Effort to better protect psychiatric patients in Texas - KWES NewsWest 9 / Midland, Odessa, Big Spring, TX: newswest9.com |
Member Center:
Texas - The Disability Rights of Texas released a report indicating
state officials have missed red flags that would have better protected
several mental hospital patients across the state and instead, have
placed them at risk for neglect and abuse.
After two decades of this oversight, Disability Rights is now hoping changes will be made to legislation and polices.
One
allegation claims the Department of State Health Services, which
oversees the state's 10 psychiatric hospitals, allegedly hired and then
failed to adequately supervise five physicians with histories of
sexually inappropriate behavior.
Another claim says the agency allegedly dismissed numerous reports of child sexual abuse levied against a former psychiatrist and failed to act even when multiple allegations began coming in.
State Health Services spokeswoman
Carrie Williams says the report doesn't seem current and does not
acknowledge fixes that have been made to the system over the past year.
The agency has reportedly made more than a dozen changes to improve patient safety; such as installing more than 500 surveillance cameras at 9 of the 10 state hospitals.
They are also working closely with Family and Protective Services to start tracking abuse and neglect to identify patterns.
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