A government-subsidized psychiatric institution in Miaoli County is at the center of an alleged patient abuse scandal.
A superintendent at Chinmin Educational Institute for the Mentally Disabled was allegedly filmed mistreating residents, and videos have been obtained by the Parents’ Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability (PAPID).
The association yesterday accused the county government of dereliction and called for the closure of the care home.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如) accompanied PAPID at a press conference at the Legislature Yuan, where the footage was played, showing the superintendent kicking, strangling, spanking and hitting the residents.
The group said the institute was given a national evaluation of “C” in 2008, which was reissued after re-evaluation in the same year. While the institute was graded B after re-evaluation in 2011, the association said that the county government had failed to fine the institute in the four years between, as it should have in accordance with the People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act (身心障礙者權益保障法).
“The institute has continued to be subsidized by both the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the local government,” association chairperson Yang Hsien-chung (楊憲忠) said.
“One of the residents, who was shown to be constantly abused by the superintendent, even has the county government — or, to be specific, the director of the county’s Labor Affairs and Social Resources Department — as his legal guardian, under a district court ruling made in 2012,” he said, adding that even this kind of protection could not save the resident from mistreatment.
“Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) was able to destroy farmland at midnight and raze buildings when protestors were away, but could not rectify the problem at this institute, or at least hand down a fine to this failing facility,” Chen said.
PAPID asked for an immediate legal investigation into the district court’s role and called for the setup of a special investigation led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Social and Family Affairs Administration into the institute.
PAPID vice director Tseng Ya-lun (曾雅倫) said they asked the ministry to send representatives the press conference, but were instead promised a ministry response at today’s legislative plenary session as Chen is to question ministry officials over the issue.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern
RSS