By Kyle Cheney
Posted Jul 05, 2011 @ 09:39 PM
BOSTON —
Lawmakers may have scrapped a plan to heavily restrict the use of skin shock therapy in Massachusetts for severely disabled residents, but the Patrick administration is moving ahead with a proposal that would eliminate the practice for all future patients and require annual reviews for patients already receiving the controversial treatment.In new regulations proposed by the Department of Developmental Services, treatments that cause physical pain – such as “spanking, slapping, hitting or contingent skin shock,” also known as aversive therapy – would no longer be a permissible treatment option for residents with developmental disabilities.
Only those with court-ordered treatment plans in effect by Sept. 1, 2011 that include aversive therapy would be able to continue receiving it.
The department’s proposal is nearly identical to one that passed the Senate unanimously in May but was dropped in budget negotiations with the House that ended last week.
The issue has lingered for years on Beacon Hill without resolution. Proponents of aversive therapy hail it as a lifesaving treatment and last resort for self-injurious children who would otherwise be subjected to mind-altering psychotropic drugs and daily physical restraints. Critics have ripped it as a form of torture being applied to innocent children, often unnecessarily.
The bill in recent years has gained traction in the Senate but died without action in the House, where one member, Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, has credited the practice with saving the life of his nephew.
The restrictions are aimed at the Judge Rotenberg Center, a Canton-based facility that is the only facility in the country that uses skin shocks as a form of treatment for the developmentally disabled, advocates say. Sen. Brian Joyce (D-Milton), whose district encompasses the center, hailed the administration’s move to limit aversive therapy and argued the center was fighting restrictions because of a financial motive.
“While I had hoped that the House would agree to the Senate’s steps taken to protect innocent, disabled children in Massachusetts, I am absolutely delighted that the Patrick-Murray administration has done so by regulation,” said Joyce (D-Milton), lead sponsor of efforts to restrict aversive therapy. “This is the first administration in over two decades that has listened to the advocates for the disabled and many human rights activists who have been appalled at what has happened to the most vulnerable members of our society at the Judge Rotenberg Center.”
“The JRC has fought any efforts to curb their abusive treatment of innocent children for decades. And they were extraordinarily litigious,” Joyce continued. “Why are we allowing this barbaric practice on innocent children in Massachusetts and nowhere else in the world? There is not another facility, certainly in this country and I believe in the world, that allows this barbaric practice. We would not allow this on terrorists held captive in Guantanamo.”
Senate President Therese Murray has described the use of aversive therapy as “barbaric” and “criminal.” But her support of the bill failed to get it out of committee in 2008 and the bill died without action in the House in 2010.
In May, Murray won the unanimous backing of the Senate, casting a rare vote of her own during a roll call on the matter, which was appended to the state budget as a policy rider. But the House declined to go along and the budget rider was dropped in negotiations, leading Joyce to pin his hopes on the administration.
The administration quietly filed its regulations on June 23, while budget negotiations continued.
Backers of aversive therapy say it has saved lives, noting that it is only used as a last resort on patients who are often violently self-destructive and would have no options other than mind-altering psychotropic drugs or daily physical restraints.
Rep. Sanchez (D-Jamaica Plain), co-chair of the Committee on Public Health, has been the House’s most ardent supporter of aversive therapy, vehemently rejecting attempts at banning or limiting the practice. He has often argued that his nephew Brandon, a patient at the Rotenberg center, would likely not be alive today if it weren’t for the use of aversive therapy.
“He’s alive, and he’s as happy as he can be,” Sanchez said in a phone interview. “There are kids and adults that would be dead if not for this treatment. We can’t simplify the complexity of things we don’t understand … They’re there because nobody else wants them.”
Sanchez noted that residents of the Rotenberg center have had their treatment plans approved by judges, a layer of oversight he says is already sufficient.
Sanchez called the DDS regulations “arbitrary” and aimed at pleasing “one or two legislators.”
“This issue is a bigger issue than just a few legislators,” he said. “These are complicated issues and that’s why we left it up to the court … Nobody can understand what the families go through that have their children here at the Rotenberg. They’re there because they went through an extensive process.”
The Department of Developmental Services regulations apply a “General Prohibition on the Use” of “Level III Aversive Interventions,” which include the skin shock therapy, as well as other forms of painful treatment, making only “individual-specific exceptions” for those residents with existing court-ordered treatment plans.
“The regulations are proposed for amendment to establish the highest practicable professional standards for the use of behavior modification for persons with intellectual disability,” DDS Commissioner Elin Howe wrote in a letter accompanying the proposed regulations.
The department has scheduled two public hearings on the proposals, a July 20 hearing at the Worcester Public Main Library and a July 22 hearing at the John McCormack Building in Boston. Written comments are due by Aug. 1.
Last session, the only lobbyist registered as active on the proposal was the Massachusetts Psychological Association, which paid $36,000 to the firm of Lynch and Fierro LLP in 2010.
The Rotenberg Center burst into public consciousness in 2007 when two residents were woken up in the middle of the night and shocked repeatedly - one 29 times and one 77 times - based on a prank call from someone pretending to be a supervisor. At the time, JRC officials said the employees involved were suspended and then fired after an investigation.
But the school’s leader at the time of the incident Matthew Israel, resigned suddenly in May and was indicted for obstruction of justice for what authorities say were efforts to impede their investigation of the incident, in part by destroying a videotape that may have shown the act in progress.
The indictment became public during the Senate’s budget debate and provided fodder for those seeking to restrict aversive therapy.
Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/archive/x1721569131/Governor-Patrick-moves-to-curtail-shock-therapy-on-disabled#ixzz1RLP0ksyr
