BUSTED! The Arizona Department of Health Services. Wherein, yet another chilling news report emerges detailing the failure of Arizona's public healthcare system to meet their most basic obligations to the citizens to our state. 

ADHS oversees a range of public welfare concerns, including The Arizona State Hospital, as well as smaller behavioral health care facilities intended to care for juveniles affected by mental illness or behavioral disabilities. The following article offers a scathing expose' of ADHS's gross negligence in this latter context, including details about the manner in which ADHS officials systematically engage in turning a blind eye to a range of of documented occurrences of physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse. No less shocking than what I already know about such matters, and just one more example of the deep need for radical reform throughout the entirety of Arizona's public healthcare system.     

This is a partial citation from the Arizona Republic, Sunday, February 17, 2013. I greatly encourage all of you to read the full article, for it is chock full of information that has direct bearing on many of the things I have witnessed and experienced since that point in time when I was admitted to the state of Arizona's one and only long term mental health care facility, The Arizona State Hospital, including with specific respect for the unwillingness of ADHS officials to do anything about the substandard conditions at ASH and directly related patient abuse. And note, if you will, the reaction and formal response(s) of Will Humble, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, wherein he patently denies the very possibility of allegations of this nature having any legitimacy. This is critical, because in terms of the substandard conditions at ASH, Humble has engaged in precisely the same knee-jerk denials and rejections of my reports about patient abuse, administrative negligence and related abuses of authority, and the failure of ADHS officials to adhere to the rules of procedure and policy in the context of responding to such reports. This issues are endemic throughout the whole of the Arizona health care system, which reflects all of the worst characteristics of a bureaucracy gone wild; and when it comes to the most vulnerable and at risk citizens seeking care and treatment in thus system, the depravity takes a markedly evil twist, as sadomasochistic staff subject these citizens to horrifically unlawful misconduct. 

 To read the full article, visit azcentral.com 

Arizona's troubled teens: At risk and overlooked

By Craig Harris and Rob O’Dell

The Republic | azcentral.com

Sun Feb 17, 2013 12:03 AM

     "Arizona and Alaska have similar standards, but Alaska differs in that it requires an on-site investigation within 24 hours if there is an allegation of sexual or physical abuse. Alaska also requires an investigation within 72 hours if there are allegations of abuse or neglect. Arizona does not have such rules."

Some of Arizona’s most severely troubled youths have reportedly been sexually and physically abused in residential treatment centers amid lax oversight by the state agencies that license, monitor, fund and assign children to the facilities, an Arizona Republic investigation has found.

Many of Arizona’s 11 Level 1 juvenile treatment centers have had ongoing problems managing their clients and staff, leading to frequent runaways, physical abuse and, in at least 15 cases, reported sexual abuse of teens by adult staff, a review of three years of state-agency incident reports and police records shows.

The Arizona Department of Health Services, which licenses the facilities, and the state Supreme Court’s Administrative Office of the Courts, which contracts for their services, are aware of most of the incidents but have not demanded the facilities improve or have not taken enforcement actions regarding the incidents.

Regulators say many of the incidents — including the staff sexual-abuse allegations — have not been substantiated or did not result in criminal prosecutions.

While the ADHS and AOC collect data from facilities on health and safety incidents, including runaways, suicide attempts, fights, sexual activity, alleged sexual abuse or physical mistreatment, they rarely analyze the information.

Neither agency measures the effectiveness of the facilities’ treatment of children nor do they track their recidivism rates.

The agencies do require the treatment centers to abide by strict administrative procedures, such as filing paperwork regarding a change in leadership, verifying employees’ work credentials, and displaying patient rights in English and Spanish. The state has assessed small fines against centers that don’t comply.

But virtually no strings have been attached to the more than $78 million in state funds spent during the past three fiscal years at nine facilities, which can receive up to $300 a day per patient.

Arizona (state) regulators questioned about The Republic’s findings said they plan to stay the course, that nothing is fundamentally wrong with the state’s system of residential treatment centers or their oversight. Officials at AOC and ADHS also defended the centers when questioned about the incidents of mistreatment of patients and the number of runaways.

“They are writing off these kids by saying, ‘We can’t imagine a different result in how these facilities operate or how these kids live,’” he said.

Anne C. Ronan, an attorney for the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, said residential treatment centers are “inherently not safe,” adding that children are mistreated in them because society is generally unconcerned about their welfare.

“The system as a whole thinks of them as hopeless,” Ronan said. “When you put a whole lot of people together that have the same problems, it’s like a juvenile-justice facility.”

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To read the full article, visit azcentral.com
Arizona's Troubled Teens: Abused and Overlooked (Sunday, February 17, 2013)

This newest piece of information is 100% on point with many of my concerns about ADHS's failure to meaningfully respond to and address the grossly substandard conditions at The Arizona State Hospital. Just as the investigation has determined that ADHS For example, every time I go into court in the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings in order to present my well documented allegations specific to patient abuse at ASH and the role of ASH's administration in allowing the substandard conditions at ASH to go on, ADHS director Will Humble has the final say. In other words, no matter what the administrative law judge issues in terms of their findings about these allegations, Humble can override the court, and issue whatever conclusive decision he wants to. I had faith in this man, Will Humble, when he was first appointed to oversee the affairs of ADHS in 2011, but I have learned the hard way (as I always do when it comes to these matters) that he is just as unwilling to address my concerns as the rat bastards at ASH are. 

"Arizona and Alaska have similar standards, but Alaska differs in that it requires an on-site investigation within 24 hours if there is an allegation of sexual or physical abuse. Alaska also requires an investigation within 72 hours if there are allegations of abuse or neglect. Arizona does not have such rules."

AS STATED ALREADY, I GREATLY ENCOURAGE ANYBODY WITH AN INTEREST IN LEARNING HOW GRAPHICALLY SUBSTANDARD THE CONDITIONS AT ASH ARE TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN  FULL. PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS SPECIFIC TO ADHS'S UNWILLINGNESS TO SO MUCH AS BUDGE FROM THEIR POSITION THAT "EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE", THIS DESPITE THE PRESENCE OF VERY WELL DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY, FOR THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT I HAVE BEEN FIGHTING SINCE DAY ONE, DEDICATING MYSELF TO DEFENDING THE CARE NEEDS AND RELATED RIGHTS OF ARIZONA'S MOST SERIOUSLY MENTALLY DISABLED CITIZENS.

IN CLOSING: Please visit my December 19, 2012, "Resource Ideas" article, and determine what best suits you in terms of acting in defense of the patients at The Arizona State Hospital. In light of this latest article, I suggest that you contact Will Humble, (his contact info is included in my resources article), and inform that man that you are well aware of his refusal to meet his obligations to Arizona's citizens as a whole, in graphic violation of the public trust by which we, the people, have granted him the privilege of overseeing Arizona's entire public health care system. Note as well in the above article, the name of Anne C. Ronan with the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest- she is one of the good guys, so contact her, as well, and express your desire to see an investigation of ASH. The abuse of patients at ASH, as well as at risk teenagers in Arizona's child welfare facilities, is as sickeningly depraved as anything you might kind in contemporary society, and these people ar getting away with it lock-stock-and-barrel. 

paoloreed@gmail.com