing in terms of exposing Cory Nelson's willingness to lie through his teeth whenever serious allegations about the substandard conditions at ASH arise. I encourage anybody interested in seeing the video of this interview to visit the websitewww.azfamily.com, and view it themselves; it was published on August 14, 2012, and is titled "Security Changes at the State Hospital." (As noted already, the most immediate way to view the video is by simply googling this title of the article, rather than visiting the azfamily.com website.)  

DATELINE 2018: "The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." No one statement more illustrates why persons such as Aaron Bowen and Greg Honig are today seeking to silence the voices of ASH patients and that of the ASH Human Rights Committee. They are, in my opinion, all but panicking on the basis of coming to understand that many persons affected by serious mental illness may nonetheless possess reasonable intelligence, and may therein be capable of expressing valid concern about the questionable character of ASH administrators and psychiatrists. Putting any such health care providers at risk of burning themselves right into the ground.

They have it coming.

I ran into this more then once as an ASH patient, especially from Cory Nelson and Steven Dingle. Not so much panic at the time, for they were yet to learn of my potential as an advocate (they could have learned this while I was there, if only the stigmas associated with mental illness had no more power over these ignoramuses then anyone else).  But there was discomfort, definitely that, as personified by the retaliatory actions they complicity imposed on me about halfway through my overall period of hospitalization there. And it frightened me, yes (just as it was designed to), because I had already learned that their selfish desire to maintain status quo extended to a willingness to put the greater public at grave risk of harm (as personified by the details underlying the tragic death of April Mott, and in knowing this,  my coincident realization of what they might be willing to do to keep me quiet). 

But I refused to relent in openly voicing my concerns to literally anybody willing to listen. And some of them, at least, learned the hard way of just how serious their misbehavior is, in fact. 

It has continued in my life since ASH, as I have had to deal with  ineptitude state employed mental health care workers far beyond the borders of Arizona. On the mere basis of the fact that I can interpret law and policy and thus identify issues that occur in violation of such standards, I have again been retaliated against by those guilty of wrongdoing, unethically re-diagnosed to the convenience of inept psychiatrists, and subject to undue criticism by individuals unfamiliar with the realm of mental illness (period). Standard par, it most certainly seems to me by now, when to comes to these places.       

And as stated at the outset of today's article, the staff of this publication  very much look forward to working with John Mancini from here on out, as we advocate on behalf of the ASH patient community. I've known this man since 2013, when I was first put in touch with him by an accomplice mental health advocate based in Arizona, and I know he left ASH much as I did, with scads of evidentiary and experiential data specific to the substandard care practices and conditions at ASH.  John is another shining example of the fact that many if not most proposes affected by mental illness are capable of doing good work, this in a context of intelligence, as well as ethos and character.  

In winter 2011-2012, staff first began raising concern about changes at ASH that were initiated by the Hospital’s still recently hired CEO, Cory Nelson, including these security cuts. There were several staff, in fact, who had learned by then that I could be trusted in terms of sharing such concerns, knowing as they did that I was actively advocating on behalf of the ASH patient community in a manner that also benefitted the welfare of conscientiously oriented ASH employees. Emphasis here on conscientious staff who work day in-day out to serve the needs of ASH patens to the best of their given ability, and not the Rat Bastards sitting in the executive offices at ASH, or the hospital’s inept psychiatrists, or even the state health care officials working in ADHS who in time became just as responsible in my opinion (which still stands today- are you listening Margery Ault?) as anyone else for the issues that led to federal intervention yet again in 2014-2015. 

By late 2012, after I had published two hundred fifty plus articles in this blog, all of which are based on evidence I had accrued as an ASH patient, some ASH staff began directly contacting me through the blog itself. Typically anonymous, these contacts confirmed the legitimacy of my concerns as they stood then, and still stand today. Likewise, patients families', the family of both April Mott as well Jesus Rincon Murietta, and a host of other persons with direct awareness of the substandard conditions at ASH came forward in support of my central objective in the first twelve months of my publishing these articles.

As  such, it was through the presence of these supporters that I maintained my vigilance specific to putting it all out there, knowing as I did, all that I had learned about state managed mental hospitals while hospitalized at ASH. And it was needed, because along with the abject refusal of Hospital staff and state employed officials to give my grievance generated reports any attention (and the psychological impacts of those refusals),  I again felt utterly dismayed by the lack of attention to this blog got (at first.) So I kept it up, writing and publishing on public computers in the library of No. AZ University, Flagstaff (April-May 2012), and in Louisiana coffee shops (circa winter 2012-13) once I had lined up an editor and thus been provided with a good writing machine of my own, and into my years back in New Mexico (2013-14). 

And then- finally- David Biscobing of ABC Ch15 news also contacted me in spring, 2013, expressing his desire to collaborate with me through drawing such evidence from my blog, as he initiated his own investigation of ASH at that time. Formally generating the momentum needed to take down most (but not all) of the criminal syndicate that are responsible for how and why ASH got in trouble yet again in 2014-15. 

But I have give credit where it is due, and without a doubt, it was  in large part meathead Cory Nelson's own website that brought the bulk of
staff generated concerns to me in those first twelve months. 

It was likewise quite enriching to witness both Will Humble and Nelson foolishly try to thwart the investigation of Emmy award winning investigative news reporter David Biscobing through oafish statements that only deepened my belief of how corrupted and unconscientious these two Rat Bastards are, in fact. I had assured David early on in our given relationship that, once he dug a little ways further into the matters that I exposed through this blog, he would in his own right experience equally disturbing issue specific to the operation of ASH. And boy did he ever. 

Best scene, perhaps, was Will Humble dashing away from live footage as Biscobing sought his testimony, dashing down a hallway and away of the camera  while stating over his shoulder "Not now... I am late... I am late for... for a meeting... I have a phone call..... Not now!"

And again today, albeit without so self-centered a source as meathead’s personal website, state employed persons who function in direct association with the operation of ASH, such as attorney Greg Honig, are basically begging for attention as a result of their every willingness to suppress issues that are of serious concern to the welfare of the ASH patient community.

But I have give credit where credit is due, and without a doubt, it was meathead CoryNelson’s own website that brought the bulk of staff generated concerns to me in those first twelve months. And albeit without so self-centered a source as meathead’s personal website, state employed persons who function in direct association with the operation of ASH, such as attorney Greg Honig, are basically begging today for more attention, as a result of their overt willingness to suppress the the low of information about issues posing risk to the welfare of the ASH patient community.

I’d rather not, trust me, feel the need to reman involved in paying attention to these people. I left Arizona a number of years ago, and did hope that I could leave the trauma of my experiences at ASH behind me once and for all. I can attest that even the writing of this blog has its own shortcomings in terms of those past experiences, my having to virtually relive the emotions that I had to deal with at ASH, while also trying to diminish the PTSD oriented impacts of those experiences as I moved physically away from Arizona, circa summer 2012 and well into 2013. 

Today I know better. I cannot leave the patients at ASH behind me entirely. No matter how much good I may have done in publishing this blog right up through the aforementioned 2015 shakeup, there is likely always going to be a need for someone with actual patient expense at ASH to stay on the ball in this context. Yes, the members of ASH's Human Rights Committee do great things, and I do thank them for that on a regular basis. Given the continued willingness of ADHS officials to unlawfully intimidate the function of HRC, however (don’t these ever people learn from their own bullshit?), even HRC can use a little help once in a while. 

And so it is today, end of January, 2018, and time at last to begin putting out the new stuff. Fair warning, indeed, to all who strive to further issues posing harm to the care needs and rights of the ASH patient community. 

We are going nowhere. 


paoloreed@gmail.com

Monday, January 29, 2018

Of Greg Honig's Attack On the Arizona State Hospital's Human Rights Committee, a Legitimate and Conscientious Body of Pateint Advocacy , In Place As Required by Arizona Revised Statute R9-21-105. 

Wherein, it is apparent that a state employed attorney, Greg Honig, unlawfully acting in complicity with the administrators of Arizona State Hospital, is engaged in taking retaliatory action against the current members of the ASH Human Rights Committee. While simultaneously denying the constitutional free speech rights of ASH patients willing to express discontent over the unlawful misconduct of Hospital physicians.

2018 UPDATE: We have in recent weeks been republishing articles originally produced in the first twelve months of the life of this blog, circa April 2012-2013. However, due to the recent emergence of a very critical issue posing threat to the function of the lawfully established Human Rights Committee at Arizona State Hospital, on this day we are instead republishing the following article, which was originally published in early 2014. 

Title 9. Health Services. Chapter 21. Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System - Behavioral Health Services for Persons with Serious Mental Illness.

In accordance with the provisions of Arizona Revised Statutes Title 9, Chapter 21, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the staff of this publication strongly feel that the independence of ASH's HRC extends beyond the authority of state employed health care officials, including and especially state employed attorneys working in the health department.  As such, and as needed to ensure that the rights and care needs of ADHS/ASH clientele- whether or not they just so happen to be patients at ASH- I contend that any negative interference imposed on HRC by ADHS employed attorneys violates the findings intent of the AZ legislature at that time when the this specific statute (state law) was established. This issue has direct bearing on the role of all Human Rights Committee's currently functioning in the state.

"An attorney for the state told board members that he doesn’t believe the patient’s comments should be memorialized in the meeting minutes, which are an official public account of what happened."  (David Biscobing. ABC Ch15 News. April 11, 2014)

Greg Honig, an employee of the Office of the Arizona Attorney General, one of the identified state employed attorneys who have in recent weeks attempted to unjustly influence the function of the ASH HRC. And who also has engaged in willfully violating the constitutional rights of an ASH patient who lawfully expressed speech- as per the First  Amendment of the Constitution of United States of America 1789 (rev. 1992)- in direct relation to the issue of the contemptible sexual history of ASH's longstanding chief medical officer, Dr. Steven Dingle.


Honig is an assistant legal staff with the Arizona Office of the Attorney General (AZAG), directly akin to ASH's former on-site ASH attorney Joel Angel of Death- The Mortician" Rudd.  

As stated on AZAG's website, this office is required to enforce consumer protection and the civil rights of any citizen-consumer receiving services from all/any state agency(s) in Arizona. This does include ADHS and it’s sub-agency, Arizona State Hospital. It is also true that, in legal terms, all patients at ASH are members of a “protected special class,” this, more specifically, with direct regard for their status as disabled (by serious mental illness), and therein, being recipients of the provisions and protections provided to them by the Americans With Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C.: Public Health and Social Welfare [1990]). 

More specifically, Honig works today as an attorney in relation to AHCCCS. Yet another state managed agency that is obligated to meet the needs of Arizona citizens. With at least one staff attorney who is currently engaging in arguable abuses of his given authority, afforded him via the public trust. 

No offense intended, but nonetheless, fair warning herein to ADHS attorney Greg Honig.

"Therein, and 100% based upon my willingness to trust Patel, I did openly share the all details about the sexual abuse that I suffered as a young boy.... No wonder, then, that Laxman Patel was incapable of understanding the significance of childhood sexual abuse and its direct impacts on any child's emotional and psychological state(s), in graphic defiance of established psychiatric knowledge today. This, from a man recognized as ASH's longest employed senior clinician." (This blog, April 05, 2012.)

"Back in the proverbial day, I offered Cory Nelson and that whole other pack of Rat Bastards fair warning that did, in fact, begin with good faith, trust based efforts on my part, to merely ask them to do the right thing, as per their given job descriptions and the place in our society of well established standard of law and policy... I only hope, for the good of the patients at ASH, that Bowen and Christ are getting the idea by now. I could really care less about them, they being at no risk of any harm caused by anyone but by they, themselves." (This blog, January 28, 2018)

“A special oversight board created to look into abuse and human rights issues for patients at the Arizona state mental hospital is being blocked from doing its work by state officials….” (David Biscobing. ABC Ch15 News. April 11, 2014)

“ABC15 has also learned there’s an internal debate between the state and the Human Rights Committee about how to document the patient’s comments. An attorney for the state told board members that he doesn’t believe the patient’s comments should be memorialized in the meeting minutes, which are an official public account of what happened. An email was also sent out by state attorneys telling board members  that they want to reign in what patients or others say during the public comment portion of committee meetings.” ( Arizona State Hospital top doctor has history of sexual misconduct, harassment. David Biscobing. ABC Ch15. December 13, 2017.)  

Amendent I to the United States Constitution Bill Rights

     Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

"You, Dr. Cara Christ , are 100% responsible for doing the right thing today. So do it, already."

Dr. Cara Christ.
Director, Arizona Dept. of Health Services
2015-the present.

Since her appointment to the highest ranking position in Arizona’s public health care system in 2015, Arizona Department of Health Director Dr. Cara Christ has repeatedly stated that there have been “great improvements” in the state’s sole long term public mental health care facility, Arizona State Hospital (ASH). To date however, January 2018, Dr. Christ has never provided any evidence or information about just what these “improvements” at ASH are, in fact. This is of very real concern to the staff of this publication, given that Dr. Christ’s immediate predecessor (Will Humble ADHS Director 2009-2015) willfully relied upon producing a pattern of overt and untruthful propaganda that served to delay a subsequent process of critically needed oversight and accountability at ASH. Propaganda that defied the realities specific to the ASH operation, including but not limited to preventable patient deaths, the tragic murder of a young Phoenix woman, and a wide range of patient generated concerns expressed in grievance submissions; and as such, this propaganda granted the former administrators of ASH further opportunity to continue operating of ASH in a manner deeply harmful to the welfare of the Hospital’s patient community.And as previously reported in this publication, at least three preventable deaths occurred due to this fact; had the administrators of ASH adhered to law and regulations circa 2004-2015, those deaths, and a wide range of other like wrongs, would not have occurred.

These issues have been exemplified by information provided in this blog since 2012, as well as in a number of scathing investigative findings of the staff of 
ABC Ch15 circa 2013-2015.  
———————————————————————

ASH Human Rights Committee: As to the fact that not until late 2012 was a legally required human rights panel established at The Arizona State Hospital, the delay of which (to that point in time) represents illegal defiance of the fact this this public resource has been required by bright line state law for well over 2 decades. 

As it relates to ADHS Director Will Humble, who is 100% behind the promotions of former ASH CEO Cory Nelson (now Deputy Director of ADHS/BHS's state wide authority- YIKES!), and that of current ASH CEO Donna Noriega (a proven liar, as per the findings of Arizona's behavioral health authorities, 2012-13- FOUL!); and the involvement of the long time on-site legal counsel there, Joel Rudd, of the state Attorney General's office (American/Arizona Bar Association- HELLO!).

(Originally published April 18, 2014)


Arizona Revised Statute 9-21-105. Human Rights Committees.

A. According to A.R.S. §§ 41-3803 and 41-3804, the Department shall establish human rights committees to provide independent oversight to ensure that the rights of clients and enrolled children are protected. The Department shall establish at least one human rights committee for each region and the Arizona State Hospital. Upon the establishment of a human rights committee, if more than 2,500 clients reside within a region, the Department shall establish additional human rights committees until there is one human rights committee for each 2,500 clients in a region. (See the full statute below.)

DEAR MR. (WILL) HUMBLE: As per AZ law, I would like to learn that an in-hospital Human Rights panel, represented by both members of the public as well as patients and their families, as required by state law (ARS 9-21-105), has been established and put into action by now, for in 2011 alone there were at least 15-18 requests for this to be created and arranged for by ASH executive staff; as wonderful as the news from your official blog might look to the general public, I know that the reality of patient life at ASH is anything but what the public might believe if all they can rely upon are vacuum-like statements such as your own upbeat advocacy about the health of ASH at this time. 

Thank you. ------- (PJ Reed.)
August 08, 2012.

INTRODUCTION: The requirement of ensuring reasonable public access to the overall operation of The Arizona State Hospital is one that arises in federal as well as state law. This has everything to do with the fact that each and every ASH patient is a citizen of Arizona, as well in terms of the United States; and also has clear significance in terms of the history underlying state mental institutions across the board, with specific respect for the fact that such facilities are well known as far too often operating far behind contemporary medical standards.

The core reason for this fact relates to ongoing and endemic forms of cultural discrimination against persons affected by serious mental illness and disability, and the associated fact that in places such as ASH, graphically unlawful violations of patient' rights occur as a matter of standard practice. 

At various points in the history of civil and human rights, concerns that the American public have about the affairs of persons affected by chronic disability, including with respect for persons affected by serious mental illness, congressional level legislative action has contributed to a range of bright line law(s) and policy(s) that require all states to comply with such legal standards, as seen in the Americans With Disabilities Act, and other like law. 

In this context, as per Arizona Administrative Law, which directly flows from superseding federal law, dictates the requirement of an established functioning "human rights commission" at the The Arizona State Hospital, assigned as such to respond to any patient (or patient family member, etc.) who has reason to believe their human rights have been comprised, violated, or otherwise negatively effected by staff misconduct, at all levels of employ.

In summer 2011, while hospitalized at ASH, I was advised by a very well qualified human rights advocate named John Gallagher that the Hospital was lacking in any such human rights commission, which has been required by Arizona law for nearly two decades, immediately compelling me to do whatever I could in terms of seeing that this resource be provided to the ASH patient community- myself included. I did in short time contact the Arizona department of health services administrative office by mail, and thereafter received a letter stating that the sole reason there being no such body of public resource at ASH was due to no actual interest, as in: "We have attempted to attract members of the public in order to establish a human rights commission at ASH, but there has never been any response."

 At that point in time, as an ASH patient, and given that I was limited by the rules and regulations wherein no patient has clear and unfettered access to phone usages, postal resources, etc., I was forced to leave this issue on the burner, as it were, which is only one such issue that I had to leave behind, in large part due to there not being a lawfully required Human Rights Committee (HRC) at ASH. This failure of the state to establish an active HRC at ASH directly contributed to the how and why underlying ASH's success in keeping the May, 2011, escape of Jesus Rincon Murietta secret and well out of public awareness, which did, in fact, as directly contribute to the consequent death of April Mott that following August. (See this blog: The Murder of April Mott. [January 07, 2018]; A Modern Horror Story [April 05, 2012]

In the months immediately following my February 2012 discharge from ASH, I made a point of directing no less than three formal  letters of concern about the matter to the ADHS/BHS legal administrative legal office, as well as the ADHS/BHS Office of Grievances and Appeals, and ultimately, to Will Humble, ADHS current Director. The subsequent story precedes as follows, beginning with a very recent exposure of the continuing failure of ASH administrators to abide by this area of law, as it stands. 

"AZ mental hospital oversight committee claims officials blocking them from doing work." By David Biscobing. ABC Ch15. April 11, 2014.

“A special oversight board created to look into abuse and human rights issues for patients at the Arizona state mental hospital is being blocked from doing its work by state officials, according to several members…. A patient died. There are patients who are being mistreated. There are patients who are suffering because of understaffing, and we can’t discuss that,” said Sharon Ashcroft, a member of the Arizona State Hospital Human Rights Committee…. There are five human right committees (HRC) in Arizona – one for different regions of the state and another specifically for the state hospital. The HRCs are oversight boards given their authority by the state legislature….Several members of the state hospital HRC testified before the Senate Health Committee on February 26. They gave blistering statements and accused state hospital officials of preventing them from doing their work.  (Excerpt- for full story, please see: http://www.abc15.com)

--------------------------------------------
UPDATE 2014: As stated above, and as a matter of documented fact, I formally requested that Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble immediately address the absence of a legally required citizen based human rights, this following my 13 full of being subjected to grossly unlawful staff misconduct as an ASH patient, January 2010-February 2012. During that period of time, I was advised by an outside source that such a panel was required by AZ law and policy, but no attempt on my part to see that this issue be addressed was given due attention by state officials working in ADHS. Thus, in addition to a formal hard copy letter to the man, I did formally submit the following commentary to Will Humble's so called "blog", which apparently contribute to the lawfully required establishment of a Human Rights Commission at ASH (see (2) below):

AZ Dept. of Health Services Director's Blog. Will Humble, ADHS Director


Your comment is awaiting moderation. 


Dear Mr. Humble: Two questions, and only two, which I will be really surprised to see you answer in good faith. But, if you can and do in fact offer some nature of honest statement in response, then I and my peer-assocaties will greatly appreciate your time and effort in this context: 

(1) I would love to hear input from ASH staff (other than executive staff, please, ideally your BHTs and non-supervisoral nursing staff, all of whom work closer to the patients that any other ASH staff) about these “Culture of Care” approaches, e.g. the “Non Violent Crisis Intervention"; as you surely know, many of these good hearted staff persons are very, very disturbed by the impacts of these changes, with particular respect for the marked increase in patient-on-patient violence, as well as direct threats to staff.

(2) As per AZ law, I would like to learn that an in-hospital Human Rights panel, represented by both members of the public as well as patients and their families, as per the requirements of state law (ARS 9-21-105), has been established and put into action by now, for in 2011 alone there were at least 15-18 requests for this to be created and arranged for by ASH executive staff; as wonderful as the news from your official blog might look to the general public, I know that the reality of patient life at ASH is anything but what the public might believe if all they can rely upon are vacuum-like statements such as your own upbeat advocacy about the health of ASH at this time.

In closing, sir, and will all due respect, I plead with you to present your responses in public, ideally through your blog in clear and simple language, and feel free to use my name, even my true name (and not my pseudonym- I know that you know exactly who I am). It is never too late to do the right thing, no tin my world, at least. . And for what is it worth, the Joint Commission is definitely part of a certain loop today (for the first time in my experience as an advocate, and not for publicizing a seemingly mythical description of how ASH should be ran, but rather in terms of the voices of patients and staff, who tell the true story). 

Thank you. ----------- (PJ Reed)

------------------------------------------------------
NEEDLESS TO SAY, THE ABOVE COMMENTARY TO WILL HUMBLE'S BLOG WAS NEVER PUBLISHED BY HE AND HIS BUTT HEADED STAFF.

But at some point within the next 6-8 months of the above direct communication with Humble, I became aware that a Human Rights Commiitte (phad been assembled at The Arizona State Hospital, as per the law. And within 4 weeks of the establishment of this panel, I began providing data to one member of that panel, whose name I will leave out of the record (at this time). Sadly, I subsequently found this representative of the newly formed panel effectively refused to take my input to heart, to such an extent that I determined (yet again) that ASH was failing to meet its lawfully required obligations in the context. It was clear to me that despite my success in bringing about the establishment of an active HRC at ASH, there were still far too many shortfalls specific to the function of HRC at that time. On the basis of my prior experiences as they stood, with direct relation to the ineptitude of all ADHS/BHS/ASH authorities that I had witnessed, I thus ceased to directly communicate with that person in early 2013.

Much more recently (early 2014), I was contacted by a separate and current member of HRC,  who informed me that her review of this blog had confirmed issues that she had identified; and she did in fact seek my assistance in further addressing these issues across the board. I  subsequently agreed to reengage in a good faith flow of communication with that person, and the HRC in general. This flow of communication also led to ABC Ch 15's executive investigative reporter David Biscobing- who I have been collaborating with for over a full year- taking an interest in the HRC panel. And as the above ABC Ch 15 article illustrates, things are looking up, in a manner of speaking. But is still quite clear that much work still needs to be done in terms of holding the Rat Bastards at ASH and in the broader ADHS construct accountable, as per the letter of law.

IN CLOSING: A big thanks to David Biscobing and Sharon Ashcroft. As a former member of the ASH patient community, and a current member of our nation's mentally ill community, I cannot say loudly enough how critical your participation is, in fact. These two individuals have proven themselves as willing and able to take on a task that very few other like  professionals are up to contributing to, and as per my varied experiences stand today (as an advocate for the ASH patient community), this is a matter of fact. Patient abuse and associated administrative/clinical negligence and ineptitude is as bad as it gets in the context of criminal misconduct, as established by contemporary health care ethics and law. But due to ongoing patterns of abject discrimination(s) against all/any persons affected by serious mental illness and disability, those persons in whom the public is willing to most trust in terms of overseeing the affairs of the ASH patients are currently engaging in violating virtually all elements of their responsibilities. This is and has long been occurring at the expense of AZ taxpayers, to the deep detriment of ASH patients, patient' families, and the public in general. Bottom line. 

DATELINE 2018: 

Big thanks to Sharon Ashcroft, and all other current members of the ASH Human Rights Committee. You rock! Do not be afraid of Greg Honig, Aaron Bowen, or any other such stinkers who may engage in trying to intimidate you at this time. Their given time in the realm of the experiences of ASH patients is only temporary. I assure you of that. The patients at Arizona State Hospital need you as much today as they ever have in your brief history, so again, thank you, thank you, thank you. 

It is no coincidence that we are today witnessing the same nature of authoritative corruption and directly associated abuses of authority in Arizona’s Department of Health Services (ADHS) that occurred just 4-5 years ago, corruption that did as a matter of plain fact lead to yet one more occurence of federal intervention in the operation of ASH circa that time frame. As discussed in recent articles, ASH has repeatedly been sanctioned though federal intervention four separate times over the last 20 years. Clearly, it is only due to the failure of ADHS to get the point that this specific pattern of repeated history has occurred. 

Again, and again, and again, and again right up through 2015.

The state employed attorney who personally told members of the ASH Human Rights Committee (HRC) not to include the full record of patient comments from a November, 2017, HRC meeting is named Greg Honig. This man currently works for the Arizona Office of the Attorney General (AZAG), which- of course (!)- is the same office that ASH’s former in-house legal counsel, Joel Rudd once worked for, which also is in no way coincidental. And nor is the fact that the current in-house legal counsel at ASH, Louis Caputo (Rudd’s replacement) has yet to speak out in defense of the civil rights of at least one ASH patient, that patient being the one who in late November, 2017, exercised his or her First Amendment right to voice concern over the disturbing history of ASH’s current and longstanding chief medical officer, Dr. Steven Dingle

The AZAG is required to enforce consumer protection and the civil rights of any citizen-consumer receiving services from all/any state agency(s) in Arizona. This does include ADHS and it’s sub-agency, Arizona State Hospital. It is also true that, in legal terms, all patients at ASH are members of a “protected special class,” this, more specifically, with direct regard for their status as disabled (by serious mental illness), and therein, being recipients of the provisions and protections provided to them by the Americans With Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C.: Public Health and Social Welfare [1990]). 

I would thus ask that the current Attorney General in Arizona, Mark Brnovich, act on behalf of this patient’s rights in context; and that he also take a good hard look at ADHS attorney Greg Honig, who by threatening members of the current members of the lawfully established HRC at ASH, has engaged in a gross violation of the standards by which he is licensed to practice law and to act as a representative of ADHS, which is only one such state agency that AZAG has direct legal authority over. 

And because the fact remains that all patients at ASH are disabled by mental illness, and at high risk of negligence, exploitation, and abuse, I intend, in fact, to contact Mr. Brnvich myself, just like I did his predecessor, Tom Horne, in relation to Joel Rudd’s involvement in the issues that got ASH in trouble in 2014-15. I will also contact the Arizona Bar Association, as well as the American Bar Association.

And, finally, I will again ask for the current director of ADHS, Dr. Cara Christ to do whatever she can to reverse the momentum towards yet another federal intervention at ASH. As such, the goal should not be simply to avoid such intervention, but to act on behalf of the patients in her own right, on the basis of her knowledge today that these issues are posing threat to each and every member of patient community. 

No one patient's experiences are ever unique in settings like ASH, just like mine weren't during my time as a patient there. Retaliation, overt suppressions of patient generated concerns about staff misconduct,  and other criminal like actions directed towards me and my patient-peers were prevalent on a near day in-day out basis circa my time there. And as we all know today, things have not, in fact, much improved at ASH. If at all. 

Because someone has to, and nobody else will, we the staff of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse will continue to forge ahead as this process plays out. 

paoloreed@gmail.com

Arizona Revised Statute R9-21-105. Human Rights Committees (in full).

A. According to A.R.S. §§ 41-3803 and 41-3804, the Department shall establish human rights committees to provide independent oversight to ensure that the rights of clients and enrolled children are protected. The Department shall establish at least one human rights committee for each region and the Arizona State Hospital. Upon the establishment of a human rights committee, if more than 2,500 clients reside within a region, the Department shall establish additional human rights committees until there is one human rights committee for each 2,500 clients in a region.

B. Each human rights committee shall be composed of at least seven and not more than 15 members. At least two members of the committee shall be clients or former clients, at least two members shall be relatives of clients, two members shall be parents of enrolled children and at least three members shall have expertise in one of the following areas: psychology, law, medicine, education, special education, social work, or behavioral health services.

C. The director shall appoint the initial members to each regional committee and the human rights committee for the Arizona State Hospital. The Director shall appoint members to fill vacancies on a human rights committee, subject to the approval of the committee.

D. Each committee shall meet at least four times each year. Within three months of its formation, each committee shall establish written guidelines governing the committee's operations. These guidelines shall be consistent with A.R.S. §§ 41-3803 and 41-3804. The adoption and amendment of the committee's guidelines shall be by a majority vote of the committee and shall be submitted to the Director for approval.

E. No employee of or individual under contract with the Department, regional authority, or service provider may be a voting member of a committee.

F. If a member of a human rights committee or the human rights committee determines that a member has a conflict of interest regarding an agenda item, the member shall refrain from:
           1. Participating in a discussion regarding the agenda item, and
           2. Voting on the agenda item.

G. Each committee shall, within its respective jurisdiction, provide independent oversight and review of:
           1. Allegations of illegal, dangerous, or inhumane treatment of clients and enrolled children;
           2. Reports filed with the committee under R9-21-203 and R9-21-204 concerning the use of seclusion, restraint, abuse, neglect, exploitation, mistreatment, accidents, or injuries;
           3. The provision of services to clients identified under R9-21-301 in need of special assistance
           4. Violations of rights of clients and enrolled children and conditions requiring investigation under Article 4 of this Chapter;
           5. Research in the field of mental health according to A.R.S. § 41-3804(E)(2); and
           6. Any other issue affecting the human rights of clients and enrolled children.

H. Within its jurisdiction, each human rights committee shall, for a client who needs special assistance, and may, for other clients and enrolled children:
          1. Make regular site visits to residential environments;
          2. Meet with the client, including a client who needs special assistance, in residential environments to determine satisfaction of the clients with the residential environments; and
          3. Inspect client records, including client records for clients who need special assistance, except as prohibited by federal or state law and a client's right to privacy.

I. A committee may request the services of a consultant or staff person to advise the committee on specific issues. The cost of the consultant or staff person shall be assumed by the Department or regional authority subject to the availability of funds specifically allocated for that purpose. A consultant or staff person may, in the sole discretion of the committee, be a member of another committee or an employee of the Department, regional authority, or service provider. No committee consultant or staff person shall vote or otherwise direct the committee's decisions.

J. Committee members and committee consultants and staff persons shall have access to client records according to A.R.S. §§ 36-509(13) and 41-3804(I). If a human rights committee's request for information or records is denied, the committee may request a review of the decision to deny the request according to A.R.S. § 41-3804(J). Nothing in this rule shall be construed to require the disclosure of records or information to the extent that such information is protected by A.R.S. § 36-445 et seq.

K. On the first day of the months of January, April, July, and October of each year, each committee shall issue a quarterly report summarizing its activities for the prior quarter, including any written objections to the Director according to A.R.S. § 41-3804(F), and make any recommendations for changes it believes the Department or regional authorities should implement. In addition, the committee may, as it deems appropriate, issue reports on specific problems or violations of client's rights. The report of a regional committee shall be delivered to the regional authority and the Division.

L. The Department shall provide training and support to human rights committees.

M. A human rights committee may request:
       1. An investigation for a client according to Article 4 of this Chapter, or
       2. A regional authority or the Arizona State Hospital, as applicable, to conduct an investigation for an enrolled child.

N. The regional authority or the Arizona State Hospital, as applicable, when requested by a human rights committee, shall conduct an investigation concerning:
       1. A client as provided in Article 4 of this Chapter, and
       2. An enrolled child.

O. A human rights committee shall submit an annual report of the human rights committee's activities and recommendations to the Director at the end of each calendar year according to A.R.S. § 41-3804(G).

Historical Note

Adopted under an exemption from A.R.S. Title 41, Chapter 6 pursuant to Laws 1992, Ch. 301, § 61, effective October 7, 1992; received in the Office of the Secretary of State October 14, 1992 (Supp. 92-4). Amended under an exemption from A.R.S. Title 41, Chapter 6 pursuant to Laws 1992, Ch. 301, § 61, effective September 30, 1993 (Supp. 93-3). Former Section R9-21-105 renumbered to R9-21-104; new Section R9-21-105 renumbered from R9-21-106 and amended by exempt rulemaking at 9 A.A.R. 3296, effective June 30, 2003 (Supp. 03-2).