![King_of_the_Hill_alley[1].jpg](http://trouble.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/King_of_the_Hill_alley%5B1%5D.jpg)
It was just a few years ago when Celebration Recovery was presented by the Irwin Foundation in collaboration with APA. According to the Irwin Foundation's director back in 2005, "Celebration Recovery highlights an emerging concept in psychiatry that emphasizes person-centeredness, respect, responsibility, hope, choice, quality of life, consumer and family agency and empowerment, self-help, partnership, diversity, and community inclusiveness." All the deliciousness of recovery, in other words. The event was held in Austin, Texas, at the NAMI convention in 2005.
Sadly, as Joe points out, fast-forward three years, and you get this from the Associated Press:
Employee disciplinary records show abuse and neglect are systemic in mental hospitals in Texas, which has worked over the past year to revamp its juvenile prison system because of similar allegations, according to a report published Sunday.
Seventy-two workers have been fired in the past three years over allegations of abuse, while hundreds of others have been fired for other violations, including sleeping on the job and overmedicating patients, according to personnel records obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
The violence against patients included choke holds, headlocks and threats against patients at the state's 10 psychiatric hospitals, the newspaper reported.
There are about 18,000 patients and about 7,400 employees in the state psychiatric hospital system.
Ah, Austin. Those were the good old days.
Mental health is latest Texas agency to bear abuse criticism