Care facility conducting unusual experiments

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The DOJ is investigating allegations of "sexual arousal studies" on human subjects being conducted a state institution for the developmental and intelectually disabled people.

The DOJ investigation of Glenwood resource center in Iowa related to human experiments.While we are still gathering facts,we will investigate and address every allegation,the DOJ said.

The Glenwood center ,located 20 miles from Omaha in southwest Iowa,provides care for 250 disabled adults.Some have lived there for decades and can't speak,walk or feed themselves,Jerry Rea the superintendent has been put on administrative leave.

USA TODAY

That sounds pretty messed up that they would do that.

According to Wikipedia:
The Iowa Institution for Feeble-Minded Children (IIFMC) was a psychiatric hospital for the treatment of what was then known as mental retardation located in the Loess Hills adjacent to Glenwood, Iowa. The facility is now known as the Glenwood Resource Center (GRC).

The IIFMC originated in 1866 when Glenwood was selected as the location of a new state-funded Civil War Orphan's Home following the donation of 15 acres. Early this century the facility was renamed the Glenwood Resource Center. The resident population numbered almost 400 people with close to 850 employees. Population has since dropped to about 200. The recent increase in deaths comes even though the total number of residents living at the complex has dropped by more than a third, from more than 300 patients in 2008 to about 200 now.

DHS officials confirmed there have been three deaths in the past eight weeks at GRC. The DOJ investigation of Glenwood Resource Center is related to "human subject experiments" focused on "optimal hydration" under the "Perfect Care Index" and "sexual arousal studies."

Source: Deaths, human experiments, sexual arousal studies under investigation at Iowa center

Sounds like something straight out of the 1950s.

I have to ask who was in charge of checking up on the patients and allowed this to happen?

I saw where you said the admin was on leave, but I don't understand why the state would allow a conflict of interest on the note of having a legal guardian employed by the facility for a patient who is ruled to be incompetent. Why weren't family members involved in making decisions about the patients care received.

I am guessing if a family member or other outsider made the decisions for the patients care, the family member would be less likely to agree to participate in the experiments than an employee of the facility.

Unfortunately people in institutions often don't have family, or at least family who cares. And/or, the state does not have the programs and budgets to house people in the community.

A facility in Florida was finally shut down after a number of unexplained deaths. It took a lawsuit by Disability Rights Florida to get it shut down and get the residents cared for in the community.

I personally know of a case in which a licensed foster mother who had cared for two severely disabled children almost since birth...the children were taken out of her home and placed in an institution at about ages 5 and 6. I made home visits with these kids and there was no reason they couldn't stay with the only mother they knew.