New York Counties Pull Teens & Young Adults from PA Center
After deaths, NY residents pulled from Pa. center (AP)
MINEOLA, N.Y. — Two New York counties are pulling their residents from a Pennsylvania center for disabled teens and young adults after two clients died there in 10 months.
Officials in Nassau and Suffolk counties had at least 11 residents at Woods Services in Langhorne, Pa. They say they acted after the July death of 20-year-old Bryan Nevins of Oceanside, N.Y.
Nevins has severe autism and died after being left in an overheated van for hours. The home says it's cooperating with investigators.
Another Long Island resident died in October after he walked away from the home and fell from an overpass into traffic.
A counselor at Woods Services was also charged this month with selling cocaine out of the company's parking lot.
Information from: Newsday, http://www.newsday.com
Thank you for your attention!
Posted by: Tony | January 04, 2011 at 09:03 PM
Benedetta- my son just turned 18... he is now attending public school (which combines the good, the bad and the ugly) and is in an IRA operated by Eden II (which was express-tracked in large part due to the whole imbroglio we had... but that's another story). . . he's doing better, but we'll be unwrangling the damage for a while. For example, he certainly learned that aggressing can be very effective... also, he's been "treated" with a variety of psychotropics and anti-seizure meds - which are hell to wean off, especially in combo with aggressive behaviour.
Bottom line: keep people in their home geo-locale, maintain supports, promote outside oversight by advocates.
Posted by: VMGillen | August 31, 2010 at 08:51 AM
VMGillen:
Sorry I do not mean to be nosey but how is your son now? What is going on with him now? Are you still home schooling?
Posted by: Benedetta | August 27, 2010 at 09:55 PM
@Steve: you say you are desperate to find a cure for your daughter. Have you had her checked for toxic metals? True autism is not curable, but so much of what we're seeing these days is not autism -- it's metals poisoning. I say this because:
The childhood behavioral differences between spectrumites like myself (in my 40s) compared to children growing up now are huge. None of the spectrumites I know had problems with aggression, but it seems to be a hallmark of 'autism' today.
I do know people who've had had a lot of success with chelation. I'm not endorsing it, just passing on what has worked for people I know. And it certainly can't hurt to know what she's carrying around in her body.
I wish you and your daughter the best.
Posted by: Karen Eliot | August 26, 2010 at 08:23 PM
A post-script: another big, big problem, though not as lethal, is the sudden discovery of ASD as an ATM for agencies and service providors:lots of big bucks to be made + dearth of services = groups with no experience offering ?services? for a population they don't understand. It is very easy to agree to an IEP mandate for, say, 45 min 1:1 speech therapy. But that service is not generic - and the IEP very rarely gets into specifics.
Posted by: VMGillen | August 26, 2010 at 02:36 PM
My son was in this place about four years ago... and we are New Yorkers. I pulled him out to home school, ultimately, when the various injuries culminated in 2d degree burns. Elopements were frequent.
-incidents repeatedly reported to Pennsylvania, however all investigations resulted in "unfounded." NY State would not take report
-there are no residential school placements available to New York City - and the Dept of Ed funds a very limited number of trips for parents/guardians to visit. Opportunities for oversight by an advocate are therefor limited.
-Woods looks like a country club. Appearances are deceiving, expecially to us city folks. And, usually, by the time a residential placement is secured parents are hoping for the best...and easily deceived.
-a real problem existed in the "corporate" structure; direct care staff are almost exclusively of the non-caucasian persuasion, while professional/management believes that "those" people are incapable of training.
-out-of-state placements cause an immediate loss of state-provided benefits (medicaid waiver, case management) causing, again, loss of critical oversight by advocates.
IMO out-of-state placements must be stopped -horrible to say, but it's akin to shipping our garbage out of state -'cause it's not worth the cost to deal with it appropriately and responsibly. And it is absolutely -ABSOLUTELY- reprehensible that this continues despite recurring reports.
Posted by: VMGillen | August 26, 2010 at 02:30 PM
I wanted to let readers of this article know that there are several autism groups attempting to win grants from the Pepsi Refresh Project: we are one located in Central PA. We are launching this fall and targeting early diagnosis and adult services first, then expanding to other services with the ultimate goal of comprehensive autism services.
The Pepsi Refresh Project is simple: you go to a website, log in, and vote. The top groups at the end of each month get the money. My autism agency (known as ADERS- Autism Diagnostic Evaluations Resources & Services) is trying to get $25k, please support us by announcing that we need people to vote daily for the rest of August and throughout September! You can read the whole proposal and vote here:
http://www.refresheverything.com/aders
It also helps to make "alliances" with some other groups, so we did that with some autism groups. It helps to log in and vote for them, then leave a vote saying that you're an ADERS supporter (this way the partner returns the favor by voting for us) Here are our partners:
http://www.dogsforautism.com/vote
Posted by: Steve McAnnaney | August 25, 2010 at 10:05 PM
This is why I am desperate to find a cure for my daughter!! there are no homes I'd ever trust and the fact that I'm old to start with.
Posted by: me | August 25, 2010 at 05:54 PM
Not meaning to minimize the seriousness of the drug charges, but why on earth would undercover informants carry out a drug bust in the parking lot of this facility? Doesn't anyone think that put the residents in danger? What if the dealer had become violent? Was there no place else the police could have lured this man into a drug deal? This whole ordeal must be very frightening to the residents there.
Posted by: anonymous | August 25, 2010 at 02:22 PM
We have a natural aversion to elder-abuse in care facilities. We'll see more and more autism-abuse as the children age into group homes and institutions. The difference is that grandma and grandpa have to endure the ordeal for a handful of years before their deaths, but our kids will face five or six DECADES - assuming they live that long.
Feel Autism Yet?
(Wrong Mom to ask, don't you think?)
Posted by: Stagmom | August 25, 2010 at 10:31 AM
The cocaine outfit in the parking lot is a nice touch. Clearly other employees must have know about it. What does anyone expect when we job out the care of society's most vulnerable to the bottom bidder? The work of caretakers isn't valued and their charges aren't valued.
Why is it that we want the epidemic to end?
Posted by: Gatogorra | August 25, 2010 at 10:07 AM