NO ABUSE IS FOUND IN PROBE
OF CLINIC
REPORT SAYS SOME PROBLEMS DO EXIST
Published: Saturday,
August 21, 1993
Section: LOCAL
Page#: B01
Skip Morgan
The Press-Enterprise
RIVERSIDE
An internal investigation of Riverside County's methadone
treatment program has found no evidence of racial discrimination or
widespread abuse of drug addicts alleged by former clinic workers
and patients in a recent Press-Enterprise article.
A summary of the investigation also said it found no evidence
to support allegations that Carol Addiss, the program manager, made
racial remarks or yelled.
The investigation by the county's Mental Health Department,
which oversees the program, recommended that one problem staff
member be counseled and that some policies be revised.
The Press-Enterprise reported June 27 that addicts claimed
they were treated with contempt and arbitrarily denied doses of
methadone they needed to maintain normal lives and avoid the craving
for heroin. The story also quoted former employees. Addicts said
that if they complained about treatment, they would be denied daily
doses by some staff members.
A task force of five Mental Health Department employees
interviewed 25 staff members and 18 addicts at the Riverside clinic,
in addition to three former employees named in The Press-Enterprise
article.
In a letter to county supervisors, Mental Health Director John
Ryan
said investigators found no evidence of racial slurs or yelling at
staff or clients by Addiss, which were among the allegations made.
Two former counselors at the program, however, said the
internal investigation by the county's Mental Health Department did
not reflect what they told investigators about the Riverside-based
program.
"That task force was just not going to do
anything," said former counselor Yahola Simms, now a drug-abuse
counselor at Sherman Indian High School in Riverside. "It was
all just a big
show."
Both Simms and Rodney Williams, a former counselor who now
works in a drug-abuse program at Presbyterian Intercommunity
Hospital in Whittier, said this week that they told investigators of
hearing racial slurs on the job.
Williams, who is black, said another counselor referred to
"niggers" during a staff discussion about the riots that
followed last year's state trial of Los Angeles police officers
accused of beating Rodney King.
"There was no doubt that person was making a racial
slur," Williams said.
Simms, an Amerian Indian, said he was confronted by racism on
his first day on the job when Addiss told him, "Oh good, now
I've got my quota."
"There are racial problems in the county drug program,
but there is no way you're going to prove it," Simms said.
On Tuesday, Simms denied telling The Press-Enterprise that
addicts had been mistreated, as he had been quoted as saying in the
paper. On Thursday, Simms said he may have made the statements.
Investigators found that abusive treatment toward addicts was
limited to one staff member, who was described by the task force as
"overly confrontational" with clients.
Larry Ogilvie, program chief in the Mental Health Department,
declined to identify the employee, citing a county policy protecting
the confidentiality of personnel records. He said the employee had
been told he would be suspended or fired if his treatment of clients
did not improve.
"He has from time to time seemed intimidating to clients
and not responsive to the services that clients require,"
Ogilvie said.
Investigators found more effort was needed to make staff and
clients aware of the county's policy on withholding methadone.
Ogilvie said not all staff and clients were aware that
addicts had the right to a second opinion when a staff member
decides to withhold methadone.
Although just as addictive as heroin, methadone allows
addicts to hold jobs or attend school, because it does not produce
the intoxicated high of heroin.
Addiss, who was criticized by former employees in The
Press-enterprise story for allegedly mistreating employees and
clients, was described as a "tough taskmaster" by some
staff
members, according to the report. Ryan, whose letter summarized the
task force findings, added: "I believe this Program Manager's
curt,
specific and directive style can make some staff feel as if they are
being yelled at."
But investigators indicated they found no evidence that
Addiss had yelled at employees or clients.
During the past two years, the turnover rate among clinic
employees has ranged from 133 percent for clerk-receptionists to 56
percent for counselors.
Addiss, who has managed the county's drug-abuse
programs for 20 years, said, "I accept the department's
report.<" She declined
further comment. In March, in response to the original allegations,
she said, "I may have raised my voice in the office."
She had denied then calling Simms her "quota" or
making other racial slurs.
Investigators also found that not all staff members were
aware that addicts could use the restroom on the second floor of the
clinic. Addiss had said in March that all restrooms in the clinics
were reserved for staff members.
Ryan's summary said that a former employee whom he did not
name and who was quoted in The Press-Enterprise story criticizing
Addiss
had written a letter to the paper "stating that the article did
not represent what she said to the reporter and further corroborates
what our investigation found, i.e., there were no racial slurs by
staff to clients."
Ryan apparently was referring to a letter from Wanda Gomez
who wrote to the paper saying that "overall the article is
true," but added that a client was not present when Addiss
allegedly screamed at her, but a counselor was. Her letter also
repeated allegations of mistreatment of clients and racial slurs
made in a staff meeting.
"Minority workloads are higher," she wrote, an
allegation that Ryan denied.
Zone: HEMET-SAN JACINTO; ALL ZONES
Notes: NOTE: THIS VERSION OF THE STORY IS
COMPLETE. IT WAS INCOMPLETE IN SOME OTHER ZONES (TSCR) AS A RESULT
OF PRODUCTION PROBLEMS. THE COMPLETE STORY WAS RERUN IN TSC 8/22. AN
AMPLIFICATION, COMPLETING THE STORY, RAN IN R 8/22.
