'It's Indefensible': Stabenow Highlights Poor Treatment At Youth Residential Facilities

6 months ago

At a Senate Finance Committee hearing earlier this month, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) spoke about youth residential treatment facilities.

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Transcript

00:00I was next we all saw those pictures of Michigan and I know my colleague is very

00:05very determined to fix these problems and we appreciate it. Senator Stabenow.

00:09Well thank you very much Mr. Chairman and first welcome. I know we have

00:15survivors of Michigan facilities and Michigan advocates here. Welcome. Thank

00:21you very much for being here and I just want to thank the staff that put

00:24together this report and all the important efforts here. This is really

00:28significant, really important investigation. Thank you for bringing

00:33this out and it's true in 2020 we saw the devastating death of Cornelius

00:39Frederick. He was 16 years old living in a residential facility in Kalamazoo

00:45Michigan and after simply tossing sandwich crust at some nearby young

00:55people Cornelius was knocked to the floor and restrained by seven staff

00:59members over the course of ten minutes. Two days later he passed away. This is a

01:06horrible tragedy. It's horrible what happened and I know based on what the

01:13comments here and the reports and so on that this is not an isolated instance

01:18which is why we're here today. It's wrong and it's indefensible. The stories

01:25of harm to children while in care only highlight the need for strengthening

01:30investments in community-based models and I just want to emphasize again we

01:35actually have good news on this front. First let me go back though to say that

01:42President John F Kennedy the last bill he ever signed before his own death in

01:461963 was the Community Mental Health Act. It had two visions one to eliminate

01:51what were called asylums at the time and the other was to provide

01:56comprehensive community care which we have not done until this point and we

02:03now have through a model that 20 states are receiving full funding for now

02:09through Medicaid a health care model called certified community behavioral

02:14health clinics. We have services being provided over 500 clinics across the

02:21country more that needs to be done and certainly more to be understood because

02:26this is a new model comprehensive model based on federally qualified health

02:32centers funding behavioral health care as health care but this is a really

02:37important model for us to be embracing I believe. CCBHCs provide comprehensive

02:46services they're equipped to care for children youth with complex behavioral

02:50health needs everything we're talking about today according to the 2020

02:55Department of Health and Human Services report on the first eight states being

03:00funded for these clinics about about one-fourth of the patients are children

03:05and adolescents and just last week the National Council for Mental Well-Being's

03:10latest report on the impact of CCBHCs nationwide and some and by the way most

03:18they've said that one of the most important ways that services have been

03:23expanded through these clinics is for young people services for young people

03:27the same report showed that 82% of the clinics have been a state have

03:31established teams that are specifically child and youth focused 82% which is

03:37good news and 83% of the clinics provide services in one or more school setting

03:43so we're talking about clinics that require 24 psychiatric crisis services

03:48comprehensive services anybody who walks in the door can get care based on a

03:55health care model and I hope Mr. Chairman we're going to be embracing and

04:00looking more at this at what is actually happening now that to meet some

04:05of these issues obviously we need inpatient that's quality care also but

04:11there we are in fact moving forward on comprehensive behavioral clear and I

04:17hope care and I hope we're going to be embracing this more and more. Ms. Stanford

04:22in your testimony you emphasize that there's a quote pervasive assumption

04:28that children's complex behavioral health needs can't be met in community

04:33based settings and you've talked about that today which I appreciate very much

04:37could you talk more about the strategies you would suggest to help counteract

04:43that assumption? I think things like what we're doing here today is getting people

04:48to understand what residential treatment is actually providing is the first step

04:52it is something that you know we've been trying to do for five years and thought

04:55we'd be further along in by now but if people think that there's an answer

04:59they're not looking for a solution so people think that if you know this is

05:03the place where you get that kind of treatment they're not looking for those

05:05community-based treatment options and that a lot more research needs to be

05:09done in what could be effective in proving that those models can work so

05:13that they can be implemented for children. Yeah absolutely thank you and

05:16I know I'm out of my time here but you know I agree with you we've got to do

05:22more to establish clear pathways for community-based care. You mentioned New

05:27Jersey doing good things I just want to say they are one of the first eight

05:31states to receive full funding for what I just talked about community behavioral

05:36health clinics and my guess is that is the services and funding that they're

05:42receiving in New Jersey to do what they are doing so I would encourage us to

05:47really look more at this opportunity that we fully funded finally through the

05:52Safer Communities Act 18 months ago. The funding is there, the model is there and

05:59I hope we're going to move forward and embrace that more specifically. Thank you

06:03Mr. Chairman. Thank you Senator Stabenow and for those of you that haven't

06:09followed all of this debate it's very hard to do so. We understand on this

06:15committee that there are several pieces to this puzzle. For example the

06:20behavioral health effort that Senator Stabenow has led our whole committee on

06:25a bipartisan basis worked very hard to get some of those key provisions in

06:30other legislation. Chairman Hatch worked with all of us to pass a historic set of

06:38reforms called Families First. So what we're talking about today is essentially

06:44building on that progress, recognizing that the abuses that we're looking at

06:50specifically as it relates to these residential treatment facilities, they're a key

06:55part of this puzzle. We're not going to fix this unless we address it and as we

07:00do so we're going to try to build on matters like Senator Stabenow's

07:04legislation and Families First and other measures. Senator Casey has been a great

'It's Indefensible': Stabenow Highlights Poor Treatment At Youth Residential Facilities

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