There’s a new story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about Milwaukee’s troubled Mental Health Complex, entitled, Assault suspect at mental facility competent for trial, judge says. It’s the sub-heading that tells how poorly Behavioral Health Division administrator and others have responded to allegations of assault, neglect, and starvation of patients: “Meanwhile, investigators of the troubled Mental Health Complex have expressed difficulty getting records.”
Meg Kissinger and Steve Schultze of the JS report that “a patient who has cycled between the courts and the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex, where he was allowed to roam free and hurt other patients, was found competent Tuesday by a judge to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting a fellow patient.”
For all the prior reporting of the Journal Sentinel, on assaults, abuses, neglect, and immoral policies imposed on mental patients confined to the MHC, one reads that
Meanwhile, investigators working on two separate reviews of the complex – including an audit ordered by the County Board – said Tuesday they have had trouble getting key records from the Behavioral Health Division, which oversees the complex….
County Auditor Jerome Heer said county lawyers, on behalf of the division, challenged Heer’s authority to review patient records, something that had not happened during previous audits.
“It did cause us some initial concern,” Heer said. “It was obviously something we had to deal with. It was just some additional work we needed to do to get the access.”
Investigators from Disability Rights Wisconsin, the agency designated by the state as patient ombudsman, are also reviewing the records and said they had been frustrated with the failure by the division to provide the records they had requested.
Disability Rights has authority under state law to investigate reports of patient abuse, including the right to review normally confidential patient care records. Federal law otherwise imposes strict limitations on disclosure of patient records unless a particular patient authorizes the release.
Barbara Beckert, director of the agency’s Milwaukee office, said the requested records were key to her agency’s investigation. Though she had previously said the group’s final report would likely be released in September, she said Tuesday that was now in doubt because of stalling by the county.
Milwaukee County officials use their legal authority over the public when it suits them, but also shirk their legal responsibilities to that public through delays and obstruction when they would rather hide embarrassing information.
This issue will only go away when those responsible have been disciplined or removed, and those who come after assure more humane treatment.
I’ve posted about Chianelli’s policy, and the tragedy that is conduct at the MHC, before. See, A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update: A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update 2, Update 3, Update 4, Update 5, Update 6, Update 7, Update 8, Update 9, Update 10, Update 11, Update 12, Update 13, Update 14, Update 15, and Update 16.