State Representative Charlie Meier wants more oversight of CILA homes that house many of the developmentally disabled in the state.
During a Capitol news conference, Meier outlined some of the problems being seen in some of the local group homes.
Clinton County Sheriff Dan Travous says many of the issues are falling to law enforcement.
“We’ve noticed certain homes are more prone to many more calls to service and more serious types of calls like sexual assaults, residents who have left, wandering through the community going into people’s homes. We’ve noticed issues with inadequate staffing and untrained staff. Noticed blatant disregard to needs of residents like medical needs or needs in general. At Murray Center, we don’t have these problems.”
In Aviston, Police Chief Mike Kuhl says two of the three CILA homes do not have issues, but the third has had 67 calls in the past three years.
“58 calls have been serious in nature. So we are talking resident-on-resident violence, resident violence towards staff, suicidal calls, and 19 different incidents where residents have walked away from the facility and sitting on the side of the road on a busy highway. And the reason is the staff is short and they don’t have people to go look for them so that is left up to us. We have had 2 sexual assaults in the last 6 months.”
Meier has tried to close the troublesome home, but the state has done nothing.
“I’ve tried forcing that CILA to be closed. That rape, sexual assault, the incident that happened last week, none of that would of happened if someone in DHS would have listened to us.”
Meier added not all CILAs are bad and have this type of problem.
A parent of a former CILA resident, Peggy Strong, noted her daughter has 25 to 30 diagnoses and is extremely vulnerable and could not be handled by the staff that had little training or oversite. She said her daughter was in the process of shutting down and dying before she was able to get her into Murray Developmental Center.
“She is thriving. She not only didn’t die, but she is also thriving riding her bike, walking up and down the halls and it’s just a miracle. Had Murray Center not been available Marjorie would not be here, she would not be thriving, she would be dead in that CILA.”
Meier is hoping to pass three bills into law. One would require regular and ongoing on-site inspections and unannounced visits. The second would require authorized video surveillance of common areas if there is consent from the residents or guardians. The third would require violations at CILA’s be reported to the state no later than five days after the incident. If a person involved in direct care for CILA residents commits battery toward a client, the patient or resident could be charged with a Class 2 felony.
Meier is among those working to identify and correct ongoing problems at Choate Mental Health and Development Center. He’s encouraged to see some of his recommendations being implemented but cautions the Pritzker administration against the mass movement of residents out of Choate into CILA’s.
Peggy Strong shows injury to her daughter’s leg that was part of the abuse and neglect she received at a CILA where she said she had been left to die.
