[Excerpt] This fear of retaliation becomes particularly true in cases such as those illustrated in my case example of Agency One, where people have borne witness to adverse actions that happened to others who spoke up. Indeed, watching 18 directors forced out in 17 months, as was the case in Agency One, could truly give pause to some of the best advocates. Profane figureheads will see any form of advocacy as a betrayal and the most abject treachery. This type of leader is generally too short-sighted and does not possess the skill set to correlate the facts that doing the right thing leads to better patient care, which almost always ultimately leads to more clients and higher profits. Profane figureheads often force the healthcare practitioner into a false choice between moral distress or moral courage.
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[Excerpt] Similarly, there is also a dearth of information regarding the effectiveness of residential treatment programs in improving the lives of youth. Simply, we are likely to find out that youth being discharged from these programs are the same or possibly worse off than they were before they entered the programs.
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[Excerpt] Many of us had multiple meetings behind closed doors discussing what could be done about the abusive staff and leadership at this facility. Many felt powerless and did not know what to do or how to activate other external systems effectively. Worse, many of the staff that had been there a while saw the external systems repeatedly fail to effectively address the problems that plagued this facility.