Official says problems addressed at sites for mentally retarded......

     Another article found in one of my local newspapers and thought it was worth passing along. To me this is just a very sad state of affairs that needs to be addressed before more people are injured.
     However, I also believe that because it is not a front headline or a topic of the day for the news media it too will eventually be brushed under the rug.
     "The abuse and neglect that has cast a pall over the Lubbock State School for the mentally retarded resulted from nursing shortages, a poor salary structure and problems with leadership and management at that facility and the central office, the commissioner who overseas the agency said Thursday, April 5, 2007."
     "In invited testimony before the House Human Services Committee, Adelaide Horn said the problems that led to the abuse were adressed immediately after they were confirmed, and well before the U.S. Department of Justice released a scathing report, on the Lubbock facility in December, 2006."
      Are they trying to say that the staff abused the innocent patients at this facility because they were under stress of being under-staffed? Are they trying to say that the staff abused the innocent patients at this facility because of a poor salary structure?
     In other words they felt short changed and believed they deserved more pay for the positions they held? So these wise, caring, understanding nurses who are full of compassion for the patients took their anger out on the patients?? Am I reading this right? Have I missed something along the way?
     Well, now that is one way to handle stress and anger directed at your place of employment. If you are dissatisfied and feel you deserve a raise in salary just abuse everyone around you until you get it. Do I have that right?
     I was always under the impression that when you no longer feel satisfied with a current place of employent, you moved on to another. At least that is how I have always handled these situations. When you become dissatisfied with one place of emplyment, why would you want to take it out on patients, clients or other fellow employees? Maybe the others are still happy where they are, so why should they be miserable too?
     "We have nursing shortages and staffing shortages in this sate," Ms. Horn said, noting that the Justice Department report found that staffing levels at the Lubbock school were below the national average.
      Could it be they need to re-structure what they have?  Could it be that no one paid any attention all these many years and allowed neglect to run rampid throughout the system? Now that it is being brought to the surface and making the news, they have decided that now would be a good time to re-vamp the entire structured system.
     "The Mexia State School fired three employees last week for an inappropriate restraint that led to the death of a fifteen year old boy on January, 2007."
     "A Medicaid re-certification report released last month indicates the San Angelo State School has repeatedly violated federal standards in its care of the mentally retarded. An investigative team that visited the three hundred bed facility found everything from rotting food and broken furniture to improper staff restraints, overmedication and underfeeding."
     In my humble opinion, I do believe that some serious work needs to be done and done now before more innocent people wind up dead. Perhaps they need to hire more qualified people to perform the services that are required. If that is the case, then a matching salary must be offered at the same time. What is that little phrase that has been around for eons?

            "You get what you pay for"

      The sad part in all of this is unfortunately,  the people that need the assistance the most are still being neglected and abused.