COFAR blog

The Department of Developmental Services is conducting a “special licensing and program integrity review” in response to allegations of poor care in group homes operated by a provider licensed by the Department.

In an August 8 statement provided to COFAR, DDS Commissioner Jane Ryder also said that DDS is investigating the allegations and is requiring the Springfield-based provider, the Center for Human Development (CHD), to implement a corrective action plan. The Department has also conducted unannounced visits to the residences, Ryder stated.

“DDS takes the health and safety of individuals it serves very seriously, and is conducting a thorough investigation into the allegations,” Ryder added.

Ryder’s statement was provided nearly a month after COFAR asked for comment from her regarding a series of allegations raised by Mary Phaneuf, the foster mother of Timothy Cheeks, a 41-year-old resident of a CHD group home in East Longmeadow.

Last year, Phaneuf began raising concerns with CHD and DDS about Tim’s care, including a lack of proper medical care for Tim and no documented visits to a primary care physician or dentist for seven years. Phaneuf also said there were no documented visits to a cardiologist for six years despite Tim’s having been born with a congenital heart defect.

Last week, CHD acknowledged the missed medical appointments for multiple clients, “failures to follow protocols,” and financial misappropriation in two residences. Those problems include an alleged failure to ensure that Tim was receiving Social Security benefits for at least two years, and the alleged diversion of food stamp benefits from Tim and at least one other client.

Despite the seriousness of those issues, an online June 2017 DDS licensure inspection report for CHD on the DDS website did not mention those or similar problems in CHD’s group homes. It was not clear whether the DDS special licensing and program integrity review is intended to examine whether the DDS licensure process fell short in the CHD case.

The 2017 DDS licensure report for CHD did not appear to note any serious issues with medical care in the CHD’s residential facilities except to state that medical plans for two residents “did not fully address all required elements.”  The report stated that “the vast majority of individuals in the survey sample were supported to receive timely annual physical and dental examinations, attend appointments with specialists, and receive preventive screenings as recommended by their physicians.”

In our July 9 email to Ryder, we asked “whether it is possible that the DDS licensure process is not sufficiently comprehensive or thorough to identify issues such as the ones cited (in the CHD case).”

COFAR also asked Ryder in that email whether DDS reviews abuse or other complaints or investigative reports as part of its provider licensure process. Ryder’s August 8 statement did not respond to either of those questions.

COFAR has called for a comprehensive investigation of the privatized DDS system, and has reached out the the Attorney General’s Office and to state policy makers and legislators for support for that. The Springfield Republican, which reported on Tim’s case last week, noted that Attorney General Maura Healey’s office recently met with COFAR, and quoted a spokesperson for Healey as saying they “are learning more about the issues they (COFAR) raised.”

The Republican  included a statement from James Goodwin, CHD president and CEO, apologizing for the issues raised by Phaneuf.

“The quality of our services — the care and support that CHD and Meadows Homes provide to our clients — is our most important value, and in these cases we have failed in not upholding that value,” Goodwin told the newspaper. “We apologize for these failures. We are committed to making the changes needed to regain the trust of our clients and families at Meadows Homes, and to continue to support their health and wellbeing.”

In a statement previously provided to COFAR, Goodwin listed a number of corrective actions that he said CHD has taken since January, including cataloging all medical visits in a database, tracking communication between guardians and caregivers, requiring more rigorous supervision of program leaders, and developing a system to automatically inform family members and guardians of medical appointments and their outcomes.