From the Washington Post:

Angry at continued reports of substandard care to people with developmental disabilities in the city’s care, two D.C. city council members attacked care providers in a public hearing and criticized the high salaries of their top executives. The president of one company, a well-connected D.C. lawyer, is paid $300,000 annually; others earn more than $200,000.

Council members Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and David A. Catania (I-At Large) said they were tired of hearing excuses from the providers of group housing for approximately 1,200 people with intellectual disabilities.

“You either have to come up with a strategy to [improve] or get out of business, because you cannot provide substandard care,” Wells told several of the providers who appeared at the hearing.

A federal judge last year found that city officials had failed the people with developmental disabilities in its care; a subsequent report by a court monitor in May said these people “remain at very serious risk.”

Editor’s note: The Washington Post won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for two series on D.C. group homes by Katherine Boo: Invisible lives: D.C.’s troubled system for the retarded; and Invisible deaths: The fatal neglect of D.C.’s retarded.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 7:12 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, abuse, group homes, intellectual/developmental disabilities, politics. 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.