Dr. John Chianelli’s leadership of Milwaukee County’s Behavioral Health Division and its Mental health Complex has been one of failure. He’s advocated and defended immoral policies, policies that have led to assault, neglect, and death. He’s unworthy of a public (or private) position, and should have been fired months ago.
In yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the editorial board called for the firing of John Chianelli and those others responsible for abuse, neglect, and dishonesty (for some have lied about their involvement). It’s the right position.
In Those at the center of Mental Health Complex mismanagement must go, the paper sets out the clear and convincing case against Chianelli and his ilk:
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker should fire John Chianelli immediately as part of the effort to eradicate problems at the county’s Mental Health Complex.
But Walker should not stop there. He should insist that any Mental Health Complex employees who knowingly falsified documents or otherwise failed to do their jobs be shown the door. Their failures allowed a known predator, Omowale Atkins, to viciously sexually assault patients and impregnate one of them.
Even though the Journal Sentinel Watchdog team has shown a pattern of neglect and mismanagement at the complex, it appears very little discipline has been meted out. Heads need to roll, and that should begin with Chianelli, administrator of the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division. He is in charge of the Mental Health Complex.
Articles by Journal Sentinel reporters Meg Kissinger and Steve Schultze detailed a mind-boggling lack of accountability and the tragic results of that ineptitude. As a result, we have very little confidence that the complex can keep safe some of the county’s most vulnerable people.
Walker and other county officials have argued that Milwaukee County treats more than 20,000 people with mental illness every year and that most of these patients receive good care. They are right. They also are missing the point.
Atkins had a lengthy history of violence and sexual assault; he had been accused of assaulting patients and physically assaulting staff. And though he was supposed to be supervised, he was allowed to roam about Ward 43-D and have sex with patients….
It wasn’t until federal inspectors cited the facility for the most serious violations that the county put in place new training for staff along with increased surveillance to help monitor and ensure safety….
Atkins is being held at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison. If he is sent back to the Milwaukee County facility, he must be isolated from other patients. The complex also should establish single-gender wards to protect women from assault….
The county cannot pinch pennies when it comes to the safety of vulnerable patients. [County Executive] Walker must take bold steps to clean up the mess at the complex. If a change in culture is required, then change the culture. Patients and staff must be kept safe, and everyone who enters the complex for treatment must be properly treated. The county’s most vulnerable must be protected.
The housecleaning should begin with firing Chianelli and any other staff member who failed the patients.
In May, following revelation of Chianelli’s justification of coed wards as a supposed trade between male-on-male patient violence for male-on-female sexual assault, I felt that his firing was well-justified. For that policy and its defense alone, Chianelli showed himself to be unfit to serve, unworthy of a public post in a decent society. His immoral utilitarianism led to abuse, suffering, and sexual assault.
Since then, Wisconsin has seen still more evidence of his failed leadership — the actual suffering of vulnerable mental patients — in news account after news account.
Yet Chianelli still remains in office.
The politicians and bureaucrats who allow Chianelli, and his kind, to remain in office are blameworthy for each day he continues to serve.
This issue will only go away when those responsible have been disciplined or removed, and those who come after assure more humane treatment.
Not a moment sooner.
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, and Update 15