Drug treatment centers that care for adolescents have a heightened duty to keep young patients safe. That must include keeping them monitored at all times.
When minors are allowed to die while receiving treatment at an adolescent residential home, facility owners can be financially liable.
Families who lose a loved one should earn full support for funeral costs, leftover medical expenses, and the loss of companionship they’ll have to cope with.
Strict Supervision Rules for Adolescent Treatment Centers
The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) inspects and licenses adolescent drug rehab facilities. They require centers to follow strict standards to operate (even stricter for clinics treating young patients).
The DHCS also published the Adolescent Substance Use Disorder Best Practices Guide. The guide acknowledges the differences in care needed for young patients. The guide cites the different stages of development teens may be experiencing, including “biological, behavioral and cognitive transitions.”
These differences and others also make supervision more challenging and much more critical. Facilities generally promise 24/7 monitoring based on industry standards and healthcare guidelines.
Staff members must be trained and monitored themselves to make sure young patients are protected from abuse, elopement, self-harm, and exposure to drugs (the risk of relapse and overdose).
California’s Code of Regulations (CCR) explains the legal responsibility:
“(1) The licensee shall ensure that adequate numbers of trained staff are consistently available to provide the services and supervision required and to meet the requirements otherwise identified in this Subchapter.”
The code also requires strong criminal background checks for all staff. It goes further to require certain staff levels at all times in adolescent facilities:
- From 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. there shall be two staff members on site and awake when adolescents are present.
- From 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. there shall be at least one (1) staff member on site and awake.
These staffing requirements can change based on how many patients are enrolled at a facility and the level of care a facility provides.
CCR Tit. 9, § 10564 goes further into the requirements for hiring qualified staff members with safe backgrounds to care for young patients.
Bed Checks in Adolescent Rehab Facilities
Constant bed checks and monitoring will be required at all residential adolescent homes. Staff members will need to have many skills and qualifications earned through training.
- Staff members must be expert screeners to allow for a safe intake process and assessment of the patient’s needs.
- Staff members must know how to check vital signs to make sure someone with their eyes closed or asleep is in good health
- Staff members will need to know how to spot the signs of an overdose
- Staff members will need training to be able to search rooms and beds thoroughly for contraband
- Staff members will need to know what to do if patients try self-harm or overdose (including calling 911 immediately)
Failure in these and other duties can leave facility owners fully liable for a tragic death.
Support for Families After a Tragic Death in an Adolescent Rehab Facility
Evidence will be key when families must file wrongful death claims to seek justice. Unfortunately, corporate healthcare providers can rely on corporate lawyers to block access to important evidence and try to shift blame away from the facility.
A skilled attorney can file legal requests for things like surveillance video, duty logs, and other documents. A lawyer then demands full wrongful death support for what parents (or legal guardians) have been put through, both emotionally and financially.
- Support for funeral costs
- Support to cover any leftover medical bills
- A refund on the money paid to an adolescent drug treatment center
- Support for the emotional trauma caused to parents
- Support for the loss of love and care of a child
- Loss of companionship parents must cope with in the future
Contact Us if you suspect a rehab center’s negligence led to the death of your child.
Attorney Martin Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to parents who have experienced the ultimate tragedy due to an adolescent facility’s negligence.
Call us today or fill out a free case review form.
There’s no obligation for this meeting. But if you feel we could help your family hold a facility responsible, you don’t have to worry about how you’ll pay a lawyer. We are only paid if your claim is successful. Then the attorney’s fee comes out of a settlement check a facility owner must write for your family.