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Restraints still used after girl's
death
Treatment of mentally ill children denounced
December 8, 2008
By Meg Kissinger
Disability Rights Wisconsin's
report on the death of Angellika Arndt The state has failed to
correct procedures that led to the death of a 7-year-old Milwaukee
girl at a Rice Lake treatment facility two years ago, leaving
hundreds of other Wisconsin children in similar care vulnerable, a
new report finds.
Angellika Arndt, known as Angie,
died May 26, 2006, from asphyxiation a day after she was wrestled to
the ground and held face first on the ground in a chokehold for over
an hour by caregivers at Rice Lake Day Treatment Center. She was in
Milwaukee County's foster care system at the time.
The facility since has been closed.
But 11 similar facilities remain around the state, said Kristin
Kerschensteiner, managing attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin,
an advocacy group mandated by federal law to protect and advocate
for individuals with disabilities in Wisconsin.
In its report, Disability Rights is
calling for the state to eliminate or significantly reduce the use
of restraints in programs that serve children with mental health
needs.
"The Department of Health Services'
response has been neither sufficient nor timely, nor with enough
sense of urgency or importance to adequately safeguard against this
type of death happening again to another Wisconsin child," the
report says.
Investigators said they believe
"policies and conditions remain sufficiently unchanged so as to
allow such lethal restraint practices to continue in this state,
thus making it potentially only a matter of time until there is
another tragedy."
The report comes as Milwaukee
County's foster care system is under intense scrutiny after the
death of Christopher L. Thomas Jr., 13 months old, who, authorities
say, was beaten to death by his aunt while in foster care.
Tougher laws sought Kerschensteiner
said Monday that she is hoping publicity about the report will
inspire state legislators to draft laws to prohibit restraints on
children and to provide incentive for state mental health care
administrators to act.
"We've been working on this for
more than two years now and nothing is happening," Kerschensteiner
said. "Things get chewed up in this grinding bureaucracy and are
never seen again."
Karen Timberlake, secretary of the
state's Department of Health Services, declined to be interviewed.
But she released a statement, noting that the state took "very
strong actions against the facility, which ultimately closed its
doors."
"The department will continue to
work with our partners to issue additional guidance on the dangers
of the use of seclusion and restraint," Timberlake said.
Investigators for the disability
rights group reviewed the Hennepin County, Minn., medical examiner's
autopsy report, Angie's school and treatment facility reports and
other police and court records surrounding her death.
Angie was taken from her parents by
the time she was 3, after suffering significant neglect and physical
and sexual abuse. She was placed in Milwaukee County's foster care
system and was placed in several homes around the state.
She had significant psychological
problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, reactive
attachment disorder, bipolar childhood disorder, attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and oppositional/defiant disorder.
Angie took five or six psychiatric
medications daily and received mental health treatment and special
education.
She was living with a foster family
in Ladysmith but attending the Rice Lake day treatment center. The
day before she died, she was agitated and would not settle down.
Eventually, she was wrestled to the
ground face first, and three staff members held her arms and legs
immobile for over an hour. They thought she had fallen asleep.
But when they rolled her over, they
discovered that her lips were blue.
She was rushed to the Pediatric
Intensive Care Unit of Children's Hospital and Clinics in
Minneapolis and put on life support. She was pronounced dead the
following day.
Criminal negligence charges were
brought against staff member Brad Rideout,who had restrained Angie,
and against the day treatment center. Both the staff member and
center pleaded no contest to the charges.
Barron County Circuit Judge Edward
Brunner imposed the maximum fine of $100,000 against Northwest
Counseling and Guidance Clinics,which operated the treatment center,
for one felony count of negligent abuse of a resident. Rideoutwas
sentenced to 60 days in jail and one year probation for the
misdemeanor negligence charge.
The report notes that during
sentencing, the judge remarked that "there were a lot of other
people who made decisions that led up to her death."
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