Burnt Orange Report

Texas Services for the Elderly are Failing

By Byron LaMasters

Here's one of many consequences of letting Republicans run a state. The Houston Chronicle reports:

A leading health official described a "top-to-down, total breakdown" of Texas' elder protective services as the state released a preliminary review Wednesday calling for an overhaul of the system.

"No piece of Adult Protective Services appears to be working properly," said Health and Human Services Deputy Commissioner Gregg Phillips, who oversaw the 30-day review, the first of a series that will be expanded statewide. "We're getting out there and saying everybody who's raised the red flag is right."

The commission's 14-page review focuses on the state's weak response to elder abuse, neglect and exploitation in El Paso, where health officials videotaped a man so ignored by caseworkers that his rotting ear was covered in maggots.

Major findings of the report, prompted by an executive order from Gov. Rick Perry, show:

· Severe cases often did not result in better contact or attention to clients.

· More than a third of Adult Protective Services investigations were insufficient.

· Needs of clients with mental illness were not addressed in 44 percent of all such cases.

· Thirty percent of cases resulted in incomplete plans to serve clients.

Disgusted yet? How about this:

Phillips said he was disgusted when he traveled to El Paso and viewed evidence the judge had collected documenting the breakdown in elder care protective services.

One elderly person had a house piled high with trash and a Mason jar of cat eyeballs in the bathroom, which the individual had apparently been eating, Phillips said.

Sad. Just sad. But Texas Republicans care more about cutting taxes than the slightest amount of human decency.