Exposé on Criminal Mental-Health Facility Reveals Grisly Work Injuries

Friday, January 26, 2018 | 0

An investigative story on the state of Treasure Coast Forensic Treatment Center spotlights two grisly work injuries sustained by staffers of the Florida criminal mental-health facility.

The privatized facility, overseen by the Florida Department of Children and Families, houses people who are not mentally stable enough to stand trial on felony charges, and those who are found not guilty by reason of insanity, the Treasure Coast news outlet TCPalm reported.

Since 2007, there have been 87 reported assaults at the maximum-security facility. TCPalm did not specify how many of those assaults injured employees.

The news outlet did, however, share the stories of Allan Backer and Theresanne Garone, former Treasure Coast Forensic Treatment Center employees who were badly injured on the job.

Backer, 63, was thrown into a supply closet and beaten by a patient eight years ago. Now on disability, he walks with a cane, wears a brace on his arm and has headaches, an irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure. He attributes all of those ailments to his 2010 attack and another assault sustained at the facility a year earlier.

Garone, 43, was body-slammed to the ground by a patient in 2008. She sustained serious nerve damage to her arm and has had 33 surgeries since to try to fix the problems.

Backer said there’s high turnover among staff at the facility because new hires quickly realize the risks they face.

“They see how dangerous it is,” Backer told TCPalm. “They stay for three days and never (show) up again.”