How Common is CILA Resident Abuse?

Unfortunately, in the CILA environment, many of the residents of the homes are developmentally disabled or cognitively impaired, and they can’t adequately communicate or speak out about their needs. This, unfortunately, has become a breeding ground for nefarious individuals who may even have a past history of abusing or neglecting vulnerable people to come to work there. I see really unfortunate circumstances where we have health care providers or aides who need to be monitoring and in tune with the needs of these developmentally disabled people, but they’re not doing their jobs properly, or worse, in some circumstances, they are predators and abusers, and they are abusing the residents for their own satisfaction. It’s way too common in Illinois that we see these kinds of circumstances of abuse and neglect, and really where I think it starts is at the monitoring and screening part for the agencies. Agencies are supposed to do background checks and reference checks and make sure that the people that they are hiring to be caring for these vulnerable adults and disabled individuals are the right people to do it, and too often we see that that doesn’t happen.