Democrats
A residential treatment center in Virginia named WHISPER RIDGE whose parent company is UHS/PSI. Whisper Ridge treatment center was investigated by a man named Dr. Rhineheart who was the head of the Department of Behavioral and Disability Services at the time. Rhineheart oversaw licensing in Virginia and after leaving the facility wrote a letter to Whisper Ridge telling them to shut down because of their horrific conditions and numerous violations of health/wellness standards.
Before the center could be closed a women named Marilyn Tavernner who was the secretary of health and human services in Virginia, (And Dr. Rhineheart’s superior) received a call from David Hallock, a lobbyist for UHS/PSI. David Hallock told Marilyn Tavernner to instruct Dr. Rhineheart that he was to cease investigations and sanctions of Whisper Ridges. All of this was done with full permission of Virginia’s then Governor, Tim Kaine, a democrat. After Dr. Rhineheart’s letter was swept away, Tim Kaine received a $25,000 donation from UHS/ PSI.
Tim Kaine was very familiar with Barack Obama and when he received the payoff from UHS/PSI he decided that since Marilyn Tavenner had played a substantial role in his profit she was to be rewarded somehow. Kaine went on to suggest that Tavenner be made CEO of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Obama then appointed Tavenner CEO of CMS. This means she now oversees Medicare and Medicaid for the entire United States. Medicaid provides substantial funding for residential programs.
Republicans
Mitt Romney: http://creativeyouth.net/romney.html and
Romney, Torture, and Teens • The former governor's connections to abusive "tough love" camps
http://reason.com/archives/2007/06/27/romney-torture-and-teens
Robert Litchfield: Utah Finance co-chair under Mitt Romney donated a substantial amount of money to the Republican Party. He was involved in WWASP. WWASP has programs all over the world and many of their abuses are compared to human rights violations in third world countries. Currently, a lawsuit involving Litchfield has been brought about by former patients who were abused at his programs.
Mel Sembler: created the Republican Regence Club to take care of largest Republican donors and worked with both Bushes bringing in funding; he also served as Ambassador to Italy under Bush, National Finance co chair under Romney, and founded Straight, Inc., a nonprofit that funded Straight, still around today and was renamed DFAF (Drug Free America Foundation). It is run by the same individuals who ran Straight. Straight tortured children and still has many spin-offs around today such as the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center.
Rick Santorum: worked on the board of Universal Health Services, the largest owner of residential care facilities in the USA. While Santorum was on board, deaths occurred at UHS facilities, UHS gave $ to Santorum political committee and CEO of UHS gave a large amount of money to previous political campaigns.
George Bush: [See Mel Sembler, above] Bush + Jesus = Unprotected Kids • Over the last 10 years, more than two dozen teenagers have died in so-called "tough love" programs. It's a result of the kind of deregulation Bush would have in all social services.
http://www.alternet.org/story/11193/bush_%2B_jesus_%3D_unprotected_kids/
DEA, Florida 'Honor' Abusive Rehab Founder, Wife of Republican Financier • Betty Sembler, wife of Mel Sembler
Betty Sembler--co-founder of the abusive Straight, Inc was recently became a member of the Women’s Hall of Fame for her work fighting drugs. The issue is Straight is known for using confrontation, humiliation and physical punishment which led to dozens of lawsuits, with plaintiffs winning. The Semblers have long helped the government as Betty’s husband was financer for the Republicans during the first election of the second Bush, and served as ambassador to Italy until recently
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maia-szalavitz/dea-florida-honor-abusive_b_158529.html
Scott Bloch: http://medicalwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2011/04/scott-bloch-protects-teen-challenge.html
Rick Perry: Texas Governor who has supported an institution called Teen Challenge. Multiple deaths have been reported at teen challenge. The institution has programs in 84 countries, all run by The Assemblies of God organization. Teen Challenge has been known to hire Sex Offenders.
• Rick Perry is involved in fundraisers for Teen Challenge and has even gone as far as to endorse the program
• Teen Challenge publishes many studies that show they are effective but they do their own studies.
• The Owner of Teen Challenge is Charles Wendell. Charles "Chuck" Wendell Colson is a Christian leader who served as former Special Counsel for President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973. Chuck Colson has named as one of the Watergate Seven and pled guilty Many can still remember that it was Chuck Colson who was willing to resort to domestic terrorism and who discussed possibly firebombing the Brookings Institution.
TX uses $300 million in tax payer dollars to send kids to abusive RTC's:
http://protectingourchildrenfrombeingsold.wordpress.com/category/damage-done-to-children-in-foster-care/
Rhode Island DCYF spent $9.7 million to send 108 children over the course of the fiscal year to 33 residential treatment facilities in other states http://www.golocalprov.com/news/dcyf-out-of-state-placements/
This child was denied medical care while at Provo Canyon School and nearly died. When the child arrived at the hospital to finally receive medical attention her oxygen level was only 77% and she was put into a medically induced coma because it was the only way the doctors could treat her. Why is the government allowing this to happen?
