Group homes and treatment centers: People die, but it is about the money so none care

The state of Denmark has closed down the group home HabitusHuset, which was a group home for adults challenged with issues like autism etc.

Why? Because a woman was found damaged so much from injuries from acid all over skin beside her hands and feet that she later died after a month in a hospital. None seem to know where the acid came from and it was administered on her. She was not granted with the ability to speak which was the main cause for her placement at the facility. The facility should according to their marketing department have 24/7 watch. Regardless of what the fine brochures stated, she was found early in the morning and rushed to the hospital. None has admitted why they failed to check in on her during the night.

A criminal investigation has been launched but it will properly be shut down now where the woman has died and the group home has been closed.

The owners of this facility have group homes all over Denmark. Whether they will remain open or they will use the standard excuse in Danish business that it was a lone crazy employee who did something wrong and the contract has been terminated and then everything will be fine remains to be seen.

Anyhow there have been other cases with other group homes for both adults and children which has been hit by scandals. Some have been closed. Others got off with a slight change of names and then went on as they did before.

As a country Denmark can do better but the main issues are:

1. The state is not in charge. It is the local authorities and case workers who find group homes and foster families. That leaves too much room for friendly exchange of money and patients which is not always the best treatment option for the patients.
   
2. The local case workers want to be in charge. If hospitals run by other parts of the state administration has different diagnoses, they often are set aside and especially children are warehoused in group homes where they can live until they are 18 and only then they can go back to the hospitals which often has the perfect treatment plan for them. However, many young adults might have lost their social network after years of basic isolation in group homes and ends up in the streets too often.
   
3. The group homes and foster families often are not treatment. They are warehousing. Children with reading difficulties which could have been tested in hours never get tested and are guided towards schooling for which they are no match and then they suffer defeat in the education system and end up as unskilled workers who has to compete against underpaid labor from abroad unless they fail entirely and have to live of welfare.

And then there are runaways and the deaths.

Denmark is not alone. I was just reading about two recent deaths in the United States. Two teenagers Zy’Kiria Bell and Arianna Duenez died in two different facilities in two different states. As for Miss Bell it is in Florida and they often do not invest much in resolving the reasons for the death. Some might remember the boot camp cover-up and the Dozier school with all the buried bodies.

As for Miss Duenez the case look very much like the case from Denmark. Staff was supposed to check up on her. She was sick and vomitting. When they found her, she was cold and dead for many hours. Once again a case where marketing of the facility state that they monitor their patients. In reality they do not. It makes me sad to realize that it is a worldwide problem. People who runs treatment facilities and group homes lives of the taxpayers money and they bring nothing to the table.

Why can we not change it?

Sources:

• Beboer døde: Nu lukker bosted (Ekstra-Bladet – news in Danish language)
• Zy’Kiria Bell Death at Lake Academy, and the History Behind It (Info Toast)
• Girl who died in ‘troubled teen’ facility was dead for up to 10 hours before staff realized (Fox 13 News)