US Senate investigation details allegations of abuse in youth treatment centers

A U.S. Senate committee spent two years investigating major residential program operators and concluded that “abuse and neglect are the norm.”

Major health care companies that run residential treatment programs across the country place more importance on making money than on the well-being of the children in their care, leading to young people suffering “routine harm” such as sexual abuse, unnecessary isolation and chemical restraints, according to a new U.S. congressional investigation.

The companies at the center of the investigation make most of their money from federal funds — mostly Medicaid and child welfare funds — that are spent on sending children to programs far from their homes, said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, during a committee hearing Wednesday. But in those programs, Wyden said, “abuse and neglect are the norm.”

“They’re set up to allow this to happen,” Wyden said. “The system is failing them – except for the providers who run these treatment facilities who have figured out exactly how to profit from taxpayer-funded child abuse.”

The Senate Finance Committee spent two years investigating residential treatment programs for youth before releasing its comprehensive report Wednesday, which focused on allegations of abuse at four of the largest operators of residential treatment centers for youth in the country: Universal Health Services, Acadia Healthcare, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health and Vivant Behavioral Healthcare.

These companies mostly operate outside of Utah, but Universal Health Services operates two facilities here – the Provo Canyon School and the Copper Hills Youth Center.

The committee’s 130-page report documented allegations of abuse and mistreatment in both facilities.

At Provo Canyon School, investigators cited state records showing a teacher at the Springville campus hit a student on the head. And in another case, “a staff member pulled a student by the hair to support him during a restraint.” The committee’s report also cited a Salt Lake Tribune report detailing how a 14-year-old Oregon girl was injected with chemical sedatives 17 times over a period of about three months — a number so alarming that child welfare officials flew in from Oregon to investigate the case. Another child told federal investigators that she was also frequently chemically sedated, which she described as “a liquid that puts someone to sleep and calms you down.”

Investigators noted that Utah regulators investigated the Copper Hills Youth Center in 2022 after a staff member placed a child in a chokehold. According to the report, there were other cases in which Copper Hills staff escalated a situation that ended in physical violence.

The committee report also highlighted a 2020 Tribune investigation that showed that larger facilities – including those owned by UHS – tend to have more out-of-state Medicaid or child welfare contracts and often have more reports of sexual abuse and violence than the average Utah treatment center.

“The type of abuse our investigators have found is funded with American taxpayer dollars,” Wyden said Wednesday. “In some cases, these facilities receive over $1,200 per day per child from the Medicaid program. The experiences and trauma these children endure read like something out of a horror novel.”

Reagan Stanford, an attorney for Disability Rights Arkansas, said during Wednesday’s hearing that states rely on youth treatment programs because they offer a “compelling model.”

“They sell the idea that they are specialized providers with expertise and highly trained staff who offer something that can’t be offered anywhere else. And they have a place for the child and all the services they need,” Stanford said. “But the reality is different.”

Universal Health Service CEO Marc Miller was invited to testify at Wednesday’s hearing in Washington, DC – but he declined the invitation. UHS said in a statement that it vehemently disputes the characterization of its facilities in the Senate committee’s report. The company called the report “incomplete and misleading” and said it “provides an inaccurate portrayal of the care and treatment” the company provides.

The company said damage to its facilities was “extremely rare” and that it would take corrective action if something went wrong.

“The report also completely fails to acknowledge the thousands of youth who have been successfully treated in our facilities over the years and whose lives have been dramatically improved and possibly even saved by the care provided there,” the UHS statement said.

Wyden pledged to join a bipartisan effort to encourage Congress to pass federal legislation to improve conditions in youth treatment centers. The committee — which does not include a Utah congressman — also called on individual states to improve oversight. (Currently, there is no federal oversight of youth treatment programs; regulation is done at the state level.)

The committee also recommended that Medicaid and child protective services should prioritize using funds to keep children in their communities during treatment rather than sending them to a residential facility in another state.

Dozens of former participants of youth treatment programs attended Wednesday’s committee hearing, and Wyden thanked them for sharing their stories and being a driving force for change. He said the investigative report was just a first step – and he would work to develop a “bipartisan approach” that would be “ready to go in the fall.”

“Taxpayers should not be put in the position of constantly writing these huge checks,” he said, “for the kind of care that we would like children to have but that they ultimately don’t get.”