Cayce police findings of adult care home where man died disputed by oversight agencies
The conditions of a Cayce adult care facility where a man died Feb. 18 are being disputed by police and the state agencies responsible for oversight.
Statements by the state’s Department of Social Services and the Department of Health and Environmental Control heavily imply that the Cayce Police Department acted far too aggressively when it took emergency steps to move residents out of Twilite Manor, an assisted living facility on Forrest Street, after a 69-year-old man died in the facility Friday.
And the head of a South Carolina organization that advocates for people with disabilities agrees, saying that the Cayce Police Department might have been trying to help people but likely caused them more harm because of misconceptions.
Representatives with Twilite Manor did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Police say facility was an ‘imminent danger’ to residents
Twilite Manner had no medical staff working Friday when residents and a housekeeper found resident Timothy Frank Catalano dead inside, the Cayce Police Department and the Lexington County Coroner’s Office said.
That was one “grave concern” among others that prompted the police department to take the residents of Twilite Manor into emergency custody and find them new housing, the department said.
“We knew their well-being was in imminent danger,” the department said. “Our officers were saddened to see their living conditions and took action to get them the medical and other assistance they needed. We will continue to work with (the state’s departments of health and social services) and each of their families to ensure that the proper care and attention is provided to each one of them.”
Catalano’s cause of death is pending an autopsy that is scheduled for Monday.
After police were called to the facility about 9:30 a.m. Friday for Catalano, who would shortly be pronounced dead, investigators discovered that residents had not been fed or given medication since the night before, the department said in a statement.
Another elderly man needed to be immediately hospitalized for an unspecified medical condition, the department said.
No professional was at the facility to give residents needed assistance, the department said. Some of the residents are blind, have a mental illness and some are “completely unable to care for themselves even in the most basic ways,” according to the department.
The remaining people who were living at Twilite Manor have been moved in with family members or other facilities based on their care needs, the department said.
Investigators and state agents involved have said that between 12 and 14 people were relocated from the home.
In January, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office charged an employee of Twilite Manor with financial fraud and exploitation of a vulnerable adult. The office alleged that the employee stole a resident’s debit card and used it to make purchases.
Also last month, the federal Department of Justice opened an investigation into South Carolina’s use of community residential care facilities for people with mental health needs.
State agents contradict police findings
A statement released Saturday by the Department of Social Services paints the Cayce Police Department as going too far in its actions at Twilite Manner.
While speaking with DSS agents, some of the residents “have vocalized their wish to return to their homes at Twilite Manor immediately,” agency spokesperson Connelly-Anne Ragley wrote in the statement provided to The State.
“Many of the residents were removed from (Twilite Manor) without needed medications to which DSS professionals have worked to obtain,” she said.
Cayce Police Department disputed that assertion Saturday evening, saying that its command staff personally picked up medication with DSS workers from Twilite Manor and went over instructions for administering it.
“Care of residents matters very much,” to the Cayce Police Department spokesperson Ashley Hunter said.
Some Twilite Manor residents are still in a local hospital emergency room “with no current medical needs” while they wait for a new place to stay or to be able to return to Twilite Manor, DSS said.
Ragley emphasized that DSS does not have the authority to take people out of their homes or facilities without police taking emergency steps. The police must show cause to take people into emergency custody before social service agents can find them homes.
The Department of Health and Environment Control, which regulates care facilities, also disputed the Cayce police statements.
DHEC said it “did not observe any condition or practices that pose an immediate threat to the health, safety and welfare of the residents” after a visit of the facility.
DHEC said it will report its findings next week.
In 2017 and 2018, DHEC inspected three complaints and conducted regular inspections at Twilite Manor.
The agency cited Twilite Manor at the time for “staff training, employment of an administrator, staff and resident assessments, incident reporting, resident records and individual care plans, resident monies, tuberculosis screening, medication administration, and security of oxygen cylinders,” according to documents.
The agency fined Twilite Manor almost $20,000 for the violations.
‘Misconceptions’ might have caused the problems
While the Cayce Police Department might have been trying to help residents of Twilite Manor, the department caused more harm to them, said Kimberly Tissot, the president Able South Carolina, an organization that advocates for people with disabilities.
Residents of Twilite Manor were independent adults who needed some help with daily tasks, Tissot said. Residents can come and go as they please, Tissot said.
“That was stripped from them,” she said. “They did nothing wrong” but were pulled from their home after finding a housemate dead. The police compounded the trauma, Tissot said.
Tissot said the Cayce Police Department overreacted because of “misconceptions about people with disabilities.”
“We see this every day, where people don’t think other people with disabilities are capable of being independent,” Tissot said. “Sometimes as soon as police see people with disability they assume they’re vulnerable and .... don’t ask what their wishes are.”
A community care facility like Twilite Manor is not required to have medical staff in house around the clock per state law, so the Cayce Police Department finding that the facility had no medical staff has no basis, Tissot said.
Some care facilities, like nursing homes, are required to have medical staff at all times, she said. But Twilite Manor isn’t a nursing home.
Tissot said she generally is not supportive of group homes, and instead prefers community supported individual living spaces for people with disabilities that require some care.
But with Twilite Manor, Tissot said she has found herself in the unusual position of supporting a group care home because, although she does not like the model, it’s helping people with disabilities live independently.
This story was originally published February 19, 2022 at 5:10 PM.