CCHR says media exposure of child abuse in the $23 billion behavioral industry is in vital need of reform.
By CCHR International
Mental Health Industry Watchdog
October 23, 2023
CCHR International applauds the recent year-long investigation that Mother Jones journalist, Julia Lurie, conducted into one of the country’s largest for-profit psychiatric hospital chains, Universal Health Services (UHS), finding shocking abuse of foster care children. The results of Lurie’s compelling investigation reveal a culture of child exploitation, including staffers in one facility allegedly repeatedly beat and dragged young patients, and a 10-year-old placed there by Child Protective Services in 2021, received a broken collarbone and black eye.[1]
Mother Jones reported that UHS brought in $13.4 billion in 2022 and profited from the treatment of foster kids.[2] They provide a lucrative patient base because they’re vulnerable: “There’s rarely an adult on the outside clamoring to get them out, and often, they don’t have anywhere else to go.” Medicaid typically foots the bill.[3]
“Universal Health Services, similar for-profit psychiatric hospital chains, and the mental health practitioners who treat foster children profit from a $23 billion a year ‘child abuse’ industry,” says Jan Eastgate, president of CCHR International.
UHS has more than 21,000 inpatient psychiatric beds—or one in six across the country.[4] Mother Jones obtained data from 38 states on UHS placement of foster care children; 31 provided Medicaid data. Between 2017 and 2022, the number of times that foster children were sent to UHS facilities was 36,000, but the numbers likely reflect the minimum possible admissions; $611 million of Medicaid funds was spent on the care of foster kids at the facilities.[5]
UHS’s Provo Canyon behavioral facility in Utah was where celebrity heiress Paris Hilton experienced physical and sexual abuse at the facility as a teenager before it was under UHS ownership. Mother Jones reported Hilton “has taken aim at the facility in her work advocating against the so-called ‘troubled teen industry.’” Under UHS ownership, “damning allegations about the use of physical restraints and sedative injections at the facility have continued.”[6]
Since 2010, CCHR has investigated UHS and other for-profit companies with facilities providing behavioral and psychiatric treatment. CCHR has sent tens of thousands of letters to state and federal legislators about the abuses it has documented. Its review of lawsuits and allegations against about 20 UHS facilities between April 2017 and October 2018 revealed, for example:
- Internal surveillance videos show foster children being tackled, dragged, and choked by staff members.
- The rape of two girls aged 13 and 16; a 12-year-old boy sexually assaulted; a sexual abuse patient roomed with a known sex offender; assault and battery of an 11-year-old girl; and the restraint death of a 15-year-old boy.
Mother Jones tells the story of abuse through the experiences of five former foster care teens. Katrina Edwards, “spent more than three years during her adolescence at facilities owned by UHS, including 891 nights at North Star Behavioral Health in Anchorage,” Alaska. “Medical and court records show that she was repeatedly physically restrained, forcibly injected with a sedative, held in seclusion, and put on potent psychiatric medications.” For this, Alaska’s Medicaid program paid more than half a million dollars for Edwards’ abusive “care.”[7]
Lurie’s article, “Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals Where Foster Kids Are a “Gold Mine”: How a scandal-plagued health care giant profits off a failing child welfare system,” raises concerns that CCHR has also brought to the attention of legislators and law enforcement agencies for many years. There’s a nationwide need to investigate treatment practices in these facilities and to eliminate restraint use and other coercive psychiatric practices. This extends beyond UHS to others, including Acadia Healthcare and the former Sequel Youth & Family Services (now Vivant).
In 2020, in Sequel’s Lakeside Academy in Michigan, 16-year-old African American foster care teen, Cornelius Frederick, was restrained for throwing a sandwich on the floor, and couldn’t breathe while being forcibly held down. He died two days later. The coroner ruled the death a homicide and three staffers were criminally prosecuted, pleading no contest to the charges.[8]
UHS has been the subject of several high-profile lawsuits and investigations, including a “blistering” BuzzFeed News series in 2016; numerous federal and state legislators from both sides of the aisle have voiced concerns, and a Department of Justice probe resulted in $122 million in settlements in 2020.[9]
This year, UHS’s UK operation, Cygnet Healthcare was fined $1.2 million after it pleaded guilty to a criminal prosecution brought by the UK hospital oversight agency, Care Quality Commission (CQC), over the death of a young girl. The facility failed to provide a safe ward environment to reduce the risk of people being able to use a ligature to kill themselves.[10] But these are conditions that CCHR and others, including attorneys, have exposed as also occurring in the U.S. since 2015.
CCHR is sending another round of letters asking state policymakers to review laws and regulations governing these facilities to strengthen and enforce accountability. It supports the federal Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, introduced in Congress in April this year, spearheaded by Paris Hilton and three Congressmen to help curb abuse.
UHS Behavioral Facility Abuses Uncovered
Mother Jones interviewed former foster children abused in UHS facilities. Other media have exposed similar cases.
- At one facility in Alabama, staffers repeatedly beat and dragged young patients.[11] According to a recent lawsuit, a 10-year-old placed there by Child Protective Services in 2021, received a broken collarbone and black eye and was bitten by scorpions in his bed “many times,” according to a recent lawsuit. When he reported the injuries, staffers allegedly threatened to kill him.[12]
- In 2017, BuzzFeed News exposed video footage at UHS’s Hill Crest Behavioral Health in Birmingham, Alabama, which showed a flourishing “culture of violence.” A 15-year-old patient on crutches was instructed by a technician to have a shower, which the teen didn’t want to comply with because he didn’t want to get the cast on his lower leg wet. A staff member pushes him down on the floor and with the help of another staff, hauls him into a room where, off camera, the teen said, the tech smashed his head into the dresser and then picked up his right foot, the one that was in a cast, and slammed it down to the ground. “They don’t treat those kids right. They treat them like they’re animals in a zoo,” said a former nurse. “I wouldn’t send my dog there.”[13]
- Hundreds of foster care children went to Provo Canyon in Utah whose license was threatened twice after children escaped or were injured during physical restraints. (UHS noted Provo Canyon School resolved concerns with state inspectors in a timely manner.)[14]
- Multiple staffers told Mother Jones that Copper Hills Youth Center in Utah has become more violent since 2020, when Ron Tuinei, the former executive director of UHS’s Provo Canyon School, took over. Improper restraints from overaggressive employees, some of whom came from Provo Canyon, left children with black eyes and bruises, they said.[15]
- Katrina Edwards, the former foster child in Alaska “spent more than three years during her adolescence at facilities owned by UHS, including 891 nights at North Star Behavioral Health in Anchorage. Medical and court records show that she was repeatedly physically restrained, forcibly injected with a sedative, held in seclusion, and put on potent psychiatric medications. She was prescribed the powerful antipsychotic, Seroquel, which the facility’s psychiatrist increased the dosage; she was also taking Concerta for ADHD, the antidepressant Lexapro and Benadryl for “agitation.” (Agitation is a side effect of Seroquel, Lexapro and Cymbalta.) At times, Edwards pleaded to stop the meds. “They are messing up with my body,” she told her psychiatrist, according to medical records. “They are messing up with my mind and sometimes I don’t even know what I’m doing.”[16]
- Texas state compliance records have repeatedly noted improper use of physical restraints, and, in 2015, a nurse engaging in “sexual conduct with a child in care.”[17]
- Jyasia Batts was admitted to North Star an estimated 11 times and to Texas NeuroRehab Center for two years starting in 2011. She said that a male staffer in a Texas UHS facility slammed her head into the floor and put his elbow on the side of her face, to the point where the youngster couldn’t breathe. “After that, they put me in my room and told me I couldn’t come out. I was obviously hysterically crying. I was in pain. The fact that the bruises were so visible was traumatizing….”[18]
- Oregon CPS sent a 14-year-old girl to Provo Canyon School, in Utah, where she experienced 42 instances of peer assault, seclusion, or restraint—including being forcibly injected with the antipsychotic Haldol 17 times—over the course of three months, according to records obtained by state officials.[19]
- In 2018, WFAA News in Texas did an expose, “Against Their Will,” alleging that a mother took her 11-year-old son to UHS’s Millwood hospital seeking help and the hospital then detained him without her consent. As WFAA News detailed: “[T]he door locks behind you. You’re told you can’t leave. Stripped of your clothes, given a new bed. You have no idea when you’ll see your family again.” The facility billed his mother’s insurance company more than $11,000 for the unwanted stay.[20] A 13-year-old girl was also raped at the now-closed UHS Texas facility, Timberlawn. The girl’s father told The Dallas Morning News, “This can’t happen to anyone else. The place needs to be shut down.”[21]
- In 2018, Virginia’s Child Protective Services agency sent 17-year-old Raven Nichole Keffer to Newport News Behavioral Health Center, where she collapsed after days of complaining of feeling sick. According to a lawsuit Keffer died of an allegedly preventable adrenal insufficiency.[22]
- In December 2016, there was another compelling 24-page BuzzFeed News article headlined, “Intake: Lock Them In. Bill Their Insurer. Kick Them Out. How Scores of Employees and Patients Say America’s Largest Psychiatric Chain Turns Patients Into Profits.” Journalist Rosalind Adams’ investigation was based on interviews with 175 current and former UHS staff, including 18 executives who ran UHS hospitals and more than 120 additional interviews with patients and government investigators. These interviews, in addition to a “cache of internal documents,” raised “grave questions about the extent to which those profits were achieved at the expense of patients. Internal UHS documents exposed by BuzzFeed showed that one UHS psychiatric hospital’s strategic plan described extending patient stays as a means to meet financial goals. Other executives said this strategy was one they also used to meet their budgets.[23]
- In response to the BuzzFeed News exposé, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), then head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said: “The pattern of conduct described by the report paints a picture of greed and raises serious questions about patient safety.” He wrote to the Federal Health and Human Services asking what steps it was taking to investigate UHS.[24]
We are still waiting… Meanwhile, lives, including those of foster children, continue to be put at risk.
For more information, the following are a sample of articles by CCHR International since 2015 on UHS and the for-profit behavioral health industry:
June 2015: Lawmakers Urge Faster Action to Protect Youths at Largest “Behavioral Health” Centers
November 2015: Sexual Assault of Patients, Restraint Deaths, Billing Fraud… Allegations Against National Psychiatric Hospital Chain Continue
April 2016: Concerns Increase About Abuses & Rights Violations Reported at Universal Health Services Behavioral Centers
August 2016: CCHR Calls for Legislative Intervention Against For-Profit Psych Facility Planned for Pennsylvania
November 2016: More Lawsuits Against UHS Psychiatric Hospital Chain: CCHR Calls for Whistleblowers to Report Fraud in Mental Health Industry
December 2016: Psychiatric Hospital Chain (UHS) Lost $1.9 Billion within Less Than Two Weeks of Fraud and Abuse Allegations
December 2016: Lawmakers Support Investigation into Largest U.S. Psychiatric Hospital Chain (UHS) Amid Fraud Allegations
June 2017: Universal Health Services Psychiatric Hospital Chain UnderDepartment of Defense & FBI Investigation
October 2017: Business as Usual at America’s Largest Psychiatric Hospital Chain: Patient Sexual Assault, Abuse & Violence…
January 2018: Psychiatric Hospital Rife With Sexual Assault Allegations Finally Shuts Down While Another Faces Lawsuit over Teen Rape
April 2019: A-Z Update on For-Profit Psychiatric Industry Abuse
November 2019: UK Legislators Called On to Increase Oversight and Criminal Accountability in U.S. Owned For-Profit Behavioral Hospitals
July 2020: UHS—For-Profit Psych Hospital’s $132 Million Payout Over DOJ & MA Fraud Investigations
October 2020: UHS: Multiple Child Sexual Abuse Charges and $127m Lawsuit
October 2020: Child Abuse Allegations in the Behavioral-Psychiatric Industry: Universal Health Services (UHS)
February 2021: Utah State Law Curbing Behavioral Restraint Use on Children & Youths is Applauded But Unconditional Ban is Needed Nationwide
April 2021: 94% of States Fail in Protecting Troubled Youths in Behavioral Centers
February 2022: “The Kids Are Not Alright” Report Confirms Profit is Put Before Troubled Teens’ Mental Health & Safety
May 2022: CCHR Encourages Support for Paris Hilton & Congressional Child Abuse Reforms
July 2023: For-Profit Psychiatric Hospitals Need Stronger Penalties for Abuses and Deaths
[1] Julia Laurie, “Five Key Takeaways From Our Investigation on Foster Kids in Private Psychiatric Hospitals: Thousands of children have been sent to facilities run by a scandal-plagued health care giant,” Mother Jones, 19 Oct. 2023, https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2023/10/universal-health-services-foster-kids-uhs-investigation-takeaways/
[2] Ibid.
[3] Julia Lurie, “Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals Where Foster Kids Are a “Gold Mine”: How a scandal-plagued health care giant profits off a failing child welfare system,” Mother Jones, Sept.-Oct. 2023 issue, https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2023/10/foster-kids-psychiatric-hospitals-universal-health-services-uhs-alaska-cps/
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Op. cit., Julia Laurie, “Five Key Takeaways From Our Investigation…”
[7] Op. cit., Julia Laurie, “They Would Throw Me Into a Cage and Treat Me Like an Animal,” Mother Jones, 19 Oct. 2023, https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2023/10/universal-health-services-uhs-foster-kids-investigation-photoessay/
[8] https://www.cchrint.org/2021/02/17/utah-state-law-curbing-behavioral-restraint-use-on-children-youths-is-applauded-but-unconditional-ban-is-needed-nationwide/ citing: Justin Carissimo and Li Cohen, “Three charged in death of black teen who died after being restrained at youth facility,” CBS News, 27 June 2020, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cornelius-fredericks-death-lakeside-academy-staffers-charged-kalamazoo-michigan/; https://www.cchrint.org/2021/12/10/psychiatry-on-trial-criminal-charges-filed-lake-alice/ citing: Jim McKinney, “Former nurse at Lakeside Academy pleads no contest in death of student,” WIN 98.5, 1 Aug. 2021, https://wincountry.com/2021/08/01/former-nurse-at-lakeside-academy-pleads-no-contest-in-death-of-student/; https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2022/04/lakeside-academy-buildings-demolished-as-kalamazoo-county-club-plans-expansion.html; https://wwmt.com/news/local/michael-mosley-zachary-solis-lakeside-academy-cornelius-fredericks-death-2020-sandwich-restraint-manslaughter-homicide-crime-kalamazoo-county-west-michigan;
“Thousands of Foster Children Were Sent Out of State to Mental Health Facilities Where Some Faced Abuse and Neglect,” ProPublica, https://www.propublica.org/article/illinois-dcfs-children-out-of-state-placements
[9] Op. cit., Julia Lurie, “Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals Where Foster Kids Are a “Gold Mine”
[10] https://www.cqc.org.uk/press-release/cygnet-health-care-limited-fined-just-over-ps15m-prosecution-brought-care-quality
[11] Op. cit., Julia Laurie, “Five Key Takeaways From Our Investigation on Foster Kids
[12] Ibid.
[13] Rosalind Adams, “A Prescription for Violence: Videos Show UHS Hospital Staff Assaulting Young Patients,” BuzzFeed News, 11 Nov. 2017, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/videos-show-uhs-hospital-staff-assaulting-young-patients
[14] Op. cit., Julia Lurie, “Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals Where Foster Kids Are a “Gold Mine”
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Op. cit., Julia Laurie, “Five Key Takeaways From Our Investigation on Foster Kids in Private Psychiatric Hospitals….”
[18] Op. cit., Julia Lurie, “They Would Throw Me Into a Cage and Treat Me Like an Animal,”
[19] Op. cit., Julia Laurie, “Five Key Takeaways From Our Investigation on Foster Kids in Private Psychiatric Hospitals….”
[20] Charlotte Huffman, Mark Smith, Jason Trahan, “Against Their Will: Locked away in a mental hospital after voluntarily seeking help,” WFAA News 8, 29 Jun. 2018, https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/investigates/against-their-will-locked-away-in-a-mental-hospital-after-voluntarily-seeking-help/287-520570575
[21] Sue Ambrose, “Father of Girl, 13, Says She Was Raped at Timberlawn by Teen Male Patient,” Dallas Morning News, 18 Oct. 2017, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/10/13/father-girl-13-says-raped-timberlawn-teenmale-patient
[22] Op. cit., Julia Laurie, “Five Key Takeaways From Our Investigation on Foster Kids in Private Psychiatric Hospitals….”
[23] https://www.cchrint.org/2016/12/09/largest-us-psychiatric-hospital-chain-uhs-loses-1-5-billion/
[24] https://www.cchrint.org/2016/12/21/uhs-lost-1-9-billion-after-fraud-and-abuse-allegations/ citing: Rosalind Adams, “Lawmakers Sound Alarms on UHS Psychiatric Hospitals,” BuzzFeed News, 9 Dec. 2016, https://www.buzzfeed.com/rosalindadams/lawmakers-sound-alarms-on-uhs-psychiatric-hospitals?utm_term=.hoDDblMYw#.pxBz71wxP
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