Ombudsperson Section

Ohio Legal Rights Service (LRS) operates a state funded Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Ombudsperson section which is a non-legal component charged with receiving complaints and resolving them through informal techniques of mediation, conciliation or persuasion. The Ombudsperson section acts on complaints regarding health and safety; abuse and neglect; and rights violations. It monitors unusual incident reports from public and private facilities and community providers, and recommends changes to policies and rules that affect people with disabilities.

History

The Ombudsperson Section was created by the General Assembly in 1986, following Ohio Senate hearings that brought to light alarming evidence of abuse and neglect of people with developmental disabilities, as well as evidence of fraud and mismanagement. The General Assembly believed that people with disabilities needed greater protections and responded by created a non-legal component within LRS to investigate and resolve complaints through mediation. In 1988, the General Assembly expanded the program to include protections for individuals with mental illness.

Case Examples

LRS Ombudsperson Section staff investigated the homicide of a youth resident of a treatment facility who had died during a restraint episode. As part of the investigation, the Ombudsperson Section staff issued a report and recommendations to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the licensing authority. Within a week the Governor convened state agencies and charged them with developing a unified standard regarding restraint and seclusion. Read more in the Restraint and Seclusion section.

LRS issued Ombudsperson Section reports regarding a behavior modification program operating as a boot camp, and two residential treatment facilities. LRS Ombudsperson Section reports included documentation of problems with licensure; restraint and other abuse; failure to guarantee children the right to participate in an appropriate educational program.

LRS issued Ombudsperson Section reports after two investigations of the use of restraints in public schools serving students in special education. LRS requested that the Ohio Department of Education address the lack of administrative rules, guidelines or standards for the use of restraints and seclusion.