The first time I heard of Matthew Goodman, was back in November of 2003 when looking at a page by a New Jersey mother of a child with Asperger's Syndrome, a high-functioning form of Autism. I was astonished reading about what
treatment providers in New Jersey could do to children and adults with developmental disabilities: some of these acts are even considered crimes if they're performed on animals!
Matthew Goodman was born on March 4, 1987. As a toddler, he was diagnosed with Autism. When he was nine, he was placed in Bancroft NeuroHealth, a tretment centre for people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries. There, restraints were a routine in his Individualised
Habilitation Programme (IHP). He first got mechanical arm restraints, and later a helmet, similar to a hockey mask, was added. He was also drugged. For sixteen months, he lay on Bancroft's floor, barely conscious. He saw no friends, didn't go to school, never participated in any activities.
Matthew died on February 6, 2002 from pneumonia and blood poisoning.
What Is Matthew's Law?
Matthew's Law, as it was nicknamed, would forbid facilities for people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries to use restraints in non-emergency situations, and aversives (painful punishments to correct inappropriate behaviour) would be forbidden in all situations.
Forthermore, facility staff would receive training in positive ways of behaviour modification.
In the United States, public agencies receiving federal funding are already forbidden to use avesives and non-emergency restraints (ie. restraining for other reasosn than to protect the person's safety), and in most states private agencies are also forbidden to do so, but nnot yet in NJ. As a
result, many disabled children and adults in New Jersey's treatment facilities are abused as a menas of "treatment". This method is based upon the incorrect assumption many behaviorists have that one can always correct inappropriate behaviour by punishment. However, aversives will likely lead to
fear (often generalised, eg. a person who's physically punished in school may get to fear school and learning in general), a lack of confidence and a lack of being taught alternatives: by just pulling a child's hair each time he screams, he won't learn approrpiate alternatives to this behaviour.
Here in the Netherlands, there have occurred similar "treatments". A few years ago, there was the case of Jolanda Venema, a 29-year-old, mentally retarded woman who was fixed on a bed naked, because the staff in her facility didn't have an alternative. I think, there should be more money, time
and energy invested in finding alternatives to such inhumane situations. They may be out of a lack of knowledge of how to deal with behaviour problems - not necessarily out of abuse -, but that doesn't make it less cruel.
Therefore, we need Matthew's Law in New Jersey and better education of treatment providers everywhere, to make sure there won't be more Matthew Goodmans in New Jersey or anywhere else.
