Detroit City Wire

Senator Michael Webber has called for legislative hearings to examine the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) after an audit found significant shortcomings in protecting the rights of mental health care patients.

Webber sent letters to Senate Oversight Committee Chair Sam Singh and House Oversight Committee Chair Jay DeBoyer, asking for formal hearings. The request follows a report released by the state Office of the Auditor General on September 30. The report identified major failures within the Office of Recipient Rights, a division of MDHHS responsible for safeguarding the rights of those receiving public mental health services.

“The auditor general’s report confirmed what patients and their loved ones have been telling us for months and years. Michigan’s inpatient psychiatric care system is broken, and the department is not following current law or its own policies to protect psychiatric patient rights,” said Webber.

According to the audit, many recipient rights complaints were not addressed, video surveillance equipment in state psychiatric hospitals was either missing or malfunctioning, and serious allegations were not investigated by MDHHS in a timely manner.

“The more we learn, the worse it gets,” Webber said. “The complaint system and department management need to be heavily scrutinized by this Legislature to understand the full impact of these stark findings. Michigan residents deserve a better patient protection system.”