Patient abuse blamed on poor wages, training

? Fifteen employees of a state-run center in Somerset with about 260 retarded adults have been arrested in recent months on charges of abusing patients.

Mental health experts say low wages, inexperience, poor training and a lack of genuine interest in the well-being of patients often contribute to abuse and neglect at such institutions.

State regulators found evidence that patients at Communities at Oakwood were kicked, punched, pushed into walls or hurled to the floor. One patient left unsupervised during a bath drowned; another choked to death on a hot dog. No charges were filed in the two deaths.

Salaries for caretakers at Oakwood or other state institutions in Kentucky range from $16,000 to $24,000.

Critics have called on the state to shut down Oakwood, but officials said they plan instead to evaluate Oakwood’s hiring and training practices and perhaps move some patients into group homes.