My contribution to Bizchut's forum on the Neve Ha'irus scandal

"The carer didn't even notice that she (my daughter) had broken a tooth".
Video-still from an undercover investigation of Neve Ha'irus that appeared
in recent days on an Israeli Channel 2 news program [link]

Here is a comment I sent in Hebrew to the group of activists that has been discussing the issue of sub-standard institutions for people with disabilities and in particular Neve Ha'irus about which I wrote earlier.

(See my two previous posts: "The evils of institutionalization are now on the front burner" and "Not a Dickensian tale".)

The English translation appears below it, and the Hebrew right after it. I'll post the responses I receive as soon as I can translate them.

Hello All, 

Thus far, I haven't read a comment that represents those parents who choose to care for their children themselves at home. 

The government expends gargantuan sums on the care of people with disabilities only if they live in institutions. 

But if they live with their families the government doesn't subsidize their care other than with the minimal National Insurance stipend. 

The result is that we parents who are sacrificing our energies, our money and, often our health, are saving the government millions of shekels. 

For instance, for every child residing in Israel's largest chain of institutions, Aleh, over 16,000 shekels flow monthly of which 83% is taxpayers' money! 

So when we focus on the problem of these institutions let's also include the plight of parent-caregivers and our fight for a personal- basket-of-services for our children. 

Best,Frimet Roth

שלום כולם,

עד כה לא קראתי דעה שמייצגת את אותם הורים שבחרו לטפל בילדיהם בעצמם בחיק המשפחה.

הממשלה מעבירה הון תועפות עבור טיפולם של אנשים עם מוגבלויות אך ורק אם הם גרים במוסדות.אבל אם  הם חיים בבתיהם הממשלה אינה משתתפת במימון טיפולם - חוץ מהסכום המיזערי של  תשלומי ביטוח לאומי.

התוצאה היא שאנחנו, הורים שמוסרים את כוחותינו, כספינו ולעיתים קרובות את בריאותינו , חוסכים למממשלה מליוני שקלים. לדוגמא, עבור כל ילד ברשת הכי גדולה בארץ, "עלה", זורמים יותר מ-16,000 שקלים לחודש ש-83% הם מדמי משלמי מיסים!

אז כשמתמקדים בבעיית המוסדות האלה הבה נכלול גם את המצוקה של הורים-מטפלים ואת מאבקנו עבור סל סיוע לילדינו.

בברכה,

פרימט רוט

The evils of institutionalization are now on the front burner

From Bizchut's Hebrew-language Facebook page (there is an
English-language version as well). The photo shows an ill-fitting mattress
on one of the Neve Ha'irus residents' beds

If you are not already familiar with what is happening at Neve Ha'irus, see my December 24, 2016 background post: "Not a Dickensian tale".

Now this quote:

The 130 residents of Neve Ha'irus are exposed to contagious skin diseases that are not being treated properly. Bizchut has received difficult-to-view photos depicting shocking neglect. According to staff members, residents suffering from this contagious illness are "treated" with nothing but hand cream.
This is just another instance of how Neve Ha'irus is a gaping wound in the heart of Israeli society which has chosen to conceal these people and ignore their plight. We call for the immediate appointment of an independent investigative body in order to rescue these residents. In addition, they must be transferred to respectable residences. This wound has to be treated!
Would you like to make a difference?
Contact Knesset member, Haim Katz, Minister of Employment and Welfare [in the Israeli government] (email: sar@molsa.gov.il) and demand that he set up an independent emergency committee to investigate the operation of Neve Ha'irus.

The post above, which appeared this week in Hebrew on the Facebook page of Bizchut, the Israel Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities, has sparked a fiery exchange of views from readers. 

Several, who were enraged by the post and by accompanying photographs of Neve Ha'irus - one of the dining room and of a resident’s hand - conceded that they are employees of the institution. (Note: the comments of Neve Ha'irus staff members were posted without any Hebrew punctuation.) They asserted that their positions there grant them inside and irrefutable knowledge of the situation. Here is one excerpt:

“The warmth and love we give our work is holy work We the caregivers work every day of the year unlike you who sit in some office Sit there frustrated Stop harming Be adult people and leave Neve Hairus in peace because Neve Hairus is #1…” 

Another employee wrote:

“I don’t recall that dining rooms must be decorated and colorful… where is such a thing written is there a regulation that a dining room must be decorated with every color of the rainbow???????? What’s important is that the food be well-cooked and hot and fresh and varied and suited to each and every resident and that’s what happens here”

And regarding the photo of a resident’s scabies-afflicted hand, one employee wrote:

“This resident receives treatment in clinics We also have dryness on our hands at times or on our entire bodies and we go to a dermatologist and our residents go out for treatment as well…”

As one ex-employee pointed out, this is just what you would expect to hear from a frightened employee desperate to keep his job.

Bizchut responded to these comments stating, among other things:

“Is it possible that the entire staff at Neve Ha'irus is bad? Is this the reason that the facility is operating as it is? The answer is “No”.
We had the pleasure of meeting some of the employees during our visit and we maintain contact with some of them. They are warm people with values who truly desire to do good and to give the residents quality of life.
They do the best they can and the problem does not lie with them but with the structure of life in an institution. It is a closed place, surrounded by a fence. At its entrance stands a locked gate and even parents of the residents arriving to visit may not walk around freely nor can they visit the building where their loved ones live.”

Bizchut’s recent postings and emails about this institution have elicited critical responses from its supporters as well. Their gripes relate to the specifics of how to tackle this blight – not whether it is one at all.

Bizchut employees, parents of children with disabilities and other involved citizens have joined the discourse. Needless to say, it is uplifting to finally see institutionalization in Israel and its evils receiving the attention they warrant.

I’ll be translating those further exchanges as soon as I find the time.

Not a Dickensian tale

The Neve Ha'irus institution [Image Source]

This is reality for some people with disabilities in Israel of 2016.

Bizchut, the Israel Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities, has released the following summary of an unannounced visit last Thursday by the director of its Community Outreach Department, Naama Lerner, together with Knesset Member Ilan Gilon, to a closed institution for people with cognitive disabilities, Neve Ha'irus, in Nes Ziona. 

They were responding to a series of serious complaints from parents of residents and from past employees at Neve Ha'irus that Bizchut had received about that institution.

There they say they encountered many disturbing sights that included extreme physical and emotional neglect. Some of the shocking findings they reported:

• Residents locked into their dormitories without any activities.
• Bedrooms bare of personal cupboards or personal clothing. Some beds have boxes underneath them containing all of the resident’s personal possessions.
• Some of the beds lacked any bedding or winter blankets.
• In some of the dormitories,  the kitchen and bedrooms are locked, barring residents from entering their own rooms when they seek a bit of privacy.
• The handles of bedroom doors have been removed to prevent the residents from entering their rooms. Each staff member carries a handle in his pocket which he inserts into the door when he needs to open it.
• Signs of rampant neglect including spider webs.
• The absence of any books, games or computers. Residents roam around to and fro with doing nothing to do. A very difficult sight to behold: people are erased, robbed of their identity.

The homepage of the Neve Ha'irus website says the institution, established in 1957, has been under the full supervision of the Ministry of Welfare since 1985.

The original Hebrew text of the Bizchut announcement (posted here) goes on to say:

It was recently reported to Bizchut that, three weeks before, the dead body of a resident had been removed from the premises. When we arrived there to investigate, we happened to find an intensive-care ambulance standing at the institution’s entrance, preparing to rush to hospital another resident in a state of hypothermia.

This facility, intended to serve as home to 130 people, must not be tolerated. It is not located in some isolated spot but rather in the very center of the country, in Nes Ziona. The conditions there should not be permitted to exist in today’s State of Israel.

We demand that the Ministry of Welfare:

1. Immediately close Neve Ha’irus and transfer its residents to appropriate settings within the community.
2. Appoint an outside, independent body (an ombudsman) that will review the complaints lodged so as to ensure that the voices of the residents of closed institutions are heard and that abuses such as these are eliminated.
3. Investigate the deaths that have occurred in the past year at Neve Ha’irus and ascertain the reasons behind the hospitalizations of residents.

If you would like to join our effort, please contact Naama Lerner at Bizchut at naamalerner@bizchut.org.il or by phone 052-856-6219. Please leave a message and we will get back to you.