US: A disappointing report from the Senate Finance Committee (Opinion)

Child Welfare Monitor – July 22, 2024

On June 12, 2024, the Senate Finance Committee (SFC) released a report called Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers are Funding Systemic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Centers. The report was based on an investigation of what it calls residential treatment facilities (RTF’s) operated by four large companies, “each owning facilities with a history of public abuse and neglect allegations and a substantial facility footprint.” It does not define RTF’s, but the term clearly refers to facilities that provide behavioral health services in a residential context to children with funding from programs under SFC jurisdiction, mainly Medicaid and foster care funds under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. The four companies include three profit making corporations (United Health Services, Acadia Healthcare, and Vivant Behavioral Healthcare), and one nonprofit, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health.

Also: Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers are Funding Systemic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Centers: https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/sfc_report_warehouses_of_neglect.pdf

https://childwelfaremonitor.org/2024/07/22/a-disappointing-report-from-the-senate-finance-committee/