A Local Abilene Mental Health Hospital Involved In Investigation
By: Victor Sotelo
Updated: January 17, 2013
Back in April of last year, Acadia Abilene paid a $40,000 fine to the state of Texas for several administrative violations. Now it has been discovered that the Texas Department of State Health Service's Health Facility Licensing and Compliance has been on the campus investigating a complaint in the past week.
The state says they cannot say anything about an ongoing investigation, but a former employee is speaking out about what she says goes on at Acadia.
Avalon Zakazakina was employed at Acadia Abilene for over a year before she quit. She says it was because she felt she had a duty to the patients in the 92 bed facility.
Zakazakina has filed several complaints against Acadia with several different state and federal agencies.
She says the most troubled part of Acadia is disturbing is working with the children that are sent to Acadia for help. She says children who are classified as "sexually acting out" are roomed with children who are not.
Zakazakina is not the first former employee to come forward with complaints about Acadia. Late last year, two former employees who were fired spoke with us.
Acadia asked us to submit direct questions so they could respond to all the allegations. We have done that and, as of Wednesday, out of all 18 specific questions we submitted we received an answer to one. That question was who the new CEO would be. We are still waiting on the answers to the other 17 questions.
The state does post violations on their website after an investigation and we will continue to keep an eye on it to see if any violations were found on this last visit.
The state says they cannot say anything about an ongoing investigation, but a former employee is speaking out about what she says goes on at Acadia.
Avalon Zakazakina was employed at Acadia Abilene for over a year before she quit. She says it was because she felt she had a duty to the patients in the 92 bed facility.
Zakazakina has filed several complaints against Acadia with several different state and federal agencies.
She says the most troubled part of Acadia is disturbing is working with the children that are sent to Acadia for help. She says children who are classified as "sexually acting out" are roomed with children who are not.
Zakazakina is not the first former employee to come forward with complaints about Acadia. Late last year, two former employees who were fired spoke with us.
Acadia asked us to submit direct questions so they could respond to all the allegations. We have done that and, as of Wednesday, out of all 18 specific questions we submitted we received an answer to one. That question was who the new CEO would be. We are still waiting on the answers to the other 17 questions.
The state does post violations on their website after an investigation and we will continue to keep an eye on it to see if any violations were found on this last visit.
Comments
This is the hospital I was in. Let's just say I think there are more violations than just this one. No, I'll go one further: you also don't put a [censored] victim with severe PTSD in co-ed lodging and co-ed group therapy. It sent me into a spiral that lasted nearly 24 hours.
Penny F.
January 19, 2013 at 4:18 pm
