I must be numb after months of unread and partially-read Globes stacked up:
"Patrick fights Rotenberg shock therapy decree" by Chelsea Conaboy | Globe Staff, February 16, 2013
The Patrick administration filed a motion Thursday challenging a court decree that has allowed one Massachusetts school to continue for decades the controversial practice of using electric shocks to control children and adults who have developmental disorders or other special needs.
While some families and others connected with the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton argue that the skin-shock procedure is necessary to treat people with the most severe conditions, others say it is tantamount to torture. Disability rights advocates and some former patients have worked for years to shut down the center.
What is concerning is the possibility for abuse, especially given studies that have connected the power over a person and the ability to inflict pain upon them leads to (allegedly) aberrant behavior on the authority in terms of punishment.
The state’s motion comes two months after federal health officials said they would stop paying for treatment at Rotenberg. If approved, it could mark the beginning of the end of that decades-long debate.
At issue is a 1987 settlement between the center and the Commonwealth that has placed the facility somewhat outside the reach of other state laws. The agreement was the result of a lawsuit in which the center, then called the Behavior Research Institute, challenged a state decision to suspend its license.
The two sides agreed at the time that the facility would be permitted to provide “aversive” interventions, which later included the electric shocks, but the court would be responsible for reviewing individual patients’ treatment plans. As a gesture of gratitude, the center was renamed for the judge who approved the decree.
Now, the state is arguing that the settlement is outdated. There is “overwhelming professional consensus” today that the shocks, meant to deliver jolts of pain or discomfort at the command of staff members to discourage particular behaviors, are inappropriate and outside the standards of care, the motion says.
“Our goal is to ensure that all individuals in the Commonwealth receive safe treatments, in line with best practices in the medical field,” Alec Loftus, a spokesman for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said in an e-mail. “We are optimistic that the court will rule in our favor.”
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