- http://www.kuow.org/post/through-cracks-life-and-death-megan-templeton
- http://www.kuow.org/post/safety-and-suicide-western-state-hospital-0
- http://tinyurl.com/KUOW-WSHStories
- http://tinyurl.com/KUOW-CEOresigns
Provide names of other journalists involved.
Jim Gates, Senior Editor
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Sept. 6-7, 2012
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens and young adults in Washington state. Inside a psychiatric hospital like Western State Hospital, near Tacoma, patients are supposed to be safe — even from themselves. Yet in April, twenty-year-old Megan Templeton became the latest in a string of Western patients to kill themselves. Our two-part investigation examined how the Northwest’s largest mental hospital failed to save Megan Templeton from herself and how other patients fell through the cracks. We found the hospital left known threats to patient safety unaddressed for years after other hospitals had fixed them. The hospital provided Templeton both the means (an unsafe room) and the opportunity (50 minutes, unobserved, right after she’d been released from restraints) to kill herself. We also found transparency especially lacking: unlike other Washington hospitals, state-run mental hospitals don’t have to publicly report their mishaps. The series also provides a rare, intimate portrait of a mental-hospital patient.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Public records from four states and private medical records provided by Megan Templeton’s family were central to piercing institutional secrecy. A police investigation of her death, along with her family’s hesitant cooperation, opened a rare window into the hospital. Police reports, 911 tapes and videos of witness interrogations exposed details of the night she hanged herself. Court and police records fleshed out the details of her short, troubled life. A Joint Commission investigation, obtained by public-record request, provided a look at hospital operations more broadly. Megan’s family shared some, but not all, of her hospital records. Getting even those took months of negotiation over what aspects of the family’s abusive history I would reveal in a story about a loved one’s recent death inside a public institution. After consulting with several health care journalists, we agreed not to use or mention a family member (convicted of felonies against Megan and other children 18 years prior) as a source and to only briefly allude to abuses that happened when Megan was only a toddler. An uncomfortable compromise, but the story of Megan Templeton falling through the mental-health safety net could not have been told without it.
Explain types of human sources used.
A Western employee, who knew me because I’d done a story on violence at the hospital, wrote me after a patient committed suicide. I was the only reporter to cover Megan Templeton’s suicide (see: http://tinyurl.com/KUOW-2ndDeath). One of her relatives wrote me to say that lapses at the hospital led to her death. A background check revealed a darkly violent history in Megan’s family during her early years. It led to the conundrum described above. In the end, I got to interview Megan’s twin sister at length and left the family member with the criminal record out of the story completely. At Western State Hospital, I interviewed the CEO, administrators, nurses, therapists and union officials. I also interviewed Templeton family members; advocates, and police and social-service providers in Washington and beyond. Finally, I dug up Megan’s social-media postings and recordings.
Results:
Western State Hospital’s CEO resigned in June, in the midst of my reporting on the hospital (see http://tinyurl.com/KUOW-WSHStories). He said it was not related to the scrutiny the hospital was facing (see: http://tinyurl.com/KUOW-CEOresigns).
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.
We have not run any corrections or clarifications. Western State Hospital challenged the accuracy of the number of patient suicides I reported. I included all 12 suicides that WSH identified in a spreadsheet it sent me of its patient suicides and suicide attempts over the past decade. WSH said I should not have included the three escaped patients who killed themselves or the four who killed themselves less than a week after the hospital chose to discharge them.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Seeking outside advice from health care reporters who’d faced similar conundrums in their reporting was invaluable as we faced difficult ethical and journalistic challenges. File public-record requests early and often; make follow-up calls when records don’t appear promptly. Working with traumatized sources: Some grieving family members were eager to participate in my story; others were adamantly opposed. After my efforts to encourage participation seemed to have hit a wall, I backed off and gave the traumatized family space to argue among themselves. Weeks later, I resumed my gentle nudging and negotiation to eventually gain their cooperation. Take breaks. A long investigation into a topic as dark as suicide will take its toll on you. Take care of your own mental health along the way.