From the Boston Globe:

There is a role for aversive therapy if it is practiced with great restraint and respect. But such was not the case in August, when two emotionally disturbed teens in a Stoughton group home run by the Rotenberg center were given dozens of electrical shocks at the direction of a telephone caller posing as a medical supervisor. That caller was later identified as a former student.

The fact that the staff was so easily duped speaks to both poor screening of new hires and a dangerous lack of training. On that night, at least, the center resembled not a therapeutic environment but the infamous Milgram experiment, which measured the willingness of ordinary people to hurt a test subject based on nothing more than the verbal order of a phony scientist.

Several state agencies monitor the Rotenberg Center. But the buck stops with the certifying agency – the state Department of Mental Retardation. This week, DMR recertified the Rotenberg Center for one year. But the agency should be prepared to withdraw that certification if a pending study by the state Disabled Persons Protection Commission uncovers additional problems at the center … The question isn’t so much whether skin shocks are an acceptable form of treatment, but whether the Rotenberg Center is the right place to do it.

Related stories:

• Staff faulted in use of shock; report says orders went unquestioned; no checks of teens’ treatment plans
• Group home fires 7 on staff; Rotenberg Center says rules altered

See earlier posts here and here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 3:55 pm and is filed under abuse, autism, behavior, controversial procedures, emotional disabilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.