* Pro Publica…
Over a 10-year period ending in 2021, the IDHS Office of the Inspector General fielded more than 1,500 allegations of abuse and neglect at Choate.
* Center Square…
The OIG report shows in 2022 there were 84 reports of physical abuse, nine reports of sexual abuse, 39 reports of mental abuse, two reports of financial exploitation, 25 cases of neglect and three deaths.
That’s right around the previous 10-year average of about 150 reports per year.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 10:10 am:
Governors Own, they always do.
The continued patterns (culture) existing, it’s not redeemable.
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 10:28 am:
Eventually, JB will be shamed into dealing with this issue. His office’s response so far
https://capitolfax.com/2023/02/23/question-of-the-day-3537/
has been weak. He needs to do an official top-to-bottom review to get to the root cause. Start with axing Grace Hou IDHS secretary who has stood watch over the facility for decades while years of abuse took place.
- very old soil - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 10:54 am:
Has anyone been criminally charged in the last 10 years?
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 11:05 am:
===Has anyone been criminally charged===
You could, you know, click one of the links for your answer. I can’t anticipate all questions, so be an adult.
- very old soil - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 11:09 am:
My apologies
- H-W - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 11:19 am:
== AFSCME Council 31, the union that represents some Choate employees, said in a statement following the news conference that it welcomes the support of “anyone of good will who wants to work to improve” the facility. ==
So let it be done. Here are the marching orders. It is time to march.
Everyone is on the same page. It is time to clean house. It is time to act.
- Give Me A Break - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 11:30 am:
Hate to keep saying this, but Illinois needs to stop trying to keep these out dated places open.
This is not 1950, no reason to keep this population in these facilities built to house hundreds of people, 95 percent of who could live in the community.
They are nothing more than employment centers for their local areas.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 11:32 am:
AFSCME is saying the right things here. Saying things is the easy part, though.
- NickNombre - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 12:11 pm:
“95 percent of who could live in the community”
I believe Choate is intended to care for the 5% who can’t reasonably live in the community. They are doing a terrible job and should probably be shut down, but the residents will likely need to go to another facility.
- Dr. M - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 12:34 pm:
“95 percent of who could live in the community.”
Spoken like someone who does not have a close relative who is so severely mentally impaired that they cannot simply “live in the “community.”
Institutions are places of last resort. Choate is home to a couple hundred people.
If you think there are at least 200 hundred people in a state with 12.6 million residents who cannot feed, dress, and toilet themselves, who cannot speak, who rock uncontrollably, and who will inflict bodily harm on themselves and others unless monitored 24.7, then you live a sheltered life.
Stay in your lane.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 12:49 pm:
Shut. It. Down.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 12:59 pm:
===Institutions are places of last resort. Choate is home to a couple hundred people.===
And with 150 abuse reports PER YEAR EVERY YEAR (meaning an average of almost one per resident each and every year), keeping folks there seems pretty darned stupid without a totally revamped system.
- Cool Papa Bell - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 1:18 pm:
=right around the previous 10-year average of about 150 reports per year=
With many of those residents being long-term one’s you are looking at people who have been abused over and over again.
And throw in the known culture of coverups it leaves me wondering what the real number of abuse cases is every year.
- Bassman - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 1:31 pm:
Those are reports, that does not mean that abuse actually occurred. Some could be fake reports. The numbers to look at are the # unfounded, # unsubstantiated, and the # substantiated. The last number is the most important.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 1:42 pm:
=== Some could be fake reports===
Perhaps, but considering the deeply ingrained cover-up culture at that facility, it could also be the tip of the iceberg. So, I wouldn’t poke too much at that number if I were you.