Malign neglect

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Jim Leddy has a great op-ed piece in today's Free Press about Vermont's neglect of the State Hospital. As Leddy points out, when there is a problem with something really important, like the Lake Champlain Bridge, Vermont takes action.

Six years later: no new hospital, several failed efforts to regain federal approval and still no federal funds. In these dire times with many cuts in state programs and services, the continuing loss of these funds will cost the state of Vermont an additional $9.7 million in the next fiscal year, on top of the millions lost over the past six years.

It is hard to imagine that seriously ill patients with any other illnesses would have, as their only option, care in a dilapidated facility that does not meet federal standards. It is unfathomable to imagine that these patients and their families, not to mention their communities, would tolerate, much less accept, such conditions in any other Vermont hospital.

So what about the State Hospital? After six years, two suicides, and repeated failed inspections, does Vermont really give a rat's ass?

14 thoughts on “Malign neglect”

  1. Which is pretty terrifying when you think what a last chance the State Hospital represents for a very fragile population…a population that is likely to grow in size and need as the stresses of economic weakness, never-ending war and declining civility continue to take their toll.

  2. Vermont doesn’t want the mentally ill, and hasn’t for a long time.  This is a form of eugenics; one that can be done quietly.  The mentally ill are in our prisons; out of sight, out of mind.  Further out of sight when sent to the for-profit out of state prisons; we can trade the results of their misery on the stock exchange; a new way to profit from the poor and mentally ill.

    Another step forward in making Vermont a playland for the rich means industry, along with the poor and mentally ill, must go!

  3. The classic Republican way of “handling” this kind of problem is to avoid spending money on it for a long time, and wait for the inevitable lawsuit.  They don’t care about the bad publicity because their voters don’t care about the people in the system.  The analogy between this hospital and our prison system is all too apt.

    Will you commit to fixing this if elected?

  4. There have been major program improvements that have gotten praise from the federal government.  What we have failed to do is come up with a plan for a new facility.  This year in the budget I put $6.5 million to build a secure, 15 bed residential facility in Waterbury.  This is the beginning of the construction of a new facility so these folks will not only have good programs, but a good environment.

  5. The Vermont State Hospital is a disgrace.  While not as prominent as the bridge falling into Champlain, the implications and ultimate costs are much worse.  

    As a member of the institutions committee, state employees at the hospital came to us under the protection of the union to raise the red flag on the conditions. I led the charge to allocate dollars on a no-bid timeline (only time I have ever supported a no bid contract) to get the repairs done quickly.  The administration cared so little that they didn’t even spend this money.  

    This took place just after my return from running the 6000 person AmeriCorps*VISTA program and provided a stark example of the difference between being a strong legislator and being a strong executive, and a primary motivation for my run this election year.

    I will solve the state hospital problem in the first year. We must for moral AND financial reasons.

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