Dark side of Bain success
****trigger warnings: bullying, abuse/s (child, physical, sexual, mental-emotional), violence
Dark side of a Bain success
A for-profit health company bought by Bain -- that Romney profits from -- has exploded in size and tales of neglect
BY ART LEVINE
It seemed a world away from the executive suites of Bain Capital when Dana Blum, a recent widow living in Portland, Ore., made the fateful decision to send her son Brendan to Youth Care, a residential program for troubled teens located in the suburbs of Salt Lake City.
Brendan, a 14-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome, had been extremely aggressive for years; he was even arrested a few times after attacking members of his family. Local therapists hadn’t helped, and six months after her husband died, Dana was frantically casting about for solutions. A consultation with UCLA’s neuropsychiatric unit convinced her that Youth Care's therapeutic and educational program would finally make a difference.
Four months into his stay there, Brendan had earned a reputation as a temper-prone student who tried to shirk his obligations. So on the afternoon of June 27, when he complained to medical staff that he felt very sick, as if something were “crawling around” in his stomach, his concerns were dismissed. After 11 p.m., he woke up, complaining of stomach pain, and defecated in his pants. The on-duty monitors took him to the Purple Room, a makeshift isolation room used to segregate misbehaving students. There, he suffered a long night of agony, howling in pain and repeatedly vomiting and soiling himself. According to court transcripts and police reports, the two poorly paid monitors on duty did little more than offer him water, Sprite and Pepto-Bismol. They never telephoned the on-call nurse and waited until nearly 2 a.m. to contact the on-call supervisor, only to leave a voicemail. There was little else they felt they could do - Youth Care’s protocol on emergency services meant they were too low on the totem pole to call 911 themselves.
“They didn’t trust our judgment in emergency situations,” explains Josh Randall, a former Youth Care residential monitor, who wasn’t on duty that night. “If you’re working for $9.50 an hour on the graveyard shift, you don’t want to buck the system.” At any rate, the monitors had little expertise in how to respond - it was an entry-level job requiring only a GED, plus a CPR and safety course overseen by Youth Care itself.
When the morning staff arrived at 7 a.m., they discovered Brendan facedown on the floor of the Purple Room, his body already stiff with rigor mortis. The state’s chief medical examiner later determined that Blum had died of a twisted-bowel infarction, which requires emergency surgical intervention.
trigger warnings for physical/sexual/emotional-psychological abuse/s, particularly of people with disabilities.
continued at salon/source
Not only can I not take it anymore with Romney's feigned cluelessness, I am greatly frightened by Ms. Romney's expressed desire to be the next Nancy Reagan and work with "troubled teens". I am not looking to debate anyone's positive experiences in any treatment facility, including potentially those mentioned here. The reality is, however, too many people who have left these programs suffer from PTSD decades later. There is no reason for a person to die while in therapeutic treatment. This is not acceptable. Romney has the power to intervene with regard to the Bain-controlled programs, but maybe that would cost too much money.
disclosure: while i did not participate in the making of this story, i am the chair of the board dedicated to stopping such abuses. more than one member of this organization (cafety) did assist with research/interviews.
Levine additionally revised this article for HuffPo with additional information.
mods, please be gentle as this is my first attempt at even trying to post...
Dark side of a Bain success
A for-profit health company bought by Bain -- that Romney profits from -- has exploded in size and tales of neglect
BY ART LEVINE
It seemed a world away from the executive suites of Bain Capital when Dana Blum, a recent widow living in Portland, Ore., made the fateful decision to send her son Brendan to Youth Care, a residential program for troubled teens located in the suburbs of Salt Lake City.
Brendan, a 14-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome, had been extremely aggressive for years; he was even arrested a few times after attacking members of his family. Local therapists hadn’t helped, and six months after her husband died, Dana was frantically casting about for solutions. A consultation with UCLA’s neuropsychiatric unit convinced her that Youth Care's therapeutic and educational program would finally make a difference.
Four months into his stay there, Brendan had earned a reputation as a temper-prone student who tried to shirk his obligations. So on the afternoon of June 27, when he complained to medical staff that he felt very sick, as if something were “crawling around” in his stomach, his concerns were dismissed. After 11 p.m., he woke up, complaining of stomach pain, and defecated in his pants. The on-duty monitors took him to the Purple Room, a makeshift isolation room used to segregate misbehaving students. There, he suffered a long night of agony, howling in pain and repeatedly vomiting and soiling himself. According to court transcripts and police reports, the two poorly paid monitors on duty did little more than offer him water, Sprite and Pepto-Bismol. They never telephoned the on-call nurse and waited until nearly 2 a.m. to contact the on-call supervisor, only to leave a voicemail. There was little else they felt they could do - Youth Care’s protocol on emergency services meant they were too low on the totem pole to call 911 themselves.
“They didn’t trust our judgment in emergency situations,” explains Josh Randall, a former Youth Care residential monitor, who wasn’t on duty that night. “If you’re working for $9.50 an hour on the graveyard shift, you don’t want to buck the system.” At any rate, the monitors had little expertise in how to respond - it was an entry-level job requiring only a GED, plus a CPR and safety course overseen by Youth Care itself.
When the morning staff arrived at 7 a.m., they discovered Brendan facedown on the floor of the Purple Room, his body already stiff with rigor mortis. The state’s chief medical examiner later determined that Blum had died of a twisted-bowel infarction, which requires emergency surgical intervention.
trigger warnings for physical/sexual/emotional-psychological abuse/s, particularly of people with disabilities.
continued at salon/source
Not only can I not take it anymore with Romney's feigned cluelessness, I am greatly frightened by Ms. Romney's expressed desire to be the next Nancy Reagan and work with "troubled teens". I am not looking to debate anyone's positive experiences in any treatment facility, including potentially those mentioned here. The reality is, however, too many people who have left these programs suffer from PTSD decades later. There is no reason for a person to die while in therapeutic treatment. This is not acceptable. Romney has the power to intervene with regard to the Bain-controlled programs, but maybe that would cost too much money.
disclosure: while i did not participate in the making of this story, i am the chair of the board dedicated to stopping such abuses. more than one member of this organization (cafety) did assist with research/interviews.
Levine additionally revised this article for HuffPo with additional information.
mods, please be gentle as this is my first attempt at even trying to post...