Institutions grab headlines again

Beit Bar Dror in the Israeli news (December 9, 2022)

Naama Lerner, our local unsung hero ("A woman of valor" December 11, 2022) followed up her one-person protest with the update below. 

It's so shocking it sounds scripted. But trust me, Naama doesn't do that. (The translation from the Hebrew source on Facebook is mine.)

On Friday morning a news report was published about food poisoning at the Bar Dror institution in Kfar Saba. Thirty-six out of the one hundred residents came down with diarrhea, and some of them even had high fevers.

Does this news sound painfully familiar to you? If so, it's because a few months ago a very similar article was published about the Beit Dafna Institute. There it ended with the death of three residents. This time, miraculously, no one paid with his life.

But is this incident any less serious because of that?

A side anecdote. As you remember, last week private institutions held a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Welfare, demanding additional money and standards. Facing them the Movement for Independence placed signs intended to remind the institution managers of the incidents of neglect, abuse and death that occurred in the last year in these institutions, and of their audacity in demanding money and services.

At some point, some of the protesters began to cross the road and attempt to have a dialogue about what was written on the signs. One of the protesters introduced herself as an employee of the Bar Dror Mossad. She was angry that the signs lumped together all the institutions, and claimed that Bar Dror should not be included with the institutions where residents died due to neglect or abuse, since no untoward events had occurred there and it is exemplary..

"Our facility is different," she claimed. "It operates in an exemplary manner".

Less than a week has passed, and the news about food poisoning at the Bar Dror institution has been published. Need another explanation about the inclusion of all institutions under the same umbrella? Who is next in line?"

And now "hot off the press", an update on that update:

Sanitary deficiencies were discovered at the Bar Dror institution, a hostel for people with special needs, in Kfar Saba. The Ministry of Health today (Wednesday) issued an instruction to close the kitchen at the institution after tests of food samples revealed low levels of Clostridium bacteria and E.coli bacteria. Although these levels do not cause illness, they do indicate poor sanitary conduct of the institution." [Source: Walla (Hebrew)]

It doesn't seem like this institution will be excluded from the inclusive list of "bad entities" anytime soon.

And while we are agreeing on that generalization, note that Doron Almog's "babies" (ADI Negev and ADI Jerusalem) are two more such private, large, institutions enclosing people with disabilities from infancy to middle age. 

But that fact is carefully swept under the carpet. Instead, Almog, now head of the Jewish Agency is touted as a champion of the rights of people with disabilities. 

Here is but one example of many such distortions. Since he became chairman of the Jewish Agency, Almog has been promoting a policy of opening up the world of aliyah to all types of Jews in the Diaspora, including those will special needs. As the Jerusalem Post recently wrote: 

This topic is especially close to his heart, as the founder and chairman of the rehabilitation village "ADI Negev-Nachalat Eran" which has become a model for integrating people with disabilities. 

Which brings to mind Abraham Lincoln's words: “You can fool some of the people all the time; you can fool all the people some of the time; but, you can't fool all the people all the time.” 

Some of us are not fooled about Doron Almog.

New rule: It's alright to restrain if the victim is disabled

Doron Almog may have won the 2016 Israel Prize and amassed a horde of friends in high places. But I have photos of the bedrooms in the Jerusalem branch of ADI, a large, closed institution for children and young adults with disabilities in which he plays a lead role. They are damning.

A notice was circulated last week by the Director General of Israel's Ministry of Welfare. It's entitled (my translation from the source Hebrew) "Tools and procedures for identification, prevention and response/remedy for challenging, dangerous behavioral situations in facilities of the Disabilities Administration" 

Dated May 23, 2022 and downloadable (in Hebrew) from here, the circular formally declares the use of the "crib-beds" in which Almog's people have been been enclosing ADI's institutionalized residents to be banned.

I made an unannounced visit to ADI Jerusalem (then known as Aleh Jerusalem) in 2018. See "Making history: After the raid". During that visit, we were shown beds, one of them occupied, that are best described as "cages". The person in the bed below was photographed at 12:30 pm, the middle of the day. 

2018: Bed-cages in use at the ADI Jerusalem institutional residence

This is not to say that the Ministry of Welfare's other regulations were welcomed by defenders of the human rights of people with disabilities. In fact those with whom I was in touch were infuriated. Disturbingly wide discretion is granted to staff members in institutions to restrain the movement of residents. The regulations say they may do so "only in unusual instances, and only to prevent actual, immediate danger to a person or to another and only to the extent that is required for that purpose."

Included specifically in that carte blanche is the use of hand splints for 45 minutes; fastening to chairs during meals; and locking up and isolating residents in a "protection room" for up to an hour at a time. 

These measures may be used on anyone with disabilities aged 6 years or more, who engages in "challenging, dangerous behavior" (again my translation of the Hebrew).

The new regulations will go into effect in six months from now. Among other reasons, this is to enable institutions to prepare for their implementation.

Here's what Adv. Naama Lerner of the Movement for Independence (a group I mentioned in this earlier post a week ago) wrote in reaction to the new regulations (again my translation from the source Hebrew):

"I urge you to read this circular with great interest. It permits harsh restrictions on people in institutions with "challenging behavior". It permits fastening to a chair, isolation, tying up, in very pretty words and with 'professionalism'. For now, this is for your information. In the future we intend to act forcefully against these regulations."

Too bad all those well intentioned donors to ADI institutions have never seen these bed-cages.