{"id":26389,"date":"2025-04-22T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26389"},"modified":"2025-04-22T09:23:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:23:54","slug":"suicides-and-rape-at-a-prized-mental-health-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26389","title":{"rendered":"Suicides and Rape at a Prized Mental Health Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 2018, Timberline Knolls, an upscale mental health center for women that once attracted pop stars like Demi Lovato, was in trouble. At least four residents said a therapist had sexually assaulted them on the facility\u2019s wooded campus outside Chicago.<\/p>\n

The therapist was arrested, and the center\u2019s corporate owner, the large national chain Acadia Healthcare, said<\/a> it had made changes \u201cto assure that it won\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

But dangerous conditions persisted for years at Timberline Knolls, an investigation by The New York Times found, in part because of pressure to enroll more patients without hiring enough employees.<\/p>\n

Two former residents sued Timberline Knolls last year, claiming that an aide had raped them. Acadia had hired the aide despite a criminal record that included domestic violence and gun charges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Another resident \u2014 a child who was a ward of the state \u2014 nearly died after she overdosed on medication that had been left out in a common area, according to former staff members. And two other women died by suicide after being left unsupervised, a rare occurrence at mental health facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were extremely understaffed,\u201d said Cecilia Del Angel, who worked as a behavioral health aide at Timberline Knolls until last July. Several other former employees echoed that sentiment. The patient deaths, Ms. Del Angel said, were \u201centirely preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In 2018, Timberline Knolls, an upscale mental health center for women that once attracted pop stars like Demi Lovato, was in trouble. At least four residents said a therapist had sexually assaulted them on the facility\u2019s wooded campus outside Chicago.The therapist was arrested, and the center\u2019s corporate owner, the large national chain Acadia Healthcare, said it had made changes \u201cto assure that it won\u2019t happen again.\u201dBut dangerous conditions persisted for years at Timberline Knolls, an investigation by The New York Times found, in part because of pressure to enroll more patients without hiring enough employees.Two former residents sued Timberline Knolls last year, claiming that an aide had raped them. Acadia had hired the aide despite a criminal record that included domestic violence and gun charges.Another resident \u2014 a child who was a ward of the state \u2014 nearly died after she overdosed on medication that had been left out in a common area, according to former staff members. And two other women died by suicide after being left unsupervised, a rare occurrence at mental health facilities.\u201cWe were extremely understaffed,\u201d said Cecilia Del Angel, who worked as a behavioral health aide at Timberline Knolls until last July. Several other former employees echoed that sentiment. The patient deaths, Ms. Del Angel said, were \u201centirely preventable.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26391,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26389"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26392,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26389\/revisions\/26392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}