The
families of the 43 involuntary Seven Hills Pediatric Center
plaintiffs believe that their loved ones’ lives will
be significantly shortened if they are moved. We believe
that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has abrogated its
moral responsibility toward our loved ones and others of
its most helpless citizens by entering the Rolland Settlement
Agreement. We aim to help expose the truth about the one-size-fits-all
de-institutionalization policy so that more progressive
and enlightened policies can ensue for future generations,
and so that the public will be able to hold our officials
more accountable for their actions. We are accordingly working
to gather evidence about the tragic outcomes that occur
when the voices of the most helpless and their guardians
and physicians are discounted. Premature death, psychological
trauma, and physical and sexual abuse are reported to occur
with some frequency among people forced to move against
their families’ wishes in similar suits (see the Voice
of the Retarded organization’s “Neglect
and Abuse Document” . The purpose of
this page is to request additional accounts from those having
first-hand experience. We ask for your help.
Please
enter below your experience with advocates of movement from
nursing homes with or without consent of the patient and
their guardian. If you are willing to provide us with a
way to contact you for further information, please do not
forget to include this in your message. Please be assured
that your message will be kept confidential until and unless
we obtain your express approval to share it with others.
