Perhaps one of the best things about the discussion in this review is that it brings to light the inherent racism in publishing today. While I love Amy Tan's novels (it seems Osanloo perhaps doesn't), there is a striking difference between the way Tan capitalizes on the Asian-American experience and the way Choi doesn't.
Posted by Audrey on May 08, 2008 in response to A Novelist in Full
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The situation in Texas for individuals with disabilities and the lack of community based services and overabundance of institutions is shameful. Governor Perry is talking about tax rebates while human beings are being abused or significantly underpaid for their work.
While I am sure that everyone would love a tax rebate, I think the state of Texas can choose to spend their expected multi-billion dollar surplus at least in part on fixing this very broken system. This is about the lives of human beings. They deserve more consideration and attention from the Governor and legislature of Texas than this!
Posted by advocate on May 08, 2008 in response to Systemic Neglect
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Regardless of the site - school, jail, state school, state hospital, nursing home, residential care facility, ICF-MR, there are going to be spurious allegations and there are going to be absolutely true allegations that cannot be confirmed and there are going to be absolutely true allegations that are confirmed. In 100% of the cases, staff who have confirmed abuse or neglect allegations are sanctioned - sometimes by termination, sometimes by other disciplinary actions. The reality is that no matter where you go, there are a few bad people in every profession. You cannot throw out the baby with the bathwater because of this. Having seen what happened in California when state facilities were closed in favor of private, for profit, board and care homes where treatment was not available, where medications were not given, where patients copulated on the living room floor unrestrained and unsupervised, where neighborhoods were rife with drug abuse and violence because the "good people" of the town didn't want "those" people in their neighborhoods. I can honestly tell you that my loved one was safer in a state run facility than he was in a private, for profit nursing home where they restrained him to a hall rail or a bed 24x7. Garbage men could not empty the dumpsters without searching them first because more than one ex-patient was crushed in the garbage truck. There is no easy answer, no one-size fits all. Staff salaries should be raised and more staff should be hired. Staff who are abusive should be fired and possibly charged but the media should not paint all state mental hospital or state school staff with the same brush.
Posted by Connie on May 07, 2008 in response to Systemic Neglect
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I too have worked at a state school for many years. About 30 to be exact. Yes, it used to be a happier and more stress free environment to work in. Back then if there was an abuse complaint, we had an abuse investigator who went and checked out the situation. If he found that someone had talked too loud to a client he told them not to do that if it was not necessary. Now we have an outside agency that comes in to investigate. They immediately place people on non-client contact. At any given time our facility has as many as 100 people on non-contact status. They sit at home for days, weeks, even months, at full pay waiting for the investigation to finish. Many staff have discovered that if they can be accused of abuse they can get a paid vacation! In the mean time their co-workers have to work even more short-handed. Can you believe that at our state school we have a superintendent, an assistant superintendent, and an assistant to the assistant superintendent?? We also have unit directors, assistant unit directors, and assistants to the assistant unit directors. We are TOP HEAVY!!! Anyway, too many of our employees are young and have severely poor attitudes. We cannot attract better employees because the pay is too low. We have about 1500 employees and hire about 40-60 new ones each month. That is a LOT of turnover!! Most direct care staff average bringing home $1000 to $1200 a month. Try living on that much money with gas, electricity, and groceries at an all time high. Lordy, there is so much to say, but I just can't get it all written down. Maybe later...
Posted by Mister Doubleu on May 07, 2008 in response to Systemic Neglect
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The crisis with the State School system in DADS is focused on bad employees who harm the clients. Yes, there are bad apples in the barrel when it comes to staff. But at times it seems the facilities are desperate for workers, they hire anybody who fills out an application. Anyone who harms the clients should be terminated, and possibly prosecuted. Let's look at the bigger picture. The state has neglected the agency and the facilities by under-funding them in terms of staffing, training and programming for the clients. When you expect a staff member to work his or her shift, then sometimes forced to work an additional shift, it takes a toll on the worker. When you are told not to leave the campus to get food because something may happen on the unit, then the facility is negligible for being understaffing. When you are not allowed to take a lunch or dinner break, and not given overtime for working your break, then employees get fed up, short fused, and then allegations of abuse or neglect to the consumers occur. They are underpaid, overworked, and now "advocates" for the mentally challenged want to close state schools, legislators want to privatize the schools to get out of the business of treating these vulnerable Texans, when does the madness end? It is sad one too many clients die, and with tragedy, the legislature acts. The state of Texas is negligble to all vulnerable Texans, young, old, poor, sick with pushes for privatizing services to them.
That is the reason to join the union. Power is in numbers!
Get registered to vote, and VOTE! We must get the inhumane legislators out of office!
As for DADS, well the commissioner sure isn't speaking out. When is the commissioner going to talk to HHSC Commissioner Albert Hawkins and DEMAND assitance to save the agency? When is Hawkins going to bat for the agency? He failed privatizing Health & Human Services and is stpid enough to try to privatize state schools!
Posted by TSEU member on May 06, 2008 in response to Systemic Neglect
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The problem with the state school system is the state and the greedy politicians who run it. They expect a system that is supposed to be providing care and protection to our weak, feeble-minded, abused, neglected, and abandoned fellow humans to make a PROFIT financially. How do they do that? They do what all cold-hearted businessmen and women in state government do, cut jobs...eliminate people...save salaries. Don't look for waste in time or materials. Don't be creative in finding ways for employees to feel respected and valued. The fact is that employees are not valued. The administrators that run state schools are just trying to keep their salaries and secretaries and friends' salaries until they are ready to leave the system. They don't care about the human beings who suffer in the wake of their selfishness. There needs to be a revolution in the mental health system in Texas. It began going down hill in 1990 with a bunch of ignorant people who made accusations about state schools as institutions and how horrible they were. The truth is that all they wanted was for the monies to be spread around. They wanted their share of the profit. I have worked in group homes in the community and I know first hand that those providers are about the profit. If Texas cannot manage to monitor and care for persons in 13 state schools, how can they expect to monitor and care for persons spread across the state in hundreds of group homes or foster homes with only 2 or 3 individuals living in them. Do you really think the persons working in those homes for the same low pay as state school employees are going to take better care of the individuals living there? Wise up. It is all just a bunch of noise. Go to Austin and cut positions in DADS Central Office. Have legislators and lawyers give up some of their benefits. Look for the FAT. It is not at the state schools. Salaries need to be increased for direct care and anyone in direct contact with individuals in the state schools. Ratios of staff to individuals should not be more than 1 staff to two individuals, especially if they need special care. Vacations are a necessity. No one can work under that kind of pressure and not burn out. Compassion for the workers is missing. To make things better, hire older, skilled, educated workers. Kids right out of high school are looking for quick cash and are too selfish to really care about others. They don't have the maturity needed to help their fellow man. Hire people who have experience in caring for others and make sure they have no criminal histories or history of abuse or neglect. I don't care whose cousin it is. Hire people who can think, reason, and write an intelligent descriptive sentence. Give tests to look for these skills. Our mentally challenged, mentally deficient, intellectually deficient, clients, consumers, individuals, residents, persons served and fellow human beings deserve the best. God expects it from each of us.
Posted by Anonymous Employee of State School on May 06, 2008 in response to Systemic Neglect
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As a former state employee with service at the San Antonio State Hospital I can say that while low pay, disrespect of direct care staff by the bosses and more aggresive consumers are a reality, none of these reasons justifies abuse by staff!
The Texas State Employees Union (which I used to be a member of) proudly spoke out against abuse and neglect of both the mentally retarded and the mentally ill! While it is easy to scapegoat low paid staff, the real abusers are the well paid bosses who willingly go along with high consumer to staff ratios, the low salaries and who inflict arrognat disrespect to these hard working men and women!
Shutting the institutions down is clearly not a solution! Remember what happened across the nation when state hospitals were closed and patients dumped into the streets? Community services in Texas are far too non-existent to begin closing these institutions down. What is needed is major reform in the system beginning with cutting back on the over paid bureaucrats, giving the workers decent pay, providing safer consumer to staff ratios and prosecuting those who are clearly guilty of abuse! (The offenders at TYC were never prosecuted either, but allowed to resign!)
Texas ranks among the lowest five in the union when it comes to expenditures for our mentally ill and mentally retarded, one has to ask WHY?
Posted by Frank Valdez on May 06, 2008 in response to Systemic Neglect
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I have worked at a state school for the past 28 year in many different position. When I first started working the individuals were a pleasure to work with they had very few problems and the saley was Ok. But as time changed our population cahnged and they became more and more challenging to work with and our salaries are crappy. The new individuals that we work with have lived in the community or in group homes but due to the aggressive behaviors they were placed at our state school. These individual have little or no respect for themselves or staff that want to help them move back into the community. I have watched these individual abuse the staff both physically and mentally with out any consequences for their behaviors, these same actions that you or I would be arrested for. The individuals are informed that they have rights that are beyound the rights that I have as a person. I am here because I chose to be and I am trying to help the individuals, but I see what staff have to indure on a daily bases without adequate pay, without vacation and with the support of management. If you want better for the individuals we need to start with doing better for the staff that are here to assist them.
Posted by anonymous on May 06, 2008 in response to Systemic Neglect
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Law in Texas is a joke. In fact law & Texas is a oxymoron. It's Judge Roy Beam all over again.
Posted by letsfaceit on May 05, 2008 in response to The Worst Judges in Texas
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I don't understand this story
Posted by confused on May 09, 2008 in response to Pride
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