Thank you for writing here; I don’t want to presume, but it sounds like you have an autistic child—–how old is he or she and how is he or she doing?

Here’s a post I wrote about the use of physical restraints to control my son’s self-injurious behavior, and another on the use of physical restraints. Best wishes—

There are ways state agencies can infiltrate your life and render more damage than if you were left alone. Case in point: California Department of Education and Regional Centers. From 1991 to 1995, both agencies sent an army of professionals to help my autistic son who suffers from self-injurious behavior. Over and over, professionals offered ineffective treatments and wrote reports. Fed up, I did extensive research and discovered a medically prescribed a mild skin shock therapy that would stop my sons brutal self-abuse. Regional Centers response? The same behavioral specialists that failed to help my son REFUSED to support my sons treatment. Why? Because Regional employees said it would set a prescendent. Apparently, my son was collateral damage to protect some misguided philosophical agenda that vilified any treatment that Regional didnt offer. Despite the opposition, I went ahead with skin shock therapy. Immediately, it reduced the brutal behavior and my son was freed from being held captive to his uncontrollable urges to smash his skull with his fists. Sadly, I will never forget the betrayal and torment we suffered under the tyranny of Regional employees who left us behind. Anyone who thinks I’m making this up should examine the following evidence about California’s dark system serving disabled:

· San Francisco Chronicle: August 4, 1997; Agencies for disabled in disarray. The sprawling bureaucracy that controls more than $1 billion a year for developmentally disabled Californians is plagued by mismanagement and financial abuses so severe that the health and safety of the disabled have been jeopardized. State officials have known for two decades of serious problems in the network of 21 private, state-funded regional centers&More than 100 interviews and thousands of pages of audits, state reports and court documents revealed that some centers have been linked to embezzlement, fraud and unethical financial deals. Hundreds of children and adults with varying degrees of mental retardation, autism and cerebral palsy have received inadequate servicesor no services at allthough the state and federal governments have increased regional center budgets by millions of dollars a year.
· December 5, 1997, Chronicle writer Edward W. Lempinen, wrote: In a scathing report hand-delivered to top state officials yesterday, the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration criticized the state for risking the health and safety of the disabled, lax state oversight of their care and mismanagement of federal funds& Disabled people and their families who complain about services sometimes suffer retaliation from those who oversee their care.

· Legislative Analyst’s Office
February 2006 Analysts wrote there are, &serious concerns about &quality of care or access to care for Regional Center clients. Source: http://www.lao.ca.gov/analysis_2006/health_ss/hss_11_4300_anl06.html

· Since the 1997 San Francisco investigative news coverage the only thing proposed to help track and monitor disabled persons within the Regional Center has been in 2006: Under the client-tracking legislation, SB 571, each regional center would have to submit a Client Development Evaluation Report on each client at least every 15 months. The Department of Developmental Services, the primary agency monitoring Regional Centers opposed the bill. The bill was later gutted. Why? Because they dont want the public to know see the pervasive neglect of disabled and the total failure of the system serving disabled.

· June 23, 2001, Los Angeles Times: State officials have moved to revoke the licenses of 14 homes and day care centers for developmentally disabled adults operated by an Anaheim company accused of allowing clients to be sexually and physically abused&.California Department of Social Services accused Westview Services of a variety of health and safety violations at the facilities, which are licensed to serve about 530 people in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Again, Regional Centers were responsible for monitoring the disabled inside the group homes.

· March 18, 2001 San Francisco Chronicle explains Regional Centers shockingly LONG history of ineptitude: In 1965, the legislature created two pilot organizations for providing community services in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Called regional centers, they served as nonprofit brokers between state coffers and local suppliers of housing, training and other services to the disabled& State legislators, though, soon learned of serious problems in the new community care system. Reports and audits submitted to them in 1976 and 1988 described abuses of power, high turnover among social workers, poor accounting practices and chronic budget deficits at the regional centers.

· February 25, 2001, The Sacramento Bee reported: &a class-action lawsuit filed last year in an Oakland federal court on behalf of several disabled Californians and a handful of advocacy groups&. Allegations are that the state has failed to provide adequate services for disabled people&.

· Another story regarding Regional Centers incompetence to monitor or care for disabled persons appeared in the January 12-18, 2005, Silicon Valley’s Weekly Newspaper: Oversight at community-care facilities has been riddled with controversy since 1997, when the San Francisco Chronicle published a series of stories that shed light on serious problems..

· A January, 2006 study by the national professional journal, reported, &care in the community is generally considered to be a problem for persons with developmental disabilities. Shortcomings have been noted regarding Medicaid reimbursement, the lack of trained practitioners, and the coordination of care (Regional Centers are responsible for coordination of care)&” Source: http://psychtechs.net/pages/indexes.cgi

· October 23, 2006, in a Blog entry, a former Regional Center psychologist wrote: Because Regional Centers have so much power they are like the Mafia of the 1920’s. Embezzlement, favoritism, bribes, kickbacks, discrimination are commonplace [inside Regional Centers]& Care providers, families and consumer are at the mercy of this system and dare not speak out&. Regional employees are not above altering documents and reports to give the appearance theyve done more for clients than they really have&.This system has not been monitored and is now out of control. Source: https://www2.blogger.com/comment.do

· Jan 01, 2007, Sacramento Bee reported ongoing saga of failed system serving disabled. Latest discovery: Failure of Regional Centers to monitor or protect disabled has led to hundreds of DEATHS of disabled persons.

So, we can conclude that despite thirty years plus of REGIONAL CENTERS controlling the lives and services of disabled citizens, they are in fact UNFIT FOR DUTY and are a DANGER to many disabled. Suffice it to say, the disabled who remain alive and healthy in this system do so for ONE reason: The aggressive, consistent advocacy of mothers and fathers and other family members of disabled persons. .

Kim Oakley M. Ed
San Diego, CA
Mother of severely autistic child.