Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 18, 1991 TAG: 9103180059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"My staff will be there . . . investigating the allegations. . . . The health and welfare and safety of people who are disabled is of primary importance to us," King E. Davis told The Associated Press on Saturday night.
The Daily Press of Newport News reported Sunday that at least four hospital aides have sold illegal drugs, primarily marijuana, to employees and a handful of patients.
The newspaper based its report on interviews with 40 current and former employees and patients at the mental institution.
The newspaper reported that aides in buildings where the hospital's more aggressive patients live routinely slap, push, tease and curse patients. Alcohol and drug use also are common among some employees while on duty.
David C. Pribble, the hospital's director for nearly 12 years, resigned Friday, two days after the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation announced an investigation of the hospital's operation.
Davis on Friday appointed Olivia J. Garland, director of Central State Hospital in Petersburg, as interim director.
Saturday, Davis suspended the hospital's medical director, clinical director and employee relations director for 10 days while their role, if any, in the allegations is investigated.
John Bumpas, the state Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse's assistant commissioner of community and facility services, said the department has no drug-testing policy for employees.
"If there is any indication that there may be use of drugs in the work place, we are extremely concerned about that," Bumpas said. "We feel we are aggressive in enforcing the requirement of no drugs or alcohol use in our facilities, and we expect the supervisory and management and staff to strictly enforce that."
The state police investigation began when Del. Harvey B. Morgan, R-Gloucester, received a letter from a hospital aide outlining many problems at the hospital, the newspaper reported.
The largest of Virginia's four general mental hospitals, Eastern State cares for people from Hampton Roads, the Middle Peninsula, Northern Neck and the Eastern Shore who must be institutionalized or who cannot afford private care.
About 930 of its 1,074 beds are used by those with mental illnesses ranging from depression to schizophrenia.
Pribble, interviewed by the newspaper before he resigned, and Human Resources Director Michael C. Wimsatt, interviewed before he was suspended, said they were unaware of illegal drugs and alcohol being used at the hospital by employees.
Both said they had received anonymous tips about staffers who sell drugs at the hospital. Pribble said he has had state police drug-sniffing dogs search the grounds for drugs, but none were ever found.
Some former and current hospital employees told the newspaper they felt under attack from patients.
Jean Thompson, who worked as an aide from 1965 to 1988, said she has scars where a patient dug fingernails into her arm. Norma Johnson, an aide with more than 22 years experience, said she almost quit in 1987 when a patient hit her in the mouth so hard it loosened a couple of teeth.
Administrators and supervisors say Eastern State patients today are younger, more combative, more likely to have broken the law, and more likely to have abused alcohol or drugs. Employees say maintaining peace in the hospital is made more difficult by a trend in mental health to medicate patients less, causing many to act more aggressively.
The presence of violent patients sometimes causes nurses, most of whom are women, to overlook aides' rules violations, such as alcohol and drug use, because they need the aides' protection, according to current and former employees.
"We needed the men on our side to help us with violent patients," said Margaret Peters, an aide for nearly 20 years. "Most nurses wouldn't report them."
In February the hospital added 80 hours of mandatory training that focuses in more detail on the patients' illnesses and should help aides be more tolerant when patients are verbally abusive, said Jim Parham Jr., director of staff development and training.
The new training, previously voluntary, will be added to the 204 hours of classroom and on-the-job certified nursing-aide training that the hospital has required since 1987, Parham said.
by CNB