Editor, The Spotlight;
Michael Carey, whose son Jonathan was killed by a caregiver at Oswald D. Heck Developmental Center in Schenectady County, and Tom Cavanagh, a victim of childhood domestic abuse, are traveling across New York — Cavanagh is walking most of the way — to call attention to widespread mistreatment of developmentally challenged people in state institutions and group homes, to government’s obligation to protect people with specials needs from harm, and the failure of The Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs to provide such protection.
While my old bones won’t allow me to hike 600 miles across our state, I can at least write letters to the editor in support of the Jonathan Carey Foundations in Delmar, and in support of what Carey and Cavanagh are trying to accomplish.
In a May 30 letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb wrote, “ Approximately 7,500 calls to the Justice Center abuse hotline are made on average every month and approximately 11 deaths are reported on average every day. These statistics are staggering considering the Justice Center has failed to call 911 or notify authorities in order to ensure proper medical attention is received and criminal investigations are pursued when appropriate. It is clear the Justice Center is failing, and thus we are failing to protect people with disabilities, our most vulnerable, from abuse and neglect.”
Because so many nursing homes in our state received poor ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Families for Better Care has given New York (and 10 other states) an F grade on its nursing home report card. Brian Lee, FBC’s director, said, “New York represents what’s terribly wrong with nursing home care and oversight in America.”
Our officials need to do a much better job of providing good care for our most vulnerable citizens. Camera surveillance is one way to accomplish this. Such monitoring would help deter abuse and detect abuses when they occur. Without camera monitoring, fear of reprisals — sometimes violent ones — are realities that often prevent the reporting of abuse and neglect witnessed by conscientious but fearful care providers.
Joel Freedman
Canandaigua
