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The Southwest Idaho Treatment Center
(SWITC) in Nampa provides residential care to people with developmental
disabilities and mental illnesses. It is run by the Idaho Department of
Health and Welfare.
Katherine Jones
Idaho Statesman file
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An advocacy group in Idaho has released a 114-page report that says the Southwest Idaho Treatment Center in Nampa for people with disabilities has again shown failures and neglect in its care for clients.
In some cases, people with disabilities were reportedly told they could not talk to their guardians about the abuse, according to DisAbility Rights Idaho, an advocacy group for people with disabilities.
The nonprofit made its announcement about the yearlong investigation into reported abuse and neglect during a Monday press conference. The advocacy group reviewed 70 investigations that occurred from Jan. 1, 2017, to Jan. 31 this year. The group said it found 49 substantiated cases of abuse or neglect.
DisAbility Rights Idaho titled its report on SWITC “No Safe Place to Call Home.” The group’s executive director, Jim Baugh, said that because the group has federal authority to do secondary investigations of abuse or neglect involving people with disabilities at an institution, they made the report findings public.
The Idaho Statesman previously requested copies of the SWITC investigations through a public records request, but it was denied those documents.
The nonprofit reviewed 20,000 pages of investigations at the treatment center to identify problems and make recommendations to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, the agency that runs SWITC. The group found that at least 14 residents were victims of confirmed abuse or neglect.
“In a facility with only about 23 residents, these are appalling numbers. In our opinion, these point to systemic failures,” Baugh said.
DisAbility Rights Idaho provided a copy of its report to Health and Welfare on Oct. 1, and the department did respond, saying many of the problems the group outlined were outdated and have since been changed.
Health and Welfare disputed some of the claims in the report, and said the department has already changed policy on some of the recommendations from DisAbility Rights Idaho. Health and Welfare’s response stated the report has “methodological flaws” and “while some of the report’s recommendations are worth considering, others suffer from the limited investigation and lack of expertise.”
DisAbility Rights Idaho did make the department’s full written response public in its report.
“Contrary to what the report says, we first notified media and the public in August 2017 when we identified inappropriate and abusive employee behavior that was not meeting our standards,” the Department of Health and Welfare said in a press release Monday in response to the report. “We launched an extensive internal investigation into the allegations. As a result, six employees were terminated. However, the Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined to file criminal charges based on the Nampa Police Department investigation.”
What is SWITC?
The Nampa facility is home to about two dozen clients who have developmental disabilities or mental illnesses. The facility is supposed to prepare them for care in the community, but many clients end up cycling in and out or staying for long periods of time.
SWITC has faced whistle-blower lawsuit threats from former employees or patients’ families because of neglect. In 2018, inspectors threatened three times in six months to take away SWITC’s ability to treat Medicaid patients because of failed inspections.
In its press release, the Department of Health and Welfare said a survey team reviewed many of the abuse investigation reports from 2017 and 2018.
Full Article & Source:
Advocacy group says it found 49 substantiated cases of abuse, neglect at ID treatment center
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