Taken to task

Recent patient abuse incidents illustrate state’s tendency to form groups to respond to crises. But residents are demanding better results.

In the last legislative session, 18 bills were passed that created 20 panels, task forces, studies or working groups. Task forces aren’t the problem. The problem is that this state has lacked the political will to follow through on task force recommendations.

The Connecticut legislature seems to love a task force, or a study, or a working group. How better to respond to the natural human desire to do something when a problem is identified but the state lacks the resources to immediately implement a solution?

But how effective is that? In the last legislative session, 18 bills were passed that created 20 panels, task forces, studies or working groups. Another four bills were passed to modify, extend or expand the focus of already-existing task forces.

I have had the honor of serving on more than one of these groups. I have appreciated the opportunity to provide service to the citizens of the state of Connecticut through my participation. However, I have testified on more than one occasion that the last thing this state needs to do in response to a crisis is establish yet another task force to study the systemic problems that led to that crisis.

Let’s look, for example, at the legislature’s decision to create a task force in response to the serious abuse incident at the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital that resulted in the dismissal or separation from employment of approximately 40 employees of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the criminal prosecutions of 10.

I testified against the establishment of a task force, because Connecticut has already had several, dating back to the 1970s, that have examined problems with Connecticut’s state-operated and state-funded mental health system and identified potential solutions.

The task forces weren’t the problem. The problem is that this state has lacked the political will to follow through on those recommendations.

Nevertheless, the task force for the Whiting incident was established. The public health committee outlined the purpose of the task force and gave it a clear mission to examine several specific issues that represented concerns not only of patients and their advocates, but also those raised by employees of the department.

I agree wholeheartedly with the legislature’s recognition of the need to pay more attention to what is happening at Connecticut Valley Hospital and Whiting Forensic Hospital. But this task force has yet to meet.

Why not? Because all the members of the task force have not been appointed. This is not for lack of interest or for failure to identify people who should be considered for appointment. It is a question of political will.

The serious patient abuse that occurred at Whiting is something that virtually everyone agrees is something that should never have happened. Yet it did. Figuring out why it happened will be the subject of court hearings and processes that have yet to fully play out. But exploring the conditions that led to the creation of a culture in which an event like this was

almost inevitable will require difficult conversations and thoughtful exploration.

I get voice mail messages from my clients at Whiting who ask if everyone up in Hartford has forgotten about them. The patients in Whiting have access to the newspaper; they have access to a television. They saw the news when this scandal broke. They saw a number of people saying that something would be done about it.

The law that established this task force required that all appointments “shall be made not later than 30 days after the effective date of this section.” That section was effective from the date of passage. Former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed the bill on June 4, 2018. It’s been seven months.

What should I tell the residents at Whiting Forensic Hospital next time they ask — again — what is happening with this task force? I would like, at the very least, to give them a date for the first meeting of the task force, which was supposed to have issued its preliminary report more than a month ago.

I hope that one of the accomplishments of the first 100 days of Ned Lamont’s administration includes convincing the legislators who have yet to make their appointments to the task force to get that part of the job done and help Connecticut move forward on addressing this issue.

JOSH KOVNER/HARTFORD COURANT A letter was sent to 27 employees of Whiting Forensic detailing their suspensions over allegations of abuse of a patient.

MARK MIRKO/HARTFORD COURANT In his testimony before the state legislature’s Public Health Committee, Al Shehadi, the brother and co-conservator of Whiting Forensic patient Bill Shehadi, said, “For anybody familiar with the facts, it strains credibility to argue” that his brother’s abuse “was simply an isolated incident involving a difficult patient.”