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Treating & Inflicting Sexual Assault, at the same Time?
Company Purports to Be World’s Largest Healer; Facing Widespread Accusations of Its Own
As the #MeToo movement empowers long-silenced survivors of sexual assault, the world’s largest standalone treatment provider in trauma-centered behavioral health, Acadia Healthcare Co, Inc., faces numerous allegations of inflicting such abuse on their patients.
Described in criminal and civil complaints, the abuse was allegedly carried out either directly by Acadia’s staff members or by patients in incidents facilitated by the negligence of staff members. The most-cited reasoning amounts to cost-cutting in a healthcare market where reimbursements see increased scrutiny. For-profits like Acadia face a tall task of requirements to boost growth in hopes of keeping their Wall Street financiers happy.
The cruelest irony is that Acadia’s own website language, obviously written to attract business, warns ominously that while the network strives to help treat patients, “…others will suffer from ongoing distress that can hinder their ability to continue functioning appropriately on a daily basis. When this is the case, individuals may feel at a loss as to what they can do or where they can turn in order to find relief from their suffering.”
