{"id":4328,"date":"2011-06-06T13:06:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T17:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=4328"},"modified":"2011-06-06T13:32:50","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T17:32:50","slug":"ny-times-describes-patterns-of-abuse-at-sunmount-in-tupper-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/06\/06\/ny-times-describes-patterns-of-abuse-at-sunmount-in-tupper-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Times describes &#8220;patterns of abuse&#8221; at Sunmount in Tupper Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New York Times reporter Danny Hakim published a major investigative piece today looking at the quality of care in large developmental disability care facilities across New York state.<\/p>\n<p>Despite large budgets, Hakim suggests, the quality of care is often shoddy, neglectful or dangerous.\u00a0 The Sunmount facility in Tupper Lake is one <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/06\/06\/nyregion\/boys-death-highlights-crisis-in-homes-for-disabled.html?_r=1&amp;hp\">focus of his report<\/a>, and receives significant criticism:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Patterns of abuse appear embedded in the culture of the Sunmount  Developmental Center in the Adirondacks.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, one supervisor was  accused of four different episodes of physical and psychological abuse of residents within a span of two  and a half months; another employee bragged on Facebook about \u201cbeating  retards.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Hakim cites specific cases at Sunmount that sparked investigations and scrutiny:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Around the same time, one Sunmount resident, Eddie Adkins, was set upon  by several staff members after he grew upset that he was not allowed to  go to the bathroom, according to an internal report provided to The  Times by Mr. Adkins\u2019s family&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>A deaf resident told state investigators that he saw four state  employees punching Mr. Adkins while he was sitting on a couch \u2014 \u201cI did  not like that,\u201d he told investigators, adding that he was so disturbed  that he turned his hearing aid off during the melee.<\/p>\n<p>According to the article, an agency spokeswoman declined to comment on specific cases, but five staff member were placed on administrative leave following the incident.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Hakim&#8217;s article appears at a time when Tupper Lakers are deeply concerned about the future of Sunmount, a mainstay of local employment.<\/p>\n<p>Governor Andrew Cuomo <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com\/page\/content.detail\/id\/521620\/Cuomo-visits-Sunmount.html?nav=5008\">visited the facility in November of last year<\/a> and in response to the state&#8217;s fiscal crisis told Sunmount workers &#8220;If I was a state worker and just a resident of the state, I would be  afraid of what is coming ahead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York Times reporter Danny Hakim published a major investigative piece today looking at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4329,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4328\/revisions\/4329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}