Officials: No abuse of CYF placements at Devereux
WEST GOSHEN » The few youths from Chester County who are living at residential campuses in the county-run by Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health will not be relocated fromtheir placements at the present time, officials from the county’s child protective service agency said.
The determination came following an investigation by officials after published reports alleged that more than two dozen children with intellectual disabilities had been sexually assaulted while placed at the non-profit organization’s three campuses in the county.
The wellness check found no harm had come to the youths during their stay and treatment at Devereux, the officials said.
According to a statement issued last week by the county Department of Children, Youth and Families (CYF), the county currently oversees two youths placed in Devereux programs at its campuses in Wallace and Willistown. One youth is a 17-year-old, andthe other is 19-years-old.
After the initial concerns regarding Devereux were reported, CYF staff conducted additional visits with these youth to interview themand assess their safety – without Devereux staff present. Neither youth reported any concerns or mistreatment during their placement at Devereux.
CYF staff will continue to visit, independently interview and monitor the safety of these two
youths to assess the care they are receiving at Devereux, and will consider the option of other placements as part of the increased monitoring, the statement said.
An attorney representing plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing the organization of failing to protect them from instances of sexual abuse praised the agency for its due diligence in checking on its charges.
“The reporting … last month revealed what many victims and families already knew: Devereux has systemic issues with supervision and protection of the children in its care,” said attorney Chad Maloney of the West Chester law firm of Goldberg, Goldberg and Maloney.
“In the last few weeks the City of Philadelphia determined, through unannounced visits to Devereux facilities, that many of the supervision issues persist,” Maloney, a former county prosecutor said. “I applaud Chester County for taking immediate action to check on the well-being of the children from this county currently in Devereux’s care, but more must be done.
“As long as unannounced visits are uncovering the same supervision failures, children remain at risk for abuse,” said Maloney.
The CYF statement issued Thursday said that additionally there are other children fromthe county at Devereux facilities that are not CYF placements, but are supported through Community Care under the county’s Health Choices program.
After reading the first reports of allegations of sexual abuse at Devereux, county Human Services staff and Community Care staff, including a physician, completed in-person wellness checks on Community Care members in treatment at Devereux Children’s Behavioral Health Services (both Brandywine and Mapleton campuses) and Devereux Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services. The wellness checks included assessing their safety outside the presence of Devereux staff.
All of the children were found to be safe and no mistreatment was reported.
The county’s Department of Human Services also contracts independently with an organization for a Children’s Review Team to provide an additional level of support and oversight.
The Children’s Review Team maintains contact with the family throughout the child’s residential stay for an additional layer of ongoing monitoring of the quality of care. The Children’s Review Team also conducted outreach phone calls to the families of youth currently placed at Devereux to discuss any concerns as related to the August Inquirer articles.
The Children’s Review Team has informed the youth/families of their role as an external third party to whom they can report safety concerns. In addition, the Children’s Review Team will continually assess member’s safety during their monthly contacts, which not only provides an opportunity to identify safety concerns but to also assess the youth’s satisfaction with services.
According to the Associated Press in August, Philadelphia has stopped sending local children to facilities operated by a nonprofit health organization where at least 41 intellectually disabled children have reported sexual assaults over the past quarter-century.
Several City Council members have also demanded that officials remove all 62 local children from campuses of Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health facilities and cancel all contracts with the firm, including a $7.5 million agreement it holds with Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services.
On Thursday, it was reported that the city Department of Human Services had notified 53 children and their guardians currently placed at Devereux facilities that they would be removed from those campuses over safety concerns.
Meanwhile, the organization said In a statement that it is seeking an additional explanation from the city for its actions.
“We believe the decision is unjustified and inconsistent with findings of multiple reviews conducted by various independent entities and conversations we’ ve had with (the city) during the past six weeks regarding the quality of care provided in our residential programs,” Devereux wrote.
Meanwhile, Gov. Tom Wolf has directed the state Department of Human Services to investigate conditions at the firm’s campuses in the state.
The actions come in the wake of a published reports which found Devereux is plagued by inadequate supervision of staff. The report also noted that at least 41 intellectually disabled children have reported sexual assaults over the past 25 years.
Devereux, which is headquartered in Villanova, treats children with intellectual disabilities, mental disorders and trauma. It has been in existence for more than 100 years and is now the nation’s leading nonprofit health organization of its kind.
The reports made in August say that some sexual assault victims were as young as 12 and had IQs as low as 50 when they said they were assaulted by staff at Devereux campuses. Ten said they were assaulted at three county campuses, while others said the abuse occurred at facilities inNew Jersey, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, New York and Arizona.
Devereux leaders, noting that a sexual assault can happen in almost any care setting, have said that in the last two years they have increased safety and reduced risk by adopting safeguards to prevent such abuse and hold staffers accountable.
The county District Attorney’s Office has prosecuted multiple cases of sexual assault and abuse at the Devereux facilities here in past years, including a 2017 case in which a Philadelphia man carried on an illicit sexual affair with a 15-year-old girl at the organization’s Willistown campus. Theman was sentenced to four to eight years in state prison for the assault.