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Courtney Smith

UWRT 1103

Ms. Caruso

April 4, 2016

Defense Paper

For my product I created a scenario court case file, which shows the negligence and
abuse in groupin-group homes of children and those with developmental disabilities. This genre
is would be seen in a courtroom, attorney meetings, and on the news or attorneys meeting, while
the audience would be the judge, and jury, or anyone wanting to be more informed on this
topic. The reason I chose thise particular genre was because I thought it would be a good way to
really show what is really happening behind closed doors of these institutions.

Although I am using a few of my previous sources, I also found some new scholarly
articles that would help me learn more about the legal aspects of this issue. These sources
will helped guide the process of creating my defense paper, and product.my produc Also
these sources t and will also helped bringit come my product to alifve.

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Some things that I have learned from the articles I found, is that some states use their
group home institutions as a way to get federal funding, and not really use it to benefit their
residents. According toYou can see this in The Post and Courier article An untold number of
foster children in South Carolina custody are neglected, drugged, beaten and molested in group
homes and institutions where the state warehouses them for millions of dollars a year at taxpayer
expense (Sausser). All of these things are happening and no one is saying anything, or no one
wants their businesses reputation to uphold allegations like these. This is NOT okay. Its not
okay in anyway, shape, or form for a caregiver to mistreat or harm the individual which they are
providing care for.

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Thus this is why N.C. has violations and penalties according to a WakeGovarticle
states

the violations:
Type A1 Violation

A violation by a facility which results in death or serious physical harm, abuse,

neglect, or exploitation.

Type A2 Violation

A violation by a facility which results in substantial risk that death or serious

physical

harm, abuse, neglect or exploitation.

Past Corrected Type A1 or Type A2

Either the violation was not previously identified by the Department or its
authorized

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representative or the violation was discovered by the facility and was self
reported,

but in either case the violation has been corrected.

Type B

A violation by a facility is detrimental to the health, safety, or welfare of any

resident,

but which does not result in substantial risk that death or serious physical harm,

abuse, neglect, or exploitation will occur.

Repeated Violations

The Department shall impose a civil penalty which is treble the amount
assessed under subsection (a) of G.S. 131D24 when a facility under the same
management

or ownership has received a citation during the previous 12 months for which the

appeal rights are exhausted and penalty payment is expected or has occurred, and

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the current violation is for the same specific provision of a statute or regulation
for which is received a violation during the previous 12 months.

These are the regulations, however people are still abusing and mistreating residents
with disabilities and nothing it being said. Therefore, no one really hears about the
legal aspects of cases like these.
An article was recently released by EYEWITNESS NEWS claims that families of
group home residents in Bronx are claiming that abuse is happening in this particular
group home. The article says, State investigators are now confirming that they are
looking into at least two incidents at the Union IRA home in the Bronx involving alleged
staff abuse (Wallace). This goes to say that this group home has already been alleged of
abuse claims. The article then continues to talk about how families of those with severe
developmental disabilities have to trust strangers with their family members, because
they cannot take care of them their selves. Now, they believe that trust has been broken
in the worst kind of way imaginable (Wallace).
This goes along with the Post and Courier article where it is says that a mother,
Jessica Freeman, found out about allegations against the group home where her daughter
resided in, You can report a bad hamburger easier than you can report someone abusing
your child(Freeman). Mrs. Freeman isnt wrong in this case. Although abuse is
happening in group homes all over the world, these incidents are kept quite. This is why
not many people know about what is happening behind closed doors. Unless a huge
incident occurs, or unless the family of a resident makes it a priority for their voice to be

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heard, you dont see many cases on the news regarding this topic.
Because all of these violations are different in their own ways, how do we know what
exactly what these violations look like?
Well, I wanted to produce a product that showed an example of one of these
violations. I chose to go with a basic violation that the organization at hand would
have made. I tried to portray how negligence can easily occur in the hiring process for
residential group home care giverscaregivers. This is where I hope that my case file
product represents the legal process of these incidents. I tried to point out red flags
that they employer should have noticed. I also pointed out the incident reports and
employee write upswrite-ups, showing the caregivers negligence.
This will show how mistreatment that is not really mentioned can really
happen, and what can happen.The write-ups that I composed, although simple are very
accurate as to what could happen in a residential care facility if the caregivers are
negligent and dont pay attention to their residents. Accidents can happen at any
moment in time. There is however a difference between an accident and intentionally
abusing someone. Sarah Wallace asked a father Carlos Ramos,
"They told you that a staff member hit her in the eye?" (Wallace). Ramos then
responded and said, Definitelyit was physical abuse (Ramos).
Parents of individuals with developmental disabilities already have enough on
their hands. If it isnt bad enough that sometimes parents have to move their children to a
facility because they cant meet the needs of their child, now they have to worry about
strangers who are working with their children, they may hurt them.
My goal for creating this whole product was to raise awareness for group home

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abuse of those with and without developmental disabilities. I want people to see the bad
in this, in hopes that they will spread their awareness with others, and hopefully minimize
or abolish group home abuse all together. Something like this doesnt go away over
night, it takes people standing up for what they believe in, in hopes that they will make a
change. And this is what I intended for my product to do.

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These are the regulations, however people are still abusing and mistreating residents
with disabilities and nothing it being said. Therefore no one really hears about the legal
aspects of cases like these.

This is where I hope that my case file product represents the legal process of
these incidents. I tried to point out red flags that they employer should have noticed. I
also pointed out the incident reports and employee write ups, showing the caregivers
negligence. This will show how mistreatment that is not really mentioned can really
happen, and what can happen.

Sausser, Lauren. "Warehousing Our Children." The Post and Courier.23 July 2015.
Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

Wallace, Sarah. "Exclusive: Family of Group Home Residents Claiming Abuse." ABC7
New York. 02 May 2016. Web. 03 May 2016.