Multiple Group Homes Have Become Infested With Bedbugs
Multiple Group Homes Have Become Infested With Bedbugs
Every government in the world has a responsibility to ensure that adults with developmental disabilities are properly cared for. In the United States the St. Clair Associated Vocational Enterprise (SAVE) is one of many associations that provides care to adults with disabilities. Organizations like SAVE are commonly referred to as “group homes”. As you can understand the relatives of people with disabilities often scrutinize different group homes carefully before choosing a group home that is ideal for their relatives. Typically, group home officials conduct their jobs with the utmost responsibility. However, a recent bedbug infestation has been found within more than one SAVE group home. According to some former employees, the responsible officials working for SAVE failed to eradicate a bedbug infestation in a timely manner, which led to several bites sustained by both workers and individuals residing within the group homes. The perceived failure to handle the bedbug crisis eventually led to the resignation of two SAVE employees.
In September two SAVE employees, Leslie and Sharon French, notified their immediate supervisors about insects that were causing minor injuries to residents. In October, the two employees discovered that bedbugs were the insects responsible for the injuries. This discovery was immediately reported to their supervisors, but it was not until November 8th that SAVE’s executive director, Paul Wibbenmeyer, was notified about the bedbug infestations. Luckily, Wibbenmeyer sprang into action and contacted a pest control professional immediately. On November 9th only a few of SAVE’s eight homes had been treated for bedbugs. In response to the allegations of neglect on the part of the on-site supervisors, the spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, Meghan Powers, will “look into the matter”. The executive director has declined to comment, and Powers insists that any negligence will be handled by the state of Illinois. The association known as the Developmental Disabilities and our Bureau of Accreditation will also have questions that they will want to ask. Although bedbugs do contain pathogens, they cannot spread diseases to humans.
Do you think that bedbugs posed a great enough risk to the resident’s to justify terminating employment?