List date(s) this work was published or aired.
27-Mar-11
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
A family struggled to hold a nursing home accountable for its family’s grief.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
To put the story into perspective, Green wanted to find out how many sexual assaults were reported each year in the state’s long-term care facilities and how often the assailants were arrested and prosecuted. The Oregon Department of Human Services didn’t know. DHS administrators refused to turn over most of the reports until the director ordered them to after being interviewed by Green. Even then, they would not release the names of most suspects. Green called dozens of police agencies and cross-checked hundreds of police reports and court records to get answers. It took seven months of dogged reporting to get this paragraph: Between 2005 and 2010, Oregon state officials received at least 350 reports of possible sexual abuse of the elderly or disabled in long-term care facilities. Just 14 arrests were made, with eight of the cases resulting in convictions. Oregon Department of Human Services found that 80 percent of those reported incidents were unprovable –dementia was often cited by DHS for declaring a victim unreliable. Green’s research found that the safety net for the most vulnerable of the state’s residents was full of holes. Oregon is among most states in failing to require national criminal background checks of all prospective care givers. Only in-state checks are conducted unless the applicant volunteers that he or she had lived elsewhere –a self-defeating honor system. But the agency also did not track care givers suspected of molesting elderly patients to make sure they didn’t just go to another nursing home. Green found that DHS also did not track the patients who were accused of molesting other residents, although state law requires care centers to give written notice when transferring such a patient.
Explain types of human sources used.
see above
Results:
The day before The Oregonian published Green’s investigation, DHS new acting director, Erinn Kelley- Siel, announced the agency would release to long-term care facilities the histories of job applicants believed by DHS investigators to have abused residents in their previous jobs –that includes dishwashers and nurses as well as caregivers. Kelley-Siel also pledged to convene a group to examine Oregon’s adult protective system that will include police and prosecutors to come up with a coordinated effort to substantiate sex-abuse cases. Rep. Carolyn Tomei, co-chair of the House Human Services Committee, said she planned to schedule hearings to look at the scope and severity of the program, but Rep. Sara Gelser said the most obvious solution would be to get DHS to abide by existing law. Sen. Chris Edwards introduced a bill to require all hospitals to employ a certified sexual assault nurse examiner by the end of 2013– or send sex assault victims to a hospital that does.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
no corrections
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
I am primarily a beat reporter with a busy daily schedule, but I convinced my editors a few times a year to carve out time for a project.