Abused and Used
Examining the treatment of the developmentally disabled in New York State and how money is spent on their care.
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, saying he was startled by problems with the handling of abuse and neglect allegations at state facilities, on Wednesday vowed reforms at six agencies that provide residential care for the disabled, the elderly, children and the mentally ill.
Speaking to the media as he met with his cabinet, Mr. Cuomo and his staff said a review of the agencies had found myriad clashing procedures — differing definitions of abuse, varying directives about when to call law enforcement, inconsistent standards of proof and sometimes no standard of proof at all.
“Some of those findings are startling to me,” Mr. Cuomo said. “Obviously they are troubling.”
The governor said the conclusions of his administration’s review were particularly problematic because “We are responsible for people’s lives, literally.”
“I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to say many of these operations can make the difference between life and death, and they certainly make a difference on an individual’s quality of life,” he said.
Mr. Cuomo said the problems within agencies serving the disabled and children were symptomatic of a larger challenge facing state government.
“If you don’t continue to reform, if you don’t continue to reinvent, progress stops,” he said. “And that’s what happened for a long period of time in this state, and that’s what we’re going to change.”
Clarence Sundram, the governor’s special adviser on vulnerable populations, plans to make formal recommendations to the governor later this year, but previewed some of his findings Wednesday.
“We don’t have any consistency in public policy when it comes to this vulnerable population,” Mr. Sundram said.
He said that sometimes a maze of regulations is in place, even on a single campus of state facilities. A school, a group home, a substance abuse program and a foster care program might each be run by different agencies, following different rules, in the same location, he said.
Mr. Sundram was appointed by the governor earlier this year, amid a New York Times investigation into widespread allegations of abuse and neglect at facilities overseen by the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. The investigation found that employees who committed physical and sexual abuse were often transferred to other group homes instead of being fired, and that law enforcement was rarely notified of alleged abuses. The Times has also reported on the high salaries paid to Medicaid funded nonprofit service providers overseen by the state.
The agencies being reviewed by Mr. Sundram include the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, the Office of Mental Health, the Department of Health, the Office of Children and Family Services, the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services and the State Education Department.
Courtney Burke, the new commissioner of the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, said she arrived to find that her agency had “a culture of non-reporting” and a “lack of transparency.”
“We have done a lot but we have a lot more work to do,” she said.