FACTS ABOUT THE AUDIT

Approximately 9,000 Pennsylvanians with mental retardation lived in 2,566 licensed group homes in 1998. Group homes serve eight or fewer individuals and are licensed and regulated by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (DPW).

The Department of the Auditor General's Performance Audit of the Commonwealth's Oversight of Group Homes for the Mentally Retarded in Western Pennsylvania is an effort by Auditor General Robert P. Casey, Jr. to improve the quality of care provided in group homes by improving the state's oversight of them. Casey conducted a performance audit because it enabled his department to look at issues beyond the Commonwealth's compliance with laws and regulations and to make recommendations to improve the health and safety of group home residents.

Casey's audit includes 19 conclusions about the Commonwealth's oversight of group homes and offers 47 recommendations for improving the health and safety of residents.

The audit covered the period from July 1, 1994 through June 30, 1999. Fieldwork for the audit was conducted between February 19, 1999 and November 12, 1999. It followed a preliminary survey of DPW procedures that raised serious concerns regarding the quality of care being provided to former Western Center residents.

The audit looked at eight group homes for the mentally retarded in western Pennsylvania and included five counties, eight provider agencies (companies that operate more than one home), and eight homes (one home per provider agency). Six of these homes and received residents from Western Center; two had not. The provider agencies in the sample were based in Allegheny, Beaver, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

This audit does not evaluate the closing of Western Center.