FRANKFORT, Ind.-- A Frankfort father has filed a lawsuit against a mental health facility, alleging they drugged his then 12-year-old daughter and held her against her will.
Craig Inman filed the lawsuit on October 7 against Options Behavioral Health and its parent company Acadia Healthcare, which operates facilities across the country.
"She was tortured and held hostage," said Craig Inman.
On September 2, he took his daughter to Witham Health Services emergency room in Lebanon after she swallowed a bottle of pills.
“My daughter had just tried to kill herself,” said Inman.
The emergency room transported his daughter an hour away to Options Behavioral Health Hospital, an inpatient psychiatric facility in Lawrence.
Inman said he hoped his daughter would get the help she needed, but on the first day he and his wife Elizabeth had difficulty getting information from staff members.
"We just kept calling them and they were stonewalling us,” said Elizabeth Inman. “I couldn't believe that because as a nurse I always take phone calls, and I always answer questions, especially parents."
When they talked with their daughter on the phone, they say she was upset and out of it.
“They had already started pumping her full of medications,” said Inman.
Inman’s lawsuit alleges staff at Options Behavioral Health injected his daughter, identified in court documents as M.I., with “the shot,” which is a “highly potent” injection containing several drugs.
“Victims given ‘the shot’ by Options staff would cause patients to sleep for many hours, unaware of their surroundings and unable to protect themselves from harm,” read Inman’s lawsuit.
The Inmans say staff did not take proper safety measures either. Their 12-year-old was involved in several fights with another patient while at Options Behavioral Health, read the lawsuit.
“They were tasked with keeping children safe and instead they incited violence,” said Elizabeth Inman.
The lawsuit also alleges the facility held M.I. against her will without any medical basis.
"I'm really angry,” said Elizabeth Inman. “I know how a hospital functions. That was dysfunction."
The couple says they are speaking out and filing a lawsuit in the hopes of protecting others.
“I don’t want them to get away with this again,” said Craig Inman. “They should not be able to do this to children.”
Adult patients say they too were held against their will, according to law firm Cohen and Malad, which represents the Inmans.
They’ve filed two other lawsuits against Options Behavioral Health involving adult patients.
“We want this to stop,” said Justin Kuhn, an attorney at Cohen and Malad. “We want this to stop happening to our Hoosier kids and to our adults. The practice of taking advantage of patients for monetary gain is absolutely deplorable and it should not happen.”
Records show Options billed the Inman’s insurance $36,000 for their daughter’s two-week stay.
“All of their actions suggest let’s make money,” said Kuhn. “We have people receiving injections, being restrained, being secluded, being held against their will.”
Just last month, Acadia Healthcare agreed to pay nearly $20 million following a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.
The government alleged that, between 2014 and 2017, Acadia knowingly submitted false claims for payment to Medicare and Medicaid for inpatient services that were not reasonable or medically necessary.
“In particular, the United States contended that Acadia admitted beneficiaries who were not eligible for inpatient treatment and failed to properly discharge beneficiaries when they no longer needed inpatient treatment and had improper and excessive lengths of stay,” read a news release from USDOJ. “The United States further alleged that Acadia knowingly failed to provide adequate staffing, training and/or supervision of staff, which resulted in assaults, elopements, suicides and other harm resulting from these staffing failures.”
WRTV Investigates asked to speak with Acadia Healthcare on-camera about complaints related to Options Behavioral Health.
A spokesperson declined, but emailed a statement.
“Due to privacy laws, we cannot comment on specific patient questions, but our commitment to excellent care, well-being, and integrity remains steadfast,” read the statement on behalf of Options Behavioral Health. “Decisions on patient treatment plans are medical determinations made by licensed providers in accredited, regulated healthcare facilities based on medical necessity and associated legal requirements. It is important to understand that in many cases the initial certification for involuntary commitment is made by a third-party which requires Options, or any behavioral health facility, to follow regulatory and legal requirements to evaluate patient needs with the goal of stabilization.”
In a statement following the USDOJ investigation, Acadia Healthcare also issued a statement.
“At Acadia, decisions on patient care are not business decisions — they are medical ones – and these decisions are not in any way related to or influenced by insurance coverage or a patient’s ability to pay. In fact,” read the statement.
After countless calls, the Inmans transferred their daughter to another mental health facility.
She just turned 13, and while she’s doing better, she is not out of the woods.
"She still sleeps with the door open,” said Craig Inman. “It makes me terrified they've done some permanent damage to her and I'm scared of that."
They recommend asking facilities for the Patient Bill of Rights, which outlines your legal rights.
In a statement issued on September 27, Acadia Healthcare said it has been making improvements.
“Ensuring we provide the highest quality of care is personal for me and the number one priority for my colleagues across the Company,” said Acadia Chief Executive Officer Chris Hunter. “Over the last two years, we have been investing in new talent, technology, clinical protocols and training across all of our service lines to drive forward our culture of caring. We have also expanded our leadership team to include new roles and expertise critical to providing even safer, higher-quality care – our Chief Quality Officer of Inpatient Services, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Information Officer, and most recently, our Chief Medical Officer. It will take time for the benefits of our initiatives to be fully realized, but we’re already seeing positive results.”
You can read Acadia’s full statement here.
Witham Health Services declined to comment “out of respect for patient privacy, as well as the ongoing litigation.”
Mental health facility complaints can be filed through the state’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction customer service line at at 1-800-901-1133.
