The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "State Department of Mental Retardation" ...
-
Caring for Society's Most Vulnerable
The Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in northern St. Louis County houses nearly 400 mentally retarded residents. This series investigates accusations of staff abuse and neglect, along with one case surrounding the death of one resident. Because of the series, the state reopened investigations of abuse and neglect at Bellefontaine. Forty-seven workers were suspended and six were fired.
Tags: Bellefontaine Habilitation Center; Missouri Department of Mental Health; abuse; neglect
-
Law and Disorder: How Oklahoma's Courts Cope with the Mentally Disabled.
The World details the issue of the treatment of those who mentally challenged defendents who are declared incompetent to stand trial by the court. This report describes as to how these defedents are often released back into the community where they only end up committing new offenses, often sex crimes involving children.Furthermore, "companies paid by the state to supervise the mentally retarded have failed to do their jobs, resulting in criminal charges being brought against their clients. There have also been cases where judges have ordered dangerous incompetent defendents to be placed in nuring rooms.
Tags: legilature; Jeff Dean Marks; Department of Mental Health
-
Fatal Errors, Secret Deaths
"Despite a history of official insistence that untimely deaths are virtually nonexistent in Connecticut's 774 groups homes for the mentally retarded, a Courant investigation found evidence of neglect, staff error or other questionable circumstances in one out of every 10 deaths over the past decade."
Tags: group homes; mentally retarded; neglect; State Department of Mental Retardation; Connecticut
-
Fatal Errors, Secret Deaths
The Hartford Courant investigates covered-up deaths resulting from neglect and staff errors in Connecticut's group homes for mentally retarded. Patients often fell victim to suffocation, drowning, choking, burns and potentially treatable infections. Other findings include that the state secretive system conceals suspicious deaths and their causes not only from the general public, but even from next of kin; that the death rate in group homes has tripled from 1990 to 2000; and that the State Department of Mental Retardation is ineffective in investigating and taking actions against faulty group home operators. The group home system costs Connecticut taxpayers $260 million a year, the Courant reports.
Tags: mental health; FOI requests; development disabilities; state government; health care
-
Trust Betrayed
The Herald-Tribune reports on abuse and rip-offs in group homes for disabled. The series follows the coverage an accident in which a fire killed two developmentally disabled men. The investigation finds that state inspectors have "ignored repeated complaints" that the residents have been mistreated, sexually assaulted and deprived of their money and belongings. The stories shed light on how Vicky and Bob Swan, a family with history of fraud and bad debts, have received more than $1 million from the state to operate group homes. The Swans hired "felons, misfits and drug addicts to care for men and women who needed help eating, bathing and getting dressed," the newspaper reports. The follow-up stores examine the poor decision-making by state regulators and the devastating impact of state budget cuts on proposed fixes for the system.
Tags: group homes; Florida Department of Children and Families; mental retardation; Down syndrome; autism; mental health; fire
-
Reggie sought home, but found death
The Des Moines Register investigates the tragic death of Reggie Kelsey, an ex-foster-care teenager who lost the state support services as soon as he turned 18. Kelsey had problems adjusting to independence, and the Iowa Department of Human Services failed to address his specific needs, the story reveals. The article summarizes the pitfalls of the foster-care system in Iowa, and sheds light on the state intention to put in use additional money to help the transition of 'aged-out' children.
Tags: homelessness; mental health; social workers; foster care; shelters; children; teenagers; mentally retarded; youth; juvenile offenders; psychology
-
Trouble in mind
The Houston Press reports that "as many as 17 percent of those (140,000) inmates are either mentally ill or mentally retarded, yet the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has fewer than 4,600 beds designated for the mentally impaired... the number of state-funded nonprison beds for the mentally challenged has dropped from 8,000 to fewer than 5,500. In essence, the state of Texas is warehousing its mental patients in its prison system..."
-
No title (id: 10634)
The Birmingham Post-Herald takes a look at the special education system in Alabama and finds that it often fails to serve the needs of the students; the series finds that more students in Alabama are labelled mentally retarded than in any other state and the state leads the nation in the number of black children labelled mentally retarded. The series also investigates other problems with the system and the various solutions that are being applied, Nov. 12 - 19, Nov. 22 - Dec. 31, 1994.
-
series
This seven-month series examines the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. Vogler writes that this department, the state's largest government agency, split services into two agencies: a new Department of Mental Retardation to administer services to the mentally ill and the Department of Mental Retardation to supervise programs for the retarded. Throughout his investigation Vogler found instances of human rights violations, harassment of parents and staff and fabricated patient records, among other things.
Tags: mental health; Dept. of Mental Health; Massachusetts; health care
-
Florida: State of Neglect
"Florida: State of Neglect: is a seven-part investigation of Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, the nation's largest social service agency." WPLG-TV (Miami) "uncovered a department that, across the board, was abusing and neglecting those it is entrusted to protect: abused children, the retarded and the elderly." The station "exposed a state wide cover-up which included state workers being ordered to lie about abuse at the hands of the state."