NC County DSS Office institutionalized 2 Autistic Teens while mother was in treatment for cancer, refused to give them back

[Jwheel86]

Brace yourselves, this is a bad one... 

 

Moore County Discriminated Against Disabled Mother, Children - DRNC

DISABILITYRIGHTSNC.ORG

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Federal lawsuit alleges local DSS demonstrated “deliberate indifference” to family      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 13, 2024  Moore County Department of Social Services violated well-settled federal disability law when it […]

 

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Moore County Department of Social Services violated well-settled federal disability law when it sent two disabled siblings to institutional settings while their mother was temporarily hospitalized for cancer treatment, contrary to recommendations from disability services professionals that would have allowed them to remain in the community, according to a lawsuit Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC) filed last week on behalf of the family. 

 

Both children have intellectual and developmental disabilities, and regressed physically and mentally while they were in custody of Moore County Department of Social Services (MCDSS), according to the lawsuit. 

 

Rumina Slazas was released five weeks after she was hospitalized with cancer in the summer of 2022, and even after her medical team quickly declared she was in complete remission, MCDSS refused to return her children to her. MCDSS additionally refused to consider community, home-like settings for her son, JS, and her daughter, SS.

 

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As a result, JS, now 16, spent 16 months separated from both his mother and sister in an institutional setting known as an Intermediate Care Facility (ICF). MCDSS did not make arrangements for therapy or other necessary accommodations, such as an exercise ball to maintain his core strength. The facility denied him his beloved Chromebook, which he uses to self-soothe, instead removing it to use as a “reward” for independent toileting. The facility also removed the orthotic inserts he had been wearing for most of his life. While there, JS reported to his school that an employee at the facility slapped him. 

 

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MCDSS dropped SS, now 15, at the Pediatric Emergency Department (ED) at UNC Chapel Hill without communication aids and left her there against medical determinations, including conclusions by medical experts at the ED who repeatedly asked MCDSS to pick her up. Separated from both her mother and brother, SS spent nine months in conditions similar to solitary confinement, during which time ED staff were reported to be in “moral distress” that no child should be abandoned in that way. 

 

From there, MCDSS sent SS to a South Carolina psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF) four hours away from her mother’s home. PRTFs have gained notoriety for providing limited services and further traumatizing children at incredible expense to the state of North Carolina. When Ms. Slazas visited SS at the PRTF, she observed bruises and bite marks on her daughter’s body that the facility could not explain. She also watched as SS was unable to focus her eyes; they were rolling back as if she was about to faint. When Ms. Slazas reported these concerns, MCDSS reduced the time she was allowed to visit with her daughter. SS spent four months at this facility.  

 

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MCDSS took custody of the children in August 2022. MCDSS returned SS to her mother a year later, in August 2023. MCDSS did not return JS to his mother until December 2023. Moore County ignored Ms. Slazas’ healthcare providers’ statements that she was in full remission and substituted their own medically unsupported assumption that Ms. Slazas’ cancer would return, according to the lawsuit.  

 

MCDSS also ignored expert medical advice from numerous clinicians, as well as guidance from disability services professionals, all of whom said SS was not benefitting from remaining in the ED and would not benefit from institutional care at a PRTF, and indeed, that both children could be cared for in home-like settings in the community.  

 

[Uaarkson]

Fuuuuck this. I don’t know what else to say. This country has a bad, bad problem with institutional rot in healthcare, mental health care, child care, just about any kind of fucking care you can think of, it’s all run by complete fucking lunatic sociopaths and I hope every one of them fucking burns for eternity. If anything like this ever happened to one of my kids I’d be going Falling Down on their asses.

[sblfilms]

Heart-breaking stuff. Terribly difficult to read. Can’t even imagine the terror that family was put through.

 

I don’t know anything about the disability side of things, but I had a conversation today with a friend about CPS being called regarding my nephew’s children, and really more specifically about the care his now ex-wife gives them.

I know most people who work in social services have very good intentions…but holy moly, get the wrong people involved and it is hell to make it through to the other side.