Copyright WDIV ClickOnDetroit
LANSING, Mich. – A Michigan senator said he was “misled and stonewalled” by the state when he started asking questions about how people are treated inside Michigan’s mental health care system. Michigan Senator Michael Webber said he asked for an audit after hearing from parents who were unable to get answers about how their children were being treated. “They described abuse, poor living conditions, and even a lack of food, yet got nowhere with MDHHS. Thanks to the auditor’s report, we now have the facts — and they are alarming. MDHHS is failing to protect basic patient rights," Webber said. Webber went before an oversight committee on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, and described being “misled and stonewalled” by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. He spoke about the results of an audit published this year that found the Office of Recipient Rights was failing to protect Michigan’s most vulnerable population. ---> What happens when a Michigan psychiatric patient reports abuse or neglect? “I urge this committee to keep presenting, to keep pressing for answers, until we restore trust in this system,” Webber said. An announced active shooter drill at the Hawthorn Center, which the Investigators at Local 4 broke the news of in 2022, first brought attention to problems in Michigan’s psychiatric hospitals. Since then, the Hawthorn Center has closed, been torn down, and a new facility is being built in its place. In the meantime, the children have been moved to the Walter Reuther hospital. But that didn’t solve the problems. ---> Audit finds protections for Michigan’s mental health patients ‘insufficient’ An audit of the Office of Recipient Rights found the following problems: Nearly 30% of complaints alleging abuse, neglect, serious injury, or death were not retrieved or acted on until two to twelve days after being filed. The state’s own training materials say it is supposed to react within 24 hours. More than 10% of complaints lacked a date stamp -- making it impossible to determine if action was timely. Video surveillance at the state hospitals was often missing or not working properly. “We have to get to the bottom of why this is happening, why Michigan over decades has declined, and people are suffering, and people are dying, and kids aren’t getting help. We’re responsible for that. all of us,” Rep. Reggie Miller said. Tuesday morning, MDHHS sent out a press release announcing daily risk assessments and care planning in Michigan’s psychiatric hospitals. The state said it’s implementing a new process to protect staff by evaluating patients for how likely they are to be aggressive. “We take the health and safety of our staff and patients seriously and continually strive to improve the care our patients receive as well as working conditions for our staff,” said Elizabeth Hertel, MDHHS director. “Patient-to-staff aggression is the leading cause of workplace injury among our staff. Implementing this risk assessment tool has helped us make great strides in reducing incidents and injuries as well as improving staff retention.”
