A New Scandal For Perry: A Mismanaged Mental Health System
By Vince Leibowitz on Mar 25, 2007 in Lubbock State School, Texas Governor ![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
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As if the Texas Youth Commission scandal wasn’t enough for Texas Governor Rick Perry to be faced with this session, now he is faced with an alarming number of deaths in facilities for the mentally retarded and disabled run by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services.
On Friday, state officials revealed that 186 mentally retarded and disabled residents have died in state facilities in the last 18 months.
Of course, the state claims this isn’t unusual for such facilities, but the number seems quite high and is very suspicious given that a justice department report sent to the Governor in December revealed an alarming pattern of abuse and neglect at one facility, the Lubbock State School. There, 17 people have died; the remaining deaths were at 12 other residential care facilities for the mentally retarded.
The DOJ report noted about the LSS that, “a number of these deaths raise concerns regarding the quality of care that LSS residents receive.”
Of course, if that is happening at the Lubbock State School, I strongly suspect that similar conditions exist at other state facilities. Obviously, if the “powers that be” at the TDADS let conditions at the Lubbock facility deteriorate to this point, chances are they’ve failed to provide adequate oversight for other facilities as well.
Of course, as with the Texas Youth Commission scandal, Perry wants everyone to “take a deep breath” and let things simmer down:
Gov. Rick Perry was given the 43-page report addressed in letter form to him last December. He said Friday that people should “take a deep breath” before jumping to conclusions about another scandal brewing in a state rocked for weeks by allegations of sexual abuse at facilities where youthful offenders are incarcerated.
“That report is I think about 18 months old and there have been a substantial amount of reforms that have been put in place and so I think again if we’ll just take a moment, take a deep breath, ask the appropriate questions of what has been done, then a lot of the concerns that that report had will be addressed,” Perry said.
Wait a minute. “Take a deep breath” and ask what has been done? No way! Nothing was done when state officials found out that terrible conditions existed at the Texas Youth Commission, so why would this be any different?
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OH NO MR. BILL! NOT ANOTHER SCANDAL! Why who would expect anacephalic and other children born with BIRTH DEFECTS TO DIE! WHAT A SCANDAL! OH MY! And in a population of how many THOUSANDS did this SCANDAL take place?
You should just wait for Dunnam to come up with his latest point of order. Maybe then you’ll win one.
The rate of death they are reporting coupled with the DOJ report that details horrible conditions are alarming. Your comment shows total insensitivity to these helpless Texas.
Furthermore, it’s yet another example of Governor Perry learning about something and then failing to do anything about it or disclose it for MONTHS AND MONTHS.