Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Connecticut Legal Rights Project sues to protect people in state-run psychiatric facilities

  • COVID-19
  • by Kelan Lyons
  • April 30, 2020
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Cloe Poisson :: CTMirror.org

Exterior of Whiting Forensic Hospital on the grounds of Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown.

Connecticut Legal Rights Project, Inc. filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to force the state to release a “sufficient number” of inpatient psychiatric patients from Connecticut Valley and Whiting Forensic hospitals to protect them from COVID-19, and to create space so those remaining can practice social distancing.

The legal action comes on the same day the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services announced the death of a CVH patient, the first person at a DMHAS-operated psychiatric hospital to succumb to the virus.

As of Thursday 41 CVH patients and 10 Whiting patients had contracted the virus. More than 50 staff at DMHAS facilities across the state — three-quarters of whom work at the two hospitals involved in CLRP’s lawsuit — have also tested positive for COVID-19.

CLRP’s lawsuit calls on the court to order the state to assess every patient at both hospitals, and release enough people to ensure those who remain can practice social distancing. It also asks Gov. Ned Lamont be required to issue an executive order suspending all commitments for civil and competency restoration patients, as well as transfers from the Department of Correction and those under the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board.

The suit would also require officials to order all necessary community supports and services and treatment be provided in the community.

“We are not asking for them to open the doors and let people walk out to nothing, with no supports, no services, no housing,” said Kathy Flaherty, CLRP’s executive director. “The risk of remaining on those units, where there is no chance for appropriate social distancing, is you basically are leaving people there to be sitting ducks to catch this virus.”

Among the plaintiffs are five patients from Whiting or CVH between the ages of 45 and 67. Several of them have underlying health conditions that put them at risk of serious illness or death if they contract the virus. Nine patients from CVH, and eight at Whiting have recovered from the virus, as have 22 staff members at facilities across the state.

Both hospitals have approximately 438 patients, all of whom, the suit alleges, “are similarly situated and in danger of infection, illness and death from Covid-19.” 

Conditions described in the legal filing are not conducive to social distancing. CVH units are small and made up of television, comfort, sleeping, restraint and seclusion rooms, and rooms for staff. The majority of patients do not have their own rooms. Most sleep in open dormitory-style spaces with nothing but temporary walls that don’t reach the ceiling.

The filing makes special note of CVH’s Woodward Hall, which generally treats people age 50 or older who have significant medical needs. On April 29, the suit alleges, the last two elderly patients on one of Woodward’s units were transferred. The roughly dozen or so remaining patients on that unit tested positive for COVID-19 and were sent to Middlesex Hospital for respiratory treatment, or to a CVH quarantine unit.

By design, inpatient psychiatric treatment generally doesn’t lend itself to social distancing, Flaherty said.

“The whole point of it is you’re gathering in groups and doing therapy,” Flaherty said. “So, you’re either not providing treatment — in which case why are people being held there? — or, you are elevating the treatment and thereby elevating the chance of somebody contracting the virus.”

Flaherty worries about her clients because many people in inpatient psychiatric settings have underlying health conditions that put them at additional risk  should they contract the virus. They can be overweight because of their antipsychotic medications, or take medications with serious side effects like kidney failure.

In a letter sent to Gov. Ned Lamont and Attorney General William Tong on April 18, CLRP requested the state test all DMHAS patients and health care workers to make sure “no asymptomatic super-spreader” can infect and cause the death of staff or patients confined in state custody for treatment, against their will.

Potential hot spots

Other states have seen spikes in confirmed cases after testing residents who live in congregate settings. Officials in Pennsylvania and Ohio learned correctional facilities were viral hotspots after they tested large swaths of their prison populations.

Mary Kate Mason, DMHAS spokesperson, said in an interview before the lawsuit was filed that the department does not plan to test all of its patients to identify asymptomatic cases. “We are following the protocols that we’ve established and the CDC guidelines regarding testing,” she said.

CLRP also called on authorities to “make every effort” to discharge every patient who does not “absolutely need inpatient hospital level of care,” and discharge those who would not pose a risk to public safety and whose vulnerability to the virus outweighs the benefits of inpatient psychiatric care.

“We discharge our people when it’s clinically appropriate and when they have a place that can support them appropriately in their recovery,” Mason said before CLRP took legal action. “It’s business as usual.”

Mason declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.

The DMHAS’ website says it has taken a number of steps to protect its staff and patents from the virus, including distributing personal protective equipment to all state-operated facilities, restricting visitors and temporarily reducing bed capacities in certain units across its system in order to maintain proper social distancing requirements. Flaherty said more must be done.

“I understand that they are dealing with a pandemic that nobody expected to have happen, but it is disconcerting, to say the very least, that there does not appear to be any creativity in terms of dealing with this,” Flaherty said. “They kept doing things they way they always do them, and now we have one person who has died.”


Help us report.

We can’t shake your hand, but want to hear from those of you working or living on the front lines of the coronavirus emergency.
Are you a Connecticut public health worker, medical provider, elected official, patient or other COVID-19 expert? We’re looking for information and sources. Help make sure our journalism is focused on the right issues.
Email us your information at tips@ctmirror.org.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelan Lyons is a Report For America Corps Member who covers the intersection of mental health and criminal justice for CT Mirror. Before joining CT Mirror, Kelan was a staff writer for City Weekly, an alt weekly in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a courts reporter for The Bryan-College Station Eagle, in Texas. He is originally from Philadelphia.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
CT teachers are expected to get vaccinated for COVID at local clinics, but other options could cause problems
by Dave Altimari

School employees could end up on two lists, which means some vaccine might go to waste, officials said.

Black and Hispanic residents continue to be vaccinated against COVID at lower rates than white residents
by Kasturi Pananjady and Jenna Carlesso

Among those 65 and older, the rate of vaccination for white residents was 39%, compared to 21% for Black residents.

As mass vaccination centers take the lead in the COVID race, the push is on to reach the most vulnerable
by Dave Altimari

While mass vaccination sites have helped overall vaccination rates, they have not reached the state's most vulnerable populations.

Governor says frustrations with vaccine rollout should be with CDC guidelines
by Adria Watson

Lamont also said 30,000 doses of new J&J vaccine could arrive next week

Disability Rights CT files federal complaint over age-based vaccine rollout
by Kelan Lyons

The complaint alleges the state's age-based vaccine distribution plan discriminates against people with disabilities.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Gas pipeline will threaten water quality, wildlife and wetlands
by Susan Eastwood

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has granted tentative approval of the 401 water quality certification for the Pomfret to Killingly natural gas pipeline. I urge DEEP to deny the 401 certification, as the proposed pipeline would violate the Connecticut’s water quality standards, and the conditions in the draft certification fail to protect our streams, wetlands, and wildlife.

Opinion Connecticut and the other Connecticut. Which will endure?
by Ezra Kaprov

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘Connecticut’? Possibly, you think of a 43-year-old Puerto Rican man who arrived here with his family following Hurricane Maria. He works full-time as a machinist at the Sikorsky plant, and he coaches a prizefighter on the side.

Opinion COVID-19 increases urgency for legislature to pass medical aid-in-dying law
by Dr. Gary Blick

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the profound tragedy of loved ones dying alone, in a hospital or nursing home, without the care and comfort of loved ones surrounding them. This pandemic also demonstrates the fragility of life, the limits of modern medicine to relieve suffering, and has magnified the systemic racial disparities in our healthcare system, resulting in higher hospitalization and death rates for people in communities of color. We must eradicate these disparities, so everyone has equal access to the full range of end-of-life care options.

Opinion Three fallacies and the truth about vaccines
by Kerri M. Raissian, Ph.D. and Dr. Jody Terranova

Connecticut’s Public Health Committee recently heard public testimony regarding HB6423 and SB568 --  bills that would remove the religious exemption (the medical exemption would rightfully remain in place) from vaccination in order to attend school.  The religious exemption allows parents to effectively opt their children out of vaccines. In doing so, these families can still send their children to Connecticut’s schools, daycares, colleges, and camps.  This places other children at risk of contracting vaccine-preventable illnesses, and it is imperative the Connecticut legislature remove this exception.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO