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DHS Monitoring Children
Make sure they're safe July
8, 2007
Editorial | One of the most
crucial issues facing the Philadelphia Department of Human Services
is monitoring facilities that house children in its custody. Last
month's death of 17-year-old Omega Leach at a youth center in
Tennessee shows the worst of what can happen when oversight is weak.
DHS has about 1,500 children in residential centers. Leach, in DHS
and Family Court files, was one of 233 of those kids in an
out-of-state facility.
Leach was unruly. Family Court sent
him to the DHS-approved Chad Youth Enhancement Center, a private
mental-health facility outside Nashville. He died after a staffer
pushed him facedown onto the floor and pulled his arms behind his
back to stop him from choking a counselor.
A primary cause of harm to kids in
treatment centers is the type of restraining hold that staff may use
to control unruly children. Holds have been controversial for
decades; they can be deadly if done recklessly.
Chad's corporate parent, Universal
Health Services Inc., is based in King of Prussia. Company officials
said Chad provides quality service and worker training.
Authorities have not determined
whether actions by Chad workers caused Leach's death. But earlier
troubles should have led DHS to stop sending kids to Chad.
In 2005, a 14-year-old Long Island
girl died of heart failure. Chad was not held responsible for her
death, but after the incident, both Tennessee and New York stopped
placing teens there.
Philadelphia children had told DHS
that Chad workers often used holds on them; Tennessee authorities
had gotten numerous complaints about Chad's tactics.
Still, DHS paid Chad $6 million in
the last three years to serve Philadelphia youths who were sent
there because they could no longer safely stay in their homes or had
committed crimes as juveniles.
As a recent blue-ribbon review
panel found, DHS was missing basic, common-sense child-protection
policies. Compare it to the Allegheny County Department of Human
Services, which doesn't place kids in centers outside of
Pennsylvania, where it's harder to monitor their care.
A rule of thumb when out-of-state
placements do occur is monthly visits to the facility by the county
agency that has sent the child. Philadelphia's DHS policy was to
visit its kids every six months, said one panel member.
Institutions follow the licensing
standards and regulations of the states where they are located. Any
differences between the state sending the child and the state
receiving him is supposed to be covered in an interstate compact.
That doesn't mean DHS and the
Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, which oversees county
child-protection agencies, can sidestep accountability.
So it's good that acting DHS
Commissioner Arthur C. Evans Jr. is establishing a new
accountability system for contractors. Now Evans needs to make the
plan public.
State Welfare Secretary Estelle B.
Richman said her department soon would present stricter regulations
banning certain holds on children no matter where they are placed.
But that's not enough.
State legislators should enact a
freeze on local juvenile courts and child-protection agencies
sending abused, neglected or delinquent kids to facilities with
repeated incidents of injury or death.
DHS and the state should be more
aggressive about getting and sharing reports on institutions, so
they can best assess children's condition. The two agencies must
improve communication to each other and the public about dead or
injured children.
One other factor is worth noting. A
huge tendency exists among child-protection agencies in the public
spotlight to pull kids out of their homes too quickly rather than
risk their being abused or neglected. DHS is in a blazing hot
spotlight right now.
A new study funded by the National
Science Foundation tracked 15,000 youths from 1990 to 2002. It found
that children were likely to do better in life if they stayed with
their family rather than being placed in foster care.
The simplest route should not be
taken when it isn't best for the child in the long run.
Evans has begun many reforms since
an Inquirer series in October exposed problems. That blue-ribbon
panel noted progress was being made. Still, he must feel as if he
can't move fast enough to fix his agency's flaws. Deep change will
take time, but a sense of urgency is also needed.
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