Parents think before sending a child to Peninsula Village

[Anonymous]

http://isaccorp.org/peninsula/peninsulavillage1.pdf
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?st ... mode=print
http://www.nami.org/Content/ContentGrou ... estiga.htm > Refer to Peninsula Village
http://www.slideshare.net/CapoDiTuttiCa ... esentation > Peninsula Village presentation
http://www.troubledteensurvivor.com/Sur ... ories.html > Survivor Stories

http://www.isaccorp.org/peninsula/penin ... 02.03.html > E. coli infection spurs lawsuit

E. coli infection spurs lawsuit

by Lance Coleman
The Times Daily Staff
April 2, 2003

A Chattanooga resident filed a lawsuit against the owners of Peninsula Village Monday claiming she contracted E. coli while at the Louisville facility.  In Blount County Circuit Court, Catherine Russe sued Covenant Health, doing business as Peninsula Village.  

According to the suit:

In June, 1999, Russe was a resident at Peninsula Village, a facility that houses about 70 teens, ages 13 to 18 years old.  Later that month, the infection control nurse at the facility reported a number of cases of diarrhea. On June 24, Russe began experiencing diarrhea, required medical care, and a culture was taken and returned positive for E. coli.  The Centers for Disease Control opened an investigation and learned Russe and a male resident shared a pattern ``indicating a single source of the E. coli outbreak.''  ``The CDC, after a thorough investigation, concluded that the most likely source of the E. coli infections were meals served in the kitchen at `Peninsula Village,''' the suit said.  After onset of diarrhea, Russe's condition quickly deteriorated, she was hospitalized at Fort Sanders Hospital and then transferred to East Tennessee Children's Hospital for acute diarrheal illness.  Russe's condition didn't improve and while at Children's Hospital, her kidneys began to fail and she was transferred to University of Tennessee Medical Center. At UT, Russe was diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a life-threatening condition for which there is no known treatment, the suit said.  Russe remained at UT for 17 days, was discharged on July 17, 1999, and has continued to suffer complications.

RE: Peninsula Village Email Comment v2.0
Monday, April 27, 2009 6:31 PM
From: "Roberts, Kelly" <[email protected]>
Add sender to Contacts
To: [email protected]

http://www.peninsulavillage.org

"Mending young lives and restoring families since 1986."

From: [email protected]

Phone:

Comment: There is a parent who wants to enroll her son in a placement/wilderness school. She has instilled her trust in me to find the best placement for her son. Her son has self esteem issues, problems respecting teachers and smokes marijuana. She is a single parent whereas she is not equipped to deal with the problems. If you could answer the following questions via. e-mail, that would be helpful. How many times per month do students call their parents? How often do students visit their parents at home? Are students allowed to call the state abuse hotline if they witness physical abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, sleep deprivation or food/water deprivation?

Sincerely,

Bob Peterson
BA Criminal Justice
University of Oklahoma 2002

[Ursus]

We absolutely have a process in place for reporting mistreatment. The patients would complete a patient advocate request form and the patient advocate would then make sure the patient is allowed a private phone call to report any alleged abuse. As a facility we would also make the call if we believed any of our patients are being mistreated.

They really make those kids jump through hoops to report abuse, eh? They have to ask for a form, turn it in, and then they are allegedly allowed a phone call. In other words, PV staff will already know beforehand who wants to report, and what they want to report.

Damage control will already be underway by the time authorities react, and the kid may also experience consequences for their "audacity," ...not to mention being made an example for the rest of the community.

The system is stacked, not to prevent or reduce potential harm to already fragile youth, but to protect Peninsula Village's interests.

[ZenAgent]

We absolutely have a process in place for reporting mistreatment. The patients would complete a patient advocate request form and the patient advocate would then make sure the patient is allowed a private phone call to report any alleged abuse. As a facility we would also make the call if we believed any of our patients are being mistreated.

They really make those kids jump through hoops to report abuse, eh? They have to ask for a form, turn it in, and then they are allegedly allowed a phone call. In other words, PV staff will already know beforehand who wants to report, and what they want to report.

Damage control will already be underway by the time authorities react, and the kid may also experience consequences for their "audacity," ...not to mention being made an example for the rest of the community.

The system is stacked, not to prevent or reduce potential harm to already fragile youth, but to protect Peninsula Village's interests.

That's a joke.  PV uses a 3x5 card for the kids to write their request on - my step daughter requested to speak with her attorney and was told it would have to be approved by PV's risk management, a guy named Jim Chamberlin.  The patient rights S. signed at PV include unlimited access to clergy, lawyers and personal physicians.  Another time, S. filled out a card to speak with a nurse she knew at Peninsula Hospital.  A counselor read it, tore it up and said S. would not be "manipulating anyone".

Jim Chamberlin is the guy PV pays to protect PV's interests, and he's a nebulous character.  When my step daughter's PV records were being reviewed, it was noted that Jim Chamberlin and PV's attorney Thomas Cole signed off on S. treatment team meetings.  Any idea why risk management and a lawyer should be overseeing treatment?

Peninsula's interests were at risk.

[Che Gookin]

Seriously Zen... They really were just trying to keep the lawyers and priests from slipping S. a dime bag or two of weed. Nothing nefarious at all good sir!

 :nods:

[stoodoodog]

We are not classified as a wilderness program or school. We are licensed as a residential treatment facility. Our average length of stay is around 1 year.Contact with parents is once per week during a family therapy session. During the first phase of our program the patients are not allowed any additional visitation or phone privileges. During the second phase progression through the level system will allow the patients to earn additional visitation and phone calls but it is a slow, progressive schedule of visits and ultimately ends with 2-3 extended home visits prior to discharge.

We absolutely have a process in place for reporting mistreatment. The patients would complete a patient advocate request form and the patient advocate would then make sure the patient is allowed a private phone call to report any alleged abuse. As a facility we would also make the call if we believed any of our patients are being mistreated.

I am glad Kelly clarified what PV is...For several years I have seen ads and promos describing PV as a school, a wilderness program an RTC etc... After the first round of hearings they started to emphasize the licensed residential treatment facility label. Licensed...license...my experience with PV makes me consider those words so carefully now.
 Contact with the parent who is paying for the procedure PV performs might be once a week. A parent who is not paying, and who is not sold on the program (100% on board[/b] in the words of former program director Adam McLain) might not get to see their child at all.
Kelly neglects to mention that the first phase of their program, the part where the children are in lock down on the admissions unit described by one leading advocate as "a fire trap" has no determinate time. I have been in contact with many PV patients who were in STU for three months or longer.
The process PV had in place to report mistreatment when my daughter was there was tearing up advocate request forms, telling the children they were "manipulating", ridiculing the child, and perhaps assigning a "consequence".
PV making a phone call to "report a mistreated child"? I have to decline comment on my personal experience with this one for now.
It  looks good though when trying to sell a parent on the program.