Anonymous | Nov 17, 2011

This is a very good point. I think that WARC has very high standards, and the issue is much bigger than it appears.

Anonymous | Dec 22, 2011

This subject is potentially the ultimate can of worms. For starters the difference between abuse and an employee being "rough around the edges" has a large gray area that differs depending on cultural perpective and personal upbringing.

Also, no agency, including OPWDD, wants to look bad, thus there is incentive for management to sweep allegations of abuse under the rug. There is also the jailhouse or union mentality about ratting our a coworker. Then, with rare exceptions, the people receiving services are poor at advocating for themselves. And, OPWDD has a woefully understaffed investigation department with no ability to enforce decisions.

This said, I want to make one very simple suggestion. Instead of having agencies investigate themselves, let's have outside agencies conduct the investigations. And, then let's have a review board, partially consisting of family members of the people receiving services conduct periodic reviews on the investigation process...