The Maine Department of Health and Human Safety has started meeting with families of residents at the Hampden care homes where two men were horrifically abused and hired an outside review firm.
The several-month long review will look at the department’s quality services programs and suggest ways for potential improvements. But the mother of one of the men who was abused is concerned it won’t make a difference.
The DHHS outreach comes roughly a year and a half after criminal charges were filed against the four men formerly employed by Lee Residential Care homes. The extent of the abuse came to light after the Bangor Daily News reported on the pending court cases.
It wasn’t surprising it took that long to hear from DHHS because it’s a pattern she’s seen, Danielle Longsworth said. Her son was one of the men abused.
Longsworth said she’s dealt with DHHS for years, when she was child and then again after her twin sons were born.
Four Lee employees were criminally charged in 2023 for the abuse, which happened from 2019 to 2022. Zachary Conners and Rene Dubois III pleaded guilty to intentionally endangering the welfare of a dependent person and were sentenced to prison. Criminal charges against Michael Slater and Joshua Martin are still pending.
The abuse included waterboarding and sodomizing a developmentally disabled, autistic and nonverbal man. A second man was also abused.
“We were very deeply disturbed by everything that happened in this most recent situation in Hampden,” said Betsy Hopkins, associate director developmental disability and brain injury services for DHHS. “We’ve taken it very seriously and taken a number of different steps when we learned about this through some of the criminal reports that we saw.”
Those steps include hiring an outside company to do a review, and Hopkins and the director holding meetings with the families from Lee.
Around 15 families attended a meeting in Bangor on Nov. 13, Longsworth said. They provided suggestions about issues they’ve seen and how they think abuse can be prevented.
The nationwide firm, Alvarez and Marsal, bills itself on its website as a company that asks “tough questions, listening well, digging in and rolling up our sleeves.” The company has done reviews in other states for systems working with developmentally disabled adults and was hired in early November, DHHS spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said. The review will take several months.
Alvarez and Marsal will do reviews of DHHS’ quality services programs, Hopkins said. The firm will do listening sessions and focus groups with Lee families and other families interested. Working with the outside firm should give the families a voice, Hopkins said.
After the review, the firm will make suggestions for system improvements as well as improved communications.
Staff with DHHS’ Office of Aging and Disability Services have gone to Lee residential homes as well as unplanned visits, Hammes said. All residents at Lee under public guardianship have been visited, and families with residents have been offered one-on-one meetings, she said.
