STATE TERRORISM OF CHILDREN,
VULNERABLE PEOPLE HAS TO BE STOPPED NOW.... ABUSERS, VIOLATORS, COVER UP
NOW MUST BE PROSECUTED IN COURTS OF JUDICIAL DUE PROCESS
excerpt: "They blame a lack of political
will: To close the hospital now would be an indictment of state officials who,
they say, have long recognized the need for change but will not risk upsetting
the status quo.
"State Sen. Avel Gordly, D-Portland, said
the state needs to salvage the lives of state hospital patients rather than the
careers of bureaucrats.
"It can't go on," she said. "Everything
that happens there happens in our name -- and let's be real clear, what happens
there is shameful."
Note: "upsetting the status quo?" THEY
ARE GOING TO JAIL NOW, ALL WHO ENFORCE ANY OF THIS OR ARE FOUND NOW
TO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS FOR YEARS, IN COVER UP, ABUSE AND FRAUD
.... THIS IS CRIMINAL ABUSE !!! ONE CRIME as described is
a claim necessitating damages and remedy - these crimes are systemic
! Countless children, adults murdered, tortured, damaged for life as
children in these demonic environments without love or security.
We are glad to hear Sen. Avel Gordly say
that they see they are personally accountable for years of horrific abuse in the
child services and mental health agencies.... now come clean about all the
agencies and the total fraud being enforced on the people. She is
right and knows it that the courts have only been about protecting the careers
of bureaucrats and corrupted legislators while the people are being destroyed in
the policies THEY WRITE TO ALLOW THIS TO CONTINUE.
These are crimes and the facts already long in
the record are a criminal indictment of racketeering abuse and fraud, known for
years and blocked in Marion County by criminal District Attorney DALE PENN and
criminal presiding judge PAUL LIPSCOMB, protected by all Oregon Supreme Court
judges, who are acting as a wall of denial at this time to stop any of
this abuse. LIPSCOMB admitted under oath in his own courtroom in our
trials that many people are in jail who were committed to the mental hospital
for "unable to assist in their own defense" when they say they refuse an
attorney, and the judge refuses to allow them to excercise their Inherent Sui
Juris status. It is a practiced and polished method of deception in the
corrupt rule book they use.
As this is all coming to the light of public
knowledge, in Marion County the commissioners and agents are right now
building a NEW abuse center, making the children build it themselves at slave
wages and no wages. The voters in Marion County said NO to this abuse and
terrorism center on three elections, so the commissioners with federal money are
using the children forcing them as slaves to build their own prison !!!!
STOP THE VULTURES !!!
Remember, right now Bush just signed TWO bills
for forced mental screening of all children, pregnant women, vulnerable
adults. No crime necessary, you will be comitted if you refuse to
take their "treatment" drugs, programs, therapy as ordered once you are assessed
or your children are assessed.... you will be ordered to pay for these forced
compelled contracts as well, and if you do not do it, or say no, or do not pay,
you will lose your children who will then be forced drugged in state foster home
child prisons and institutions, the one below described is what you will
face.
Three adults we know personally who were
committed to this institution were sent there from court, by prostitute judges
denying them the right to a jury as they have an unalienable right in the
court. When they confronted malicious prosecutions they were forced
into mental evaluations by the judge who writes "get a mental health exam" and
leaves the room. In all three cases, whore Dr. SUKOW at the jail came in
to the courthouse to do the evaluations (should have been a real tip off to our
friends but afraid to not comply they appeared for the evaluations).
Before the evaluation was even done, they were handcuffed and off to the
mental hospital. We saw the paperwork ... it said they were sentenced
'INDEFINITELY' for "PROSECUTORIAL DELUSIONS SAYING THE JUDGE IS CORRUPT".
"indefinitely" is a LIFE SENTENCE, and as you read below many of these people
have been in there for YEARS.
We heard the Senators in the law commission say
that unlike adults in circuit court where sentences are set out in the trial and
adhered to, say thirty days or three years, or whatever..... the juvenile cases
and mental health cases are INDEFINITE in their sentences, NO TIME SET, and many
times children grow up in the mean time, YEARS spent in the institutions while
the state runs the checks and funding streams exploiting them being
imprisoned. That is ALL this is about, and there has been no adherence to
the law in the confining of these people... no remedy, no due process, attorneys
do NOT defend anyone, they send them to these places, telling them not to
irritate the judge or talk in court when they are being terrorized and
abused. Many go to these agencies FOR HELP, and really need help,
but are instead exploited and warehoused.
THIS IS WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO BE SENT AFTER YOUR
ASSESSMENT, RIGHT FROM THE COURT OR MENTAL EVALUATION CENTER. NEXT
YEAR.... THEY ARE ALREADY DOING IT IN OREGON UNDER THE OREGON CHILDRENS PLAN,
SOON TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD IN ALL 50 STATES....
SAY NO, NO, NO AND WE HAVE TO START PROSECUTING
ANY WHO CONSIDER VIOLATING OUR RIGHTS IN THIS MANNER .... IT IS OVER FOR ANY WHO
INTEND TO ENFORCE THESE OUTLAW RULES, WE WILL DEFEND IT AT THE POINT OF A WEAPON
IF NECESSARY TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR CHILDREN.... NOTICE TO ALL LEGISLATORS
AND AGENTS WHO THINK THEY ARE GOING TO DO THIS TO ANYBODY..... YOU WILL GO
TO JAIL FOR YOUR ABUSE....
pamela gaston
Senator fears loss of hospital
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/
1098532755109380.xml
Senator
fears loss of hospital
Peter Courtney urges legislators to act on
problems at the Oregon State
Hospital before it faces a federal lawsuit or a
court seizure
Saturday, October 23, 2004
MICHELLE
ROBERTS
Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney said Friday that
conditions at the
Oregon State Hospital in Salem are so appalling the
institution is
vulnerable to a federal lawsuit and possible takeover by the
courts.
In a two-page letter to fellow state senators, Courtney railed
against the
overcrowding, understaffing and decrepit conditions at the
121-year-old
hospital.
"All of these factors, compounded by a history of past
patient abuses, make
a federal lawsuit an imminent probability," Courtney
wrote.
"Not only will that cost the state a tremendous amount
of money, but may
result in a court taking over our public mental health
system. The matter
will be taken out of our hands if we do not act
quickly."
Courtney's letter came in response to a recent meeting
with Dr. Marvin
Fickle, hospital superintendent since last summer. Courtney
called for the
meeting last month in response to a two-day series in The
Oregonian that
detailed the sexual abuse of as many as a dozen patients in
the hospital's
adolescent unit by psychiatric aides from 1989 to
1994.
The investigation disclosed that hospital officials and
their supervisors --
most still employed in state government -- did little to
stop the abuses and
often failed to report suspected sexual abuse immediately
to police and
child welfare workers as required by state law. The articles
also said the
hospital had taken only limited steps to prevent abuse in the
years since.
Courtney characterized his meeting with Fickle as "deeply
troubling."
Courtney said Fickle denied that children were continuing to be
abused in
the hospital but did acknowledge that patient conditions were
dreadful.
The hospital is one of the oldest and most decrepit state mental
health
facilities in the United States. More than 40 percent of its building
space
is unusable.
"Water leaks from the roof down through three floors,
walls are crumbling
and asbestos insulation presents a toxic hazard,"
Courtney wrote.
The hospital houses 760 patients, but has only 1,150 staff
members, one of
the lowest patient-to-staff ratios in the country. By
contrast, he pointed
out, a comparable hospital in Washington state employs
1,900 staff for 790
patients.
A public records request by The Oregonian shows there
have been more than 50
substantiated cases of physical, vocal and sexual
abuse against adult
patients by staff in the past 31/2
years.
"I reached the conclusion after talking to (Fickle) that
the hospital has
reached the point of no return," Courtney said in an
interview Friday.
"If the courts get involved in this and we come under
judicial watch, we're
going to have to tear down the facility and start anew,
or tear down
portions and rebuild.
"We've been getting away with this for
decades."
Courtney said the state's mental health system -- and
the future of the
state hospital -- would be one of the key issues for him in
the coming
legislative session.
"Mental health always gets put last -- always, always,
always," he said.
"I'm well aware of what the governor's budget is going
to be -- but that's
too bad. That can't be used as an excuse
anymore."
Reached late Friday, Gary Weeks, director of the
Department of Human
Services, which oversees the hospital, said he is unsure
whether the state
is in danger of losing control of the
hospital.
"I'm not prepared to say we've exposed ourselves to a
lawsuit," Weeks said.
"But (Courtney) may have a lot more information than I
have on this."
Also on Friday, Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced that he has
received a review
from Weeks of the Oregon State Hospital's policies on
patient abuse.
Kulongoski requested the review after The Oregonian's
stories.
A panel of the state's top mental health officials will
examine the 200-page
report to determine whether changes in abuse reporting
and investigations at
the hospital are necessary.
"We must ensure," he said, "that the state is providing
the best possible
care to Oregonians with mental illness being served at the
state hospital."
Michelle Roberts: 503-294-5041; michelleroberts@news.oregonian.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oregon's high-priced hospital of
hurt
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1098
619127168250.xml
Oregon's
high-priced hospital of hurt
The state mental hospital survives on
legislative inertia, thwarting
patients' recovery while costing taxpayers
dearly
Sunday, October 24, 2004
MICHELLE ROBERTS
SALEM
-- Oregon spends half of its annual $180 million budget for mental
health on
the Oregon State Hospital, an overcrowded, decrepit institution
that serves
less than 1 percent of patients who need psychiatric care.
The hospital
-- only a mile from the Capitol -- is a hulking reminder of the
state's
failure to forge a modern approach to treating people with
mental
illnesses.
Study after study has recommended that Oregon scale back
the hospital and
invest in a network of community homes that would be both
cheaper and more
effective for patients.
But until now, mental health leaders and advocates have
feared that if they
pushed this approach, the hospital would close and, given
the Legislature's
consistent failure to adequately fund community mental
health services,
nothing would replace it. State officials also have been
reluctant to risk a
fight with the unions that represent the hospital's 1,150
employees.
As a result of this impasse, the state has spent millions of
dollars
renovating the 121-year-old hospital.
A significant shortage of group homes and other
community-based services has
forced hundreds of patients who could live in
less restrictive surroundings
to remain in the hospital, despite growing
evidence that long-term
institutionalization makes psychiatric patients
sicker. Most patients who
arrive at the hospital psychotic quickly stabilize
with modern medications.
On Friday, Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem,
said the hospital is in
such dire straits, it's in danger of being shut down
by federal authorities.
He warned that the issue could no longer be
avoided.
"The physical condition of our state hospital is merely
a metaphor for the
ramshackle state of our larger mental health system,"
Courtney wrote in a
letter to fellow senators last week. "We must address
this crisis, and we
must do so before we adjourn the next legislative
session."
Experts agree. "It's astounding that Oregon is operating
such a massively
large institution in the 21st century, and unthinkable that
they are adding
more wards," said Robert Bernstein, executive director of the
Washington,
D.C.-based David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, a
leading advocacy
group for people with mental disabilities.
"It runs counter to all that we know about people with
mental illnesses, the
treatments that really work and the ability of people
to recover," Bernstein
said.
Many states have shuttered or dramatically reduced the
size of their mental
hospitals, responding to federal policies that reward
creation of
community-based centers to treat the acutely
ill.
State officials acknowledge that if they invested the
Oregon State
Hospital's $90 million annual budget into such projects, the
state would
receive a matching $90 million from the federal Medicaid program,
allowing
the state to help tens of thousands of Oregonians who now go
untreated.
The hospital is the most expensive way to treat people with
mental
illnesses, costing taxpayers an average of $11,000 per patient per
month.
In September, the hospital housed at least 130 patients who had been
cleared
to live in group homes or assisted living centers, which cost between
$1,000
and $5,000 a month. Such patients are routinely held for an average
six
months after state hospital doctors approve them for release, hospital
data
show. Some wait more than a year.
Top state officials insist that Oregon's mental health
system is on the
verge of reform.
A 21-member task force, appointed a year ago by Gov. Ted
Kulongoski,
recently recommended examining the possibility of building a
single
forensics mental health facility for patients who can't be treated in
the
community.
In addition, state mental health leaders are working to
create 80 community
beds for forensics patients who are able to live outside
the hospital.
However, even the governor's own task force questions whether
its
recommendations will be followed.
Bob Nikkel, who heads the Department of Human Services'
mental health and
addictions office, promised the task force updates on
progress. "It is my
intent to make things happen to the degree I have the
ability," he said.
Advocates and lawmakers are disappointed that the task
force failed to
recommend shutting down the hospital.
They blame a lack of political will: To close the
hospital now would be an
indictment of state officials who, they say, have
long recognized the need
for change but will not risk upsetting the status
quo.
State Sen. Avel Gordly, D-Portland, said the state needs
to salvage the
lives of state hospital patients rather than the careers of
bureaucrats.
"It can't go on," she said. "Everything that happens
there happens in our
name -- and let's be real clear, what happens there is
shameful."
Any attempt to do so will run into political reality: Hospital
workers have
much more clout than those they treat.
"There are a lot of jobs at stake," said Bob Joondeph,
director of the
Oregon Advocacy Center. "Why take on a group of public
employee unions in
something in which you're going to have to invest a whole
lot more money
upfront for a population that, frankly, the public's primary
concern is
their safety from these folks rather than the quality of their
care?"
"Cuckoo's Nest" revisited
Thirty years ago, the Oregon State Hospital molded the
nation's image of
institutionalization when it became the setting for the
movie "One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest."
A look behind hospital walls shows that many of the
conditions depicted in
the film still exist.
The J Building, named for its shape, borders a blocklong
stretch of Center
Street. Except for two disjointed wards at either end, much
of the building
is uninhabitable.
On one empty ward, lead paint curls from the walls.
Asbestos frost floats in
the air. On a recent day, a dead rat lay rotting in
an oversized trap on the
day-room floor.
One ward over, where patients live, conditions aren't
much better. Aging
pipes emit cloudy water. Strange smells float from vents.
Asbestos floor
tiles, when chipped, are treated as hazardous material. Raw
sewage
occasionally leaks through the ceilings of patient
rooms.
The hospital, built in 1883, is one of the oldest, most
dilapidated state
mental institutions in the United States. In fact, a 1988
report urged
lawmakers to demolish the J Building because of health and
safety dangers.
But two years ago, after another 14 years of decay, state
officials did the
opposite, pouring nearly $1 million into a corner of the
crumbling structure
to make room for more patients. Another ward was added
last month.
"When it comes to opening new wards, this is the kind of space we
have
left," said Maynard Hammer, a deputy superintendent, as he stood last
summer
in a vacant corridor inside the J Building, kicking chunks of plaster
that
had dropped from above. "We're not talking about what's best for
patients.
We're only talking about having a place to put
them."
The J Building isn't the hospital's only structural
liability. The 1988
report also warned that the outside walls of the newest
building on the
148-acre campus, the five-story 50 Building erected in the
1950s, were at
risk of crumbling.
The top floor of the 50 Building, which houses locked
forensics wards, was
vacant for years because faulty plumbing could not
deliver water high
enough. A $4 million renovation was completed in the 1990s
to secure the
walls and fix the plumbing, but doors throughout the structure,
including
those on elevators, often refuse to open and
close.
A year ago, a group of patients was so desperate to
document living
conditions that they sneaked a disposable camera into the
hospital. Their
pictures showed steel beds crammed into dirty, crowded rooms,
filthy
toilets, torn furniture, broken sinks, and portable bathrooms in the
outdoor
yard overflowing with urine and feces.
More than 100 patients in the 50 Building asked for a
state investigation.
A 2003 report by the Oregon Health Services Health Care
Licensure and
Certification Section stated that the hospital had broken
several state
rules. Each of the building's seven wards exceeded capacity by
two to 12
patients. Ward 50 I, which ideally would hold no more than 30
patients, held
43.
Toll of thin staffing
Administrators estimate that the hospital is 30 percent
to 40 percent
understaffed. It houses 760 patients and has 1,150 staff
members -- one of
the lowest patient-to-staff ratios in the nation, Courtney
said. A
comparable facility in Washington state employs 1,900 staff for
roughly the
same number of patients.
Seven physician and 40 to 50 nurse positions stand
vacant. Openings for more
than 40 psychiatric aides -- employees who do the
bulk of direct care -- go
unfilled because many qualified professionals are
unwilling to accept low
salaries and what Courtney called "awful working
conditions."
State records show the hospital relies on overtime, both
mandated and
voluntary, to fill shifts.
According to a recent audit by the Department of
Administrative Services,
the hospital could save more than $1 million every
two years if
administrators filled staff vacancies instead of habitually
using overtime.
Records examined by The Oregonian reveal the dangers of thin
staffing. Two
years ago, hospital administrators sent a memo "reminding
people that it was
not OK to sleep on the job," state records
show.
However, the state documented four subsequent cases in
which employees fell
asleep when they were supposed to be watching dangerous
or suicidal
patients.
An examination of state documents further shows that
patients were beaten,
kicked, humiliated and tormented by staff in more than
50 substantiated
incidents of abuse within the past 31/2
years.
In case after case, staff demeaned patients, calling
them names, such as
"retarded" and "zombies." Some patients sat in dirty
diapers for hours
because workers were too busy to change
them.
"Honestly, the care we provide is of low quality," said
Jon Sears, a mental
health specialist who gives group and individual therapy
at the hospital. "I
say that with reservation because we have so many people
who are trying so
hard. But with so many things against us . . . we're in a
situation where
all we do is triage, over and over."
"They're warehousing us"
Psychiatric research has long shown that people with
mental illnesses can
recover -- a notion unfathomed when the country's first
"insane asylums"
were erected in the 1800s.
Today, mental health experts widely accept research that
shows that, with
supports such as medication, housing and meaningful human
interaction, most
people, even those with serious mental illnesses, can lead
productive lives
outside of institutions.
In fact, long-term isolation from family and community
can slow, even
thwart, their recovery.
"What's happening in Oregon is a throwback to a time in
which patients were
treated in a way we no longer believe is appropriate,"
said Dr. Paul Fink,
professor of psychiatry at Temple University School of
Medicine and past
president of the American Psychiatric
Association.
Patients at the hospital put it more
bluntly.
"They're warehousing us," said Richard I. Laing, a
64-year-old patient who
has been hospitalized since 2002. "We get here and
there's no treatment.
There's no interaction. Just a bunch of people sitting
in a room getting on
each other's nerves."
Exhausted ward staff often must break up fistfights on
the tense, cramped
wards. Injuries against staff are up nearly 40 percent
this year, to 200
incidents, Sears said. Patients often go months without
seeing
psychiatrists, languishing instead of moving forward with
therapy.
Some patients arrive at the hospital under civil
commitment, meaning a judge
has determined they are so ill they are either a
danger to themselves or
others, or they are unable to survive on their own.
Others are forensics
patients under the jurisdiction of the Oregon
Psychiatric Security Review
Board, which monitors people who plead guilty,
except for insanity, to
crimes that range from misdemeanors to murder. Only a
very small number have
committed heinous crimes. Most, say their therapists,
are accused of
offenses that never would have occurred had the patient had
medications and
services in the community.
In December 2000, the federally funded Oregon Advocacy
Center, which
monitors rights for people with disabilities, filed a
class-action lawsuit
against DHS and the hospital, alleging that the agency
failed to provide
adequate community-based mental health services, resulting
in "unnecessary
segregation" of state hospital patients.
Earlier this year, the state agreed to settle the suit
brought on behalf of
more than 100 patients who had been held in the hospital
for months and
years longer than necessary. Under the settlement, the state
must create 75
community-based mental-health slots by next summer and spend
$1.5 million
for other outside services for hard-to-place
patients.
But the problem is far from solved.
The settlement, although a major victory for patients
under civil
commitment, did not affect forensics patients, who are similarly
stranded in
the hospital.
According to records examined by The Oregonian, 86
forensics patients last
month were deemed ready for discharge by doctors but
couldn't leave the
hospital because of a lack of alternatives outside. The
psychiatric security
board, which gives final approval to discharges, won't
grant them until beds
are available in the community. And those beds don't
yet exist.
This year, the board is expected to take on 140 new cases, more
than double
the number four years ago.
Most forensics patients are not inherently dangerous and
can live safely and
productively if given proper community support. While
some will always need
treatment in a secure setting, they represent only a
fraction of the total
state hospital population, said Joondeph, of the Oregon
Advocacy Center,
which successfully fought to close Dammasch State Hospital,
another
psychiatric institution, in the mid-1990s.
He said the state would benefit by creating small,
acute-care facilities
that serve people with special mental health needs. If
kept smaller than 16
beds, such facilities would be eligible for the Medicaid
match, effectively
doubling the state's investment in mental health
care.
The Oregon State Hospital is funded completely by
general state funds. A
1965 congressional act excluded nearly all payments to
state psychiatric
hospitals from Medicaid because the federal government did
not want to take
over what, historically, had been a state responsibility.
Congress also
wanted to provide an incentive for states to build systems of
community
mental health centers to replace psychiatric
hospitals.
"The hospital shouldn't exist," Joondeph said. "The
science of mental health
treatment has advanced so much that we're operating
under a very old model
that's becoming harder and harder to
justify."
http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041023
/NEWS/410230341/1001
State Hospital strict on preventing abuse
Governor receives
records showing incidents decreased
ALAN
GUSTAFSON
Statesman Journal
October 23, 2004
Since 1996, state
investigators have substantiated one case of sexual abuse
of a young patient
by a staff member in Oregon State Hospital's treatment
program for mentally
ill children, according to records released Friday.
The recent case involved
a female staff member who wrote sexually explicit
letters to a patient. She
was fired in mid-August, records show.
The hospital records were released
with a review panel's preliminary report
to Gov. Ted
Kulongoski.
Together, they support mental health officials'
assertions that the Salem
psychiatric center has taken significant steps to
prevent sexual abuse of
young patients since a rash of cases occurred in the
early and mid-1990s.
"Since the early 1990s, OSH has continuously
strengthened its structured
approach to the issue of abuse," reads the
panel's report.
According to the eight-member panel, gradual
improvements at the hospital
have produced "a coherent plan"
to:
Identify potentially abusive
situations.
Develop an environment where abuse is not tolerated in
any form.
Provide a robust reporting mechanism for allegations of
abuse.
Implement timely consequences to individuals found
involved in abusive
activities.
Respond to the needs of abuse victims with
protective services and
counseling.
Hospital records released Friday included a hospitalwide
tally of abuse
allegations investigated since 1992.
In all, 127 abuse allegations -- counting reports of
physical, sexual and
verbal abuse as well as neglect -- were made in the
children's program
between 1992 and 2004, records show.
Of those, 29 were substantiated: 11 physical abuse; nine
neglect; five
sexual abuse; and four verbal abuse.
Fifteen allegations of sexual abuse were investigated in
the children's
program from 1992-2004. Of the five confirmed cases, four
occurred in 1995
and one occurred in 2004.
Last month, Kulongoski, in response to news reports
about sexual abuse cases
that occurred 10 to 15 years ago in the children's
program, called for a
review of hospital policies used to identify, report
and respond to
allegations of patient
abuse.
The governor asked for a report back from the Department
of Human Services
within 30 days.
Kulongoski has asked his senior advisor, Stephen
Schneider, to provide a
report to him by Dec. 3, detailing the panel's
conclusions and any
recommendations.
"One of my Oregon principles is that Oregonians must be
safe in their homes,
communities and in state institutions," Kulongoski said
Friday. "We must
ensure that the state is providing the best possible care to
Oregonians with
mental illness being served at the state
hospital."
agustafs@StatesmanJournal.com or
(503) 399-6709~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Betraying a Fragile Trust, Expose' of abuse in child
services, mental health agencies in Oregon and related articles
Insane Rules Enforced against children,
adults; READ the policies of trained demons and vultures terrorizing
children, vulnerable people for fun and profit - STOP IT NOW !!!!