LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Michael Webber on Wednesday requested legislative hearings to investigate the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services after an independent audit revealed it is failing to sufficiently protect the rights of mental health care patients.
Webber sent letters to Senate Oversight Committee Chair Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, and House Oversight Committee Chair Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay Township, requesting formal hearings following the state Office of the Auditor General’s Sept. 30 report that outlined substantial failures within the Office of Recipient Rights, the agency within MDHHS tasked with protecting the rights of public mental health service recipients.
“The auditor general’s report confirmed what patients and their loved ones have been telling us for months and years. Michigan’s inpatient psychiatric care system is broken, and the department is not following current law or its own policies to protect psychiatric patient rights,” said Webber, R-Rochester Hills.
The audit found that recipient rights complaints were often left unanswered, video surveillance equipment inside state psychiatric hospitals was often missing or not working, and MDHHS did not properly investigate serious allegations in a timely manner.
“The more we learn, the worse it gets,” Webber said. “The complaint system and department management need to be heavily scrutinized by this Legislature to understand the full impact of these stark findings. Michigan residents deserve a better patient protection system.”