The owner of one of Alaska’s major mental hospitals for children earned over $13 billion in profits last year, raking in huge profits from the states, including Alaska that place foster children in their care.
According to an article from the publication Mother Jones, which also revealed that the North Star’s Behavioral Health’s operator, Universal Health Services, placed foster children in inadequately staffed centers, used excessive the use of chemical and physical restraints as well as the insurance company was billed for unneeded services.
Julia Lurie spent a year researching UHS to create The Mother Jones story, poring through court documents and lawsuits and speaking to children’s welfare specialists and policy makers and other former North Star employees and patients.
One of the major characters in Lurie’s tale was a patient of Anchorage.
Listen:
The transcript that follows has been edited lightly for clarity.
Julia Lurie: So Trina Edwards was a foster child. She toured for a long time between as well out of North Star, the psychiatric facility. She’s now 23 however she has been admitted to North Star for the first time at the age of 12 years old. She was admitted due to suicidal ideas and threatening to flee their foster family. She was awestruck by what she witnessed children being physically restrained and in some instances, injecting sedatives into them, children being held in secluded areas. She would also experience certain of the things she observed the first time, including being physically restrained and chemically restricted. One thing that is particularly interesting is that Trina did not feel that there was a conclusion to be seen. In some instances according to medical reports, she was ready to be discharged but would remain there for months, as she was unable to find a place to go. There weren’t any foster homes that could accommodate her.
Casey Grove Then you spoke to Trina about her experiences at the time and you have some of the audio recordings from the conversations. Here’s a video from Trina herself:
Trina Edwards: I’m being good. I’ve never been into trouble. I’m on the medication creating me to feel as … but I get the same outcome. Nobody. Nothing. I’m alone. They’re thinking, “Well, you just need to keep going.”
Casey Grove“So, Julia, is what Trina was experiencing, the norm?
Julia Lurie: It doesn’t appear to be atypical, however. I had conversations with a variety of former foster children who were at North Star. The similarities between their tales were quite remarkable, like people who said there were physical and chemical confinements and isolation and being there even when a therapist or a caseworker declared that they were ready for departure.
Casey Grove: It’s true that North Star, it’s not new to us in Anchorage which is where I live. However, I don’t think the majority of people from Alaska are aware of the actual owner of North Star, and that’s an entity called Universal Health Services. What do you know about UHS? UHS not just as a business, but also, I think, its image throughout the country?
Julia Lurie: Yes. UHS is an publicly traded Fortune 500 company. It’s the largest provider of psychiatric hospitals across the United States. In the past, it’s seen the light of numerous of scathing media and government investigation. The investigations have uncovered astonishingly consistent claims. For example they claimed that hospitals accept patients who do not need to be admitted in the first place, they use improperly physical or chemical restraints and that they confine patients longer than they should. In addition, UHS has repeatedly denied these accusations.
Casey Grove: Hey, yeah. The UHS’s child psychiatric hospitals as each “dumping grounds” as well as “gold mines.” And I’m wondering what you would say to me. Why are some calling them “dumping grounds? Then, also the reason why they are so profitable?
Julia Lurie: In order to comprehend that I’d like to return to and discuss two distinct parts of the system. For one there are agencies for children’s welfare. In the case of Alaska that’s an agency called the Office of Children’s Services. Children welfare agencies are typically overloaded. They’ll usually have more foster children that they do foster houses. Children with behavioural health problems particularly teenagers can be difficult to locate foster homes for.
The other side that is involved in the process of admissions are UHS or a facility like North Star that consistently has beds available. Again, they will claim that they’re admitting patients for medical reasons only. However, the reality is that they are paid when patients arrive to their facility, and Medicaid reimburses North Star $938 a night for foster children.
On one side you’re dealing with an overloaded child welfare agency, but on the other the other hand you have a facility such as North Star. Both of these groups gain by having a foster child taken to North Star. I’d like to make clear about the fact that I believe there are plenty of individuals who are good actors in both of these situations. I’m not suggesting that OCS caseworkers, therapy staff in North Star or any individual individuals who are present are doing harm in any way. However, the reality is that there are two groups which benefit each other. There are foster kids that are sort of somewhere in between. If there’s no place else for you to go then there’s no much could be done.
Casey Grove: Yes. What is the outcome you can see with Trina or other children or even those who are in these places? What do you think the outcome will be to their lives in the future?
Julia Lurie: I think that spending a significant amount hours in an center such as North Star can really stick with the person you are. Trina as well as a lot of the kids I talked to spoke about how difficult it is to be able to trust others. It can be very difficult being around other people, with a lot of anxieties about being social, being a bit behind in other aspects of their lives as well. It’s not like they have an adequate education, or that they actually had the chance to imagine and think about what they’d want to pursue if they were released. This is why Trina is an example. is an extremely social person. She’s extremely sociable. However, on the contrary, she’s also the first to state that she is not a fan of being with people. She isn’t comfortable being a good friend to people. The memories of her time as a student at North Star are really hard for her to bear.
Casey Grove: So you’ve got North Star. The state is Foster care, and the state. But, what I’m asking is does anyone know of any like, positive trend, I would guess regarding this issue?
Julia Lurie: The bottom line is that it’s difficult because OCS You would think that OCS that they are the ones promoting for children. As I said, OCS is pretty overwhelmed. There have been some lawsuits. In the past, there have been children who have filed lawsuits against or OCS. North Star or OCS. Additionally there’s a in-progress class action suit brought by foster children against OCS. The most common complaint is that they’re placed inappropriately in institutions such as North Star, because there’s no other place to go. Then, as always I think that on an individual scale, there are those who are concerned about children regardless of whether they’re the caseworker or the therapist or whatever however, that at a systemic scale, the majority of the pressure comes from lawsuits.
