In the News / Successes

National Institute of Mental Health

A new Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was appointed in September, Thomas Insel, M.D. Dr. Insel is a professor in Atlanta’s Emory University’s Department of Psychiatry and directs its Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. He is expected to take his office in mid-November. Some of Dr. Insel’s background may prove useful to the adult abuse field as we seek to make better connections with mental health professionals: Dr. Insel has conducted research in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and its possible treatment with serotonin reuptake inhibitors. (OCD, it has been speculated, may be one of the causes of hoarding.) He has also researched the link between aggression and neuropeptides, oxytocin and vasopressin.

Institutional Abuse

The Indiana Department of Health charged Fort Wayne State Developmental Center with condoning abuse and neglect of its 300 residents with mental retardation in a 106-page survey report issued in August. One 38-year-old resident, John P. Reed, died in June after a beating at the hospital, the last of at least 26 incidents in which Reed was hurt by other residents or himself in the months before his death. Another resident was found to have a broken leg after a physical therapist was seen kicking the resident, who had had previous injuries of “unknown origin.” A third resident was severely scalded in a shower when the resident was left unattended.

Public Education

The highly-rated Today show introduced elder abuse and neglect to a national audience on September 19, 2002. The segment featured definitions of physical, emotional and sexual abuse, financial exploitation, and even self-neglect. Warning signs were addressed and tips for avoiding abuse given. Cases of abuse, the report said, should be directed to adult protective services, law enforcement, and licensing/certification agencies. The lack of federal funding for APS was also addressed. For additional information, viewers (and readers, since the show posted an article on its website at http://www.msnbc.com/news/809531.asp) were directed to the National Center for Elder Abuse, AARP, the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, the American Bar Association, and the American Psychological Association.

Successful Prosecution

A man was convicted by a Cook County Criminal Court judge in August for the starvation and beating death of his 22-year-old disabled stepdaughter. John Hester, 49, was sentenced to death despite his attorneys’ argument that he was “borderline mentally retarded and did not know his actions would lead to [Orachanee] Anderson’s death.” A medical examiner testified that Anderson suffered more than 177 injuries, had more than two dozen scars on her chest alone, and died of a combination of malnutrition and blunt force trauma. Hester allegedly beat Anderson, who had psycho-social dwarfism and was blind and unable to speak, daily for more than five years. He also hogtied her, locked her in a utility closet, and duct-taped her to a toilet. The judge found that Hester understood enough to hide the abuse and involve Anderson’s mother in a cover-up, and ruled his IQ was not low enough to be considered to have mental retardation. Peggy Anderson is awaiting trial for her part in her daughter’s abuse and murder.

Murder or mercy?

In a case that has divided the disability community, Carol Carr, 63, is being held without bail awaiting trial on two charges of malice murder and two counts of felony murder for the shooting deaths of her sons, Randy Scott, 42, and Andy Scott, 41. The two men suffered from the same Huntington’s disease that had killed their father in 1995. Their only other sibling, James, 38, also has the disease. Carol Carr allegedly shot the men in their beds at the SunBridge Care and Rehabilitation Center in Griffin, Georgia, on June 8, 2002. Although some disability advocates protested at Carr’s bail hearing to ensure her actions were viewed as murder rather than a mercy killing, at least one advocate - Jerry Lampson, whose wife died of Huntington’s disease and who runs a HD resource center at www.hdlighthouse.org -- said, “those that know the terrible ravages of HD will rally to support Carol Carr.”

Safe Place

National and Texas Projects on Violence Against Persons with Disabilities. SafePlace, in Austin, Texas, has been awarded two October 2002 - September 2004 grants from the U.S. Office of Justice Programs. At least six full-time
staff will:

• Develop an accessibility evaluation tool for domestic violence and sexual assault agencies;
• Conduct a nationwide training project on developing accessible abuse prevention and intervention programs for persons with disabilities;
• Provide train-the-trainer workshops for affiliates of the American Council of the Blind, the Arc of the US, and United Cerebral Palsy Association;
• Provide trainings in Texas for law enforcement, prosecutors, and other criminal justice personnel to enhance their ability to recognize, address, investigate, and prosecute domestic/sexual crimes against persons with disabilities; and
• Conduct a Texas accessibility survey, and provide expert consultation on accessibility issues.

For more information, contact:
Wendie H. Abramson, LMSW
Director of Disability Services ASAP
(A Safety Awareness Program)
SafePlace
P.O. Box 19454
Austin, Texas 78760
512-356-1599 voice
512-482-0691 TTY
512-385-0662 fax
www.austin-safeplace.org

American Sign Language Computer Translation Program

American Sign Language Computer Translation Program Under Development. Researchers at DePaul University in Chicago have developed Paula, a computer program that uses speech recognition and sophisticated animation to translate spoken English into American Sign Language (ASL). A hearing person speaks into a headset connected to the computer. An animated figure of Paula then translates the message into ASL through hand gestures and facial expressions on the computer screen. Paula is expected to be field-tested in airports initially. For more information, see http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0812_020812_wiresignlanguage.html