Records show abuse, violence in Texas state mental hospitals
May 6, 2008 Abuse, Hospital, Human rights, News, Psychiatry, Psychotropic drugs 3 CommentsAssociated Press
AUSTIN — More than 70 employees at Texas’ 10 state mental hospitals have been fired and dozens others disciplined since 2005 over allegations of brutal beatings and other physical abuse, according to a newspaper report.
Disciplinary records obtained by The Dallas Morning News show the violence against patients included chokeholds, headlocks and threats. Hundreds of other employees have been fired for other violations, including sleeping on the job and overmedicating patients, the records show.
There are about 18,000 patients and about 7,400 employees working in the state psychiatric hospital system.
State officials say there will always be reports of abuse and neglect in an institutional setting. And they say they take any allegations of mistreatment seriously. But the records show that as in other state-run facilities, abuse and neglect are systemic, the newspaper reported Sunday.