Friday, June 20, 2025

Massachusetts Division of Healthcare Quality



 Formal Complaint: Ongoing Negligence and Abuse in MassachusettsBehavioral Health System



Subject: Formal Complaint: Ongoing Negligence and Abuse in MassachusettsBehavioral Health System


To the Department of Public Health, Division of Health Care Quality (DHCQ),


I am submitting this formal complaint to document and expose systemic failures in the behavioral health system in Massachusetts. These failures have placed both adults and children at severe risk, and despite years of visible harm, your agency and the Commonwealth continue to ignore them.


The negligence I experienced personally at Baystate Medical Center is a prime example. During two separate suicide-related hospital visits, once in 2005 and again in 2016, critical medical conditions were overlooked despite clear indicators. Baystate conducted blood work both times, had access to the results, and failed to act.


The 2015/2016 incidents are particularly alarming. Despite clear signs of hyperthyroidism, I was discharged without a treatment plan or mental health follow-up. The only reason this diagnosis ever came to light was because I took the initiative to seek additional testing from another doctor. A 24-hour thyroid panel eventually revealed what Baystate ignored. If I hadn’t pushed for this, my health could have deteriorated even further. This shows a complete disregard for continuity of care and safety for patients with complex medical and psychiatric profiles.


Additionally, I am documenting the case of Beth Nichols and her son, Stephen, who in 2016 was placed in a psychiatric ward over two hours away in New Hampshire. This transfer was executed without proper informed consent. No one informed Beth that several closer, more appropriate psychiatric facilities existed within 15 minutes of her home. Instead, Stephen was removed from his community, medicated throughout his stay, and placed in an unfamiliar, inaccessible environment. This caused immense stress, confusion, and fear for his safety and well-being.


Worse still, this appears to reflect a broader policy. Massachusetts continues to allow the chemical restraint and isolation of children who show emotional distress, treating them as behavioral problems rather than patients in crisis. In some cases, children are literally locked in closets. These actions are not therapeutic. They are traumatizing and inhumane.


If these are the policies your department condones or ignores, then Massachusetts is enabling the abuse of children and the negligent treatment of suicidal adults.


I demand a full investigation into both my experiences and the institutional practices that allow these patterns to continue. This includes Baystate Medical Center’s psychiatric protocols, the oversight failures that allowed Beth Nichols’s son to be displaced and medicated without informed consent, and the continued practice of placing disabled or emotionally distressed individuals in environments where they are drugged, isolated, and dehumanized.


Please confirm receipt of this complaint. I request that a case number be issued so I may track its status. I am also willing to provide medical records, discharge papers, and witness statements upon request.

You can contact me by email. All phone conversations will be recorded for public release. I shared all of my documentation and life story in a google blogger series. It’s all public, so you can’t pretend you weren’t informed.


Sincerely,

Richard Stebbins





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