State Sen. Jennifer Beck is calling on the state attorney general to investigate the state Division of Developmental Disabilities' oversight of disabled individuals who are placed with caretakers in the community. In a letter to New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram dated Dec. 9, Beck called for a "complete and thorough investigation into the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) by your office."
Beck said there are some 1,200 individuals currently in Community Care Residences (CCRs) and that she has good reason to believe these problems pervade the system and are not unique to a case in which two caregivers of a developmentally disabled woman were arraigned after a woman died from neglect in a state-licensed sponsor home.
Tara O'Leary, a 29-year-old developmentally disabled woman who had been living in a sponsor home run by Debra Sloan, of Bloomsbury, Hunterdon County, for several years weighed just 43 pounds when she died in November 2008.
Sloan, the sponsor responsible for O'Leary's daily care, and Bridget Grimes, of Phillipsburg, O'Leary's habilitation coordinator with the Division of the Developmentally Disabled (DDD), a section of the New Jersey Department of Human Services DHS) tasked with ensuring that O'Leary received appropriate care, were arraigned at the Warren County Courthouse on Dec. 11.
Beck attended the Dec. 11 arraignment in the courtroom of Judge John J. Coyle in Warren County.
"Today's arraignment of Bridget Grimes and Debra Sloan is a call to action for the entire state of New Jersey to make sure that no one else suffers Tara's fate," Beck said. "I do believe that these two women should be held accountable for the role they [allegedly] played in allowing Tara O'Leary to starve to death under the care of a state caseworker and a state-sanctioned sponsor home, and the state must investigate deeper to assure that this is never permitted to happen again."
Full Article and Source:
Beck Faults State Oversight of Caretakers of Disabled
See Also:
Two Indicted for Neglect of Tara O'Leary
5 comments:
It is disgusting that the state permits these things to happen. And almost unbelievable that case managers were not required to make monthly reports in writing. That to me constitutes total incompetence at the state level.
The disabled are often treated like the elderly - cast aside and abused.
Tara's Law is a great thing. No one should suffer the way she did and no perp should get away with it.
Thank yoou Senator Beck!
Now we'll see if the AG gets involved after the request made by a senator instead of a citizen.
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