Florida can’t ever catch a break not now especially when you got the Justice Department fuming. Florida is under a civil rights investigation after the Justice Department discovered hundreds of children with disabilites have been unnecessarily placed in nursing homes designed for elderly people. Read more below.
“Hundreds of children are currently segregated in nursing facilities throughout Florida. They are growing up apart from their families in hospital-like settings, among elderly nursing facility residents and other individuals with disabilities,” said a Sept. 4, 2012 letter from Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez to Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
“They live segregated lives — having few opportunities to interact with children and young adults without disabilities or to experience many of the social, educational and recreational activities that are critical to child development.” Perez continued.
“The state’s reliance on nursing facilities to serve these children violates their civil rights and denies them the full opportunity to develop bonds with family and friends.”
However, Florida Health Care Administration Secretary Elizabeth Dudek said the Department of Justice letter was wrong.
“DOJ failed to allow the agency to review or respond to the letter prior to release, which resulted in unfounded and inaccurate allegations,” Dudek said in a prepared statement.
The investigation by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which is led by Perez, found that many children are separated by their families and placed in the nursing facilities for years. The Justice Department said that as many as 50 children were held in the facilities for over five years.
The children are referred to as “medically complex” and “medically fragile,” suffering from cerebral palsy or traumatic brain injuries from accidents. Many have tracheotomies; some are on ventilators, requiring medical apparatus to help them survive.
One facility staff member interviewed by Justice Department investigators said, “Once we get the children, very few of them go home.”
According to the Justice Department’s letter, an administrator of one nursing facility said that in cases where both parents are working they do not have the support structure to have a disabled child in their home without assistance.
The letter noted an example of a 5-year-old child, a quadriplegic after a car accident, who had been living in a state facility for three years. The mother wants to bring the child home but has been told the waiting list for community and home-based services was five to ten years.
