Human rights abuses by psychiatry, sad but true

The Senate Finance Committee released on Wednesday the findings of a two-year investigation that revealed widespread abuse and neglect at residential treatment facilities attended by thousands of children each year. The report, which looked at four of the nation’s largest behavioral health providers—Universal Health Services (UHS), Acadia Healthcare, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, and Vivant Behavioral Healthcare—detailed a system that “optimizes profit over the wellbeing and safety of children” and incentivizes facilities to “treat children as payouts.”

The companies capitalize on per diem payments from Medicaid and other sources of taxpayer dollars by filling large facilities to capacity with children—many of whom are sent by the child welfare, juvenile justice, and educational systems—while reducing the number and quality of staff, the report found. As a result, children suffer physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of staff and peers; experience improperly executed uses of physical restraint and seclusion; and receive inadequate behavioral health treatment.

June 12, 2024
New Senate Report Blasts Residential Treatment Facilities That “Treat Children as Payouts” – Mother Jones

 

Universal Health Services, Inc. And Related Entities To Pay $122 Million To Settle False Claims Act Allegations Relating To Medically Unnecessary Inpatient Behavioral Health Services And Illegal Kickbacks

 

Universal Health Services