developmental disabilities

(Runtime 4:10) By Lauren Paterson and Rachel SunFor adults with developmental disabilities in Washington, a new program could provide options for them to…

Some parents with kids in crisis in Washington are making a heart wrenching decision. They’re sending their children to out-of-state therapeutic boarding schools. And taxpayers are picking up the tab. While these are outlier cases, they highlight ongoing gaps in in-state services — gaps that were laid bare during the COVID pandemic.

It's a growing problem in Washington: kids with developmental disabilities and complex behaviors who are stuck in the hospital with no reason for being there. Usually, they end up in the hospital after a crisis or an incident. But once the child is medically cleared to leave, their parents or their group home won't come get them citing inadequate supports to manage the youth's needs. While the state searches for alternative placements, the child waits.

Mysterious bruises. An unreported burn. Two vulnerable clients left alone overnight. These are just some of the complaints that families are leveling against Aacres WA — a troubled residential care provider that gets tens of millions of dollars a year from the state to care for people with developmental disabilities. Now state officials say they’re investigating.

A former caregiver for people with developmental disabilities has been criminally charged in connection with the 2019 death of a client who ingested a large amount of household cleaning vinegar.

Suzan Mubarak, 31, and Mitch Domier, 43, live a few miles apart in Bozeman, Mont., but those drive-by visits are the closest the couple has been for nearly 10 months. The coronavirus pandemic largely locked down the homes for adults with developmental disabilities where they each live, limiting them to video chats and the occasional drive-by.

Early data show a 13.5 percent death rate among people with developmental disabilities who live in state-supported, community-based settings and have tested positive. That’s nearly triple Washington’s current statewide death rate of 4.6 percent. It’s a similar story in other states, including Oregon.

There's growing evidence of high rates of death from COVID-19 for a population that doesn't get a lot of attention: people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner determined Mary Wilson, a developmentally disabled woman, died from ingesting household vinegar. The cleaning strength product, with six percent acidity, had inflamed and killed the tissue in Wilson’s esophagus, stomach and small bowel resulting in her death. Her caregiver was supposed to give her prescribed liquid ahead of a colonoscopy.

The Medicaid fraud division of the Washington Attorney General’s office is conducting a criminal investigation into the death of a developmentally disabled woman who died last February in Spokane. The existence of the state’s investigation, which began in August, has not been previously reported.