WESTLAND, Mich. – A member of the Michigan Senate is pushing for state hearings to find out who knew what at the Hawthorn Children’s Psychiatric Hospital.
An active shooter drill inside the state-run hospital gained national attention in 2022. Patients and most of the staff were not informed ahead of time. Four law enforcement agencies who responded to panicked 911 calls from inside the hospital weren’t notified of the drill, either and responded as if the threat was real.
Patients were transferred to another state-run facility, the Walter Reuther Psychiatric Hospital in Westland. Now there are questions about how well that facility is being run and how the children are being treated.
“I came away feeling like the transition over there from Hawthorn to Reuth was not good,” said state Sen. Michael Webber. “It was rushed.”
Webber is worried the buildout for the children is still not complete.
“They definitely tried to retrofit this very old building to now accommodate both adults and kids,” Webber said. “I still have a lot of concern about the kids and the adults interacting.”
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHSS) said, “The unit providing care for the patients was ready the day the children were transferred. There was additional work to complete in the school, but educational services were provided to children in other settings in the hospital.” Additionally, they said the hospital “is expanding to accept more youth patients on another floor in the hospital. That unit will be complete in the second quarter of this year and is expected to accept 20 additional patients.”
It’s not the first time Local 4 has reported on how children were treated. In September 2023, a whistleblower came forward and said the young patients weren’t being allowed outside.
“Someone has to stand up for what’s right,” said Christal Bonner. “They have lost their mission plan, which is to help these kids and adults increase their management of stress levels and depression. They’ve forgotten it’s a healthcare facility and not a correctional facility.”
There were also reports of windows being blocked out and the children were not getting sunlight.
“The reason is because they don’t want the adult patients looking at the younger patients outside in the courtyard area,” Bonner said.
The children were transferred to the Walter Reuther Psychiatric Facility temporarily as the Hawthorn Center was torn down and is currently being rebuilt.
MDHHS said there are 24 youths receiving care at the Walter Reuther and 16 on the waiting list, with 12 children ready to be discharged.
“So the rooms we looked at, you could see outside and that was an improvement, but we still hear from the parent groups that the food is a problem,” Webber said.
He said that children are not getting proper nutrition and have been losing weight. MDHHS said this isn’t true and that, “children receive the same food they received at the Hawthorn Center and receive the same caloric requirements plus additional snacks. There has not been a pattern of weight loss. Any individual dietary concerns are immediately addressed, and modifications are made to the diet to accommodate the child.”
Another concern the senator has is the potential for escapes from the Walter Reuther. It was a big issue at Hawthorn and he wonders if the Walter Reuther is ready for the children.
“When we did a tour of Reuth, the head of the hospital system in Michigan for all of our state hospitals admitted that it was very easy to escape from Hawthorn,” Webber said. “And my question would be, why was it so easy? And why did we try to rectify that over the years?”
MDHHS said would be happy to participate in hearings and that they have been working with Webber to address his concerns through meetings, responding to questions and the tour he went on.
Webber has asked for an Auditor General’s Report that is expected to begin in the spring or summer. Currently, he’s hoping to hold hearings to hold the department accountable. He said we owe it to the children to make sure the problem gets fixed.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released the following statement:
The health and safety of our staff and patients is our top concern. As part of the state’s continued commitment to providing behavioral health services to Michigan families, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced in April 2023, the upcoming construction of a new inpatient psychiatric hospital that would care for patients currently served at both Hawthorn Center and Walter P. Reuther Psychiatric Hospital in Westland. The new hospital is being made possible by a $325 million FY23 budget allocation and will be located at the site of the former Hawthorn Center. To accommodate the construction of the new facility, youth patients from Hawthorn Center were moved to a separate wing at Walter Reuther Psychiatric Hospital. Michigan’s state hospitals are accredited by The Joint Commission and are committed to providing evidence-supported, person-centered inpatient care to individuals in an environment that values compassion, collaboration and community reintegration.
Related: $100M lawsuit filed over alleged beating of 10-year-old Hawthorn Center patient