Inclusion Daily Express -- Nebraska Lawmakers Consider Proposals On Troubled Institution

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Nebraska Lawmakers Consider Proposals On Troubled Institution
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
March 24, 2008

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA--State Senator Bill Avery said last Thursday how he felt after he read a U.S. Justice Department report on health and safety conditions at Beatrice State Developmental Center.

"Quite frankly, I feel sick," Avery said.

Avery added that he was particularly upset because state officials had promised him last summer that troubles at BSDC would be corrected within months.

Nebraska lawmakers are scrambling to figure out what to do to improve the lives of the 300 people with intellectual disabilities now housed at the institution, and avoid losing nearly $29 million in funding from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The 45-page report by the Department of Justice, which was released last Monday, is the most recent in a series to detail ongoing abuse and neglect at the state-run facility.

It revealed that, during the 13 months ending in October 2007, an average of 12 residents suffered at least minor injuries each day; that one resident was restrained 104 times over a 92-day period; that another was strapped to a four-point restraint for 23 hours and 41 minutes -- with just one ten-minute break; and that many residents were "grossly overmedicated" with psychiatric drugs.

Officials have blamed the problems on a lack of adequate staffing and training.

One of the proposals state lawmakers are considering would move about one-third of BSDC's residents into homes in the community by the end of this year, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Related:
"Beatrice care center rouses lawmakers" (World-Herald)
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10288917
Beatrice State Developmental Center (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/institutions/neb/bsdc.htm

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