For Many of Connecticut's Disabled, Home Is Where the Harm Is

 

Again and again, the disabled turned up in emergency rooms only to have the injuries theyd suffered in the states group homes go uninvestigated.

by Joaquin Sapien ProPublica May 27, 2016

 

The woman was sent to a Connecticut emergency room 19 times in 15 months. Her injuries were ghastly. She swallowed pieces of razor blades. She burned herself. She inserted pins, nails, metal can lids and other objects inside her vagina and rectum.

She was developmentally disabled; living in a group home overseen by Connecticut state authorities. Each of her injuries should have been investigated by the state. None of them were.

The womans experience is part of a federal report formally released Wednesday by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General. Hers were among more than 300 emergency room visits examined by federal investigators between January 2012 and June 2014.

Continue reading at https://www.propublica.org/article/for-many-of-connecticuts-disabled-home-is-where-the-harm-is

 

FROM PRO PUBLICA

Help us investigate: If you have experience with or information about care for the developmentally disabled, the mentally ill, or troubled children email joaquin.sapien@propublica.org.

For more coverage, read the Hartford Courants previous reporting on deaths and abuse in Connecticuts group homes.

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