Key Takeaways:
- Youth residential treatment facilities (RTFs) market themselves with caring and compassionate language that hides widespread abuse
- Some of the worst offenders in Massachusetts include Southcoast Behavioral Health Center, Arbour Hospital, and Westwood Lodge
- Patients enter with the hope of getting treatment and healing
- The marketing language used by these facilities often masks a darker reality
- Sex abuse at several MA RTFs has been well documented
- Survivors of sex abuse at RTFs continue to come forward to seek justice
We have written before about the 2024 Senate Finance Committee’s scathing report revealing widespread abuse and neglect at many youth residential treatment facilities (RTFs) across the country, including Massachusetts. RTFs are meant to help children and adolescents struggling with behavioral, mental health, or substance use issues, but as the report indicates, they often become places of further trauma.
The investigation revealed alarming patterns: children being subjected to abuse, including sex abuse, by staff or peers; excessive restraint and seclusion, and unsafe or unsanitary living conditions. The report found that these issues are rooted in an operating model that incentivizes revenue over care, leading facilities to hire underqualified or insufficient staff. This creates a dangerous environment where abuse flourishes. And despite repeated complaints, RTFs often dismiss victims’ reports or hide behind privacy laws to avoid accountability.
If you experienced sex abuse at an RTF, you are not alone. As a law firm helping victims of sexual abuse in youth facilities in Massachusetts, we are seeing an increasing number of survivors of sexual abuse in residential treatment facilities come forward to share their stories and demand justice. In this blog, we focus on three Massachusetts residential treatment facilities that are facing legal claims for sex abuse that occurred on-site for decades.
Southcoast Behavioral Health Center, Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Southcoast Behavioral Health is a 190-bed RTF in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, that claims to provide structured inpatient psychiatric care for children and adolescents ages 5–17 who are experiencing severe mental health symptoms or crises. Stays at Southcoast typically last seven to 14 days, during which patients receive 24/7 monitoring and care from a multidisciplinary team that includes psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, and therapists. Southcoast Behavioral Health markets itself on its website as a “premier” psychiatric hospital offering “superior care” for children and adolescents in crisis. It purports to be a safe, supportive environment where young people can “stabilize and get on a path to a productive, bright future.” The website is filled with positive messages, including “age-appropriate care,” “individualized treatment,” “compassionate professionals,” and “healing environments.” Families desperate for help are told their children will receive evidence-based therapy and personalized attention from a “caring team.”
The contrast between these polished marketing materials and the allegations of abuse at Southcoast Behavioral Health is striking. The reality described by survivors, families, and investigators tells a dark story of abuse at this facility. Staff shortages and inadequate training, among other things, have left vulnerable youth in unsafe situations, often retraumatized by the people who promised to protect them. For too many children, “treatment” at Southcoast has meant enduring pain under the guise of care.
Arbour Hospital, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Arbour Hospital’s Adolescent Inpatient Program provides intensive, short-term psychiatric care for teens in crisis who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts, psychosis, severe mood changes, or behaviors that pose a danger to themselves or others. The program claims to offer a safe, structured environment where adolescents receive 24-hour nursing supervision and individualized treatment designed to promote stabilization and recovery. Like Southcoast, Arbour Hospital outwardly presents itself as a compassionate behavioral health facility dedicated to helping adolescents in crisis. Its website describes a caring, therapeutic environment where young people receive round-the-clock supervision, evidence-based therapy, and “compassionate, understanding behavioral health support.” It emphasizes patient dignity, collaboration, and “a quality, effective and positive experience.”
But again, recent revelations paint a very different picture. Behind the reassuring language lies a facility repeatedly cited for serious abuse and neglect, where the promise of “stabilization and recovery” often masks an ugly reality. Arbour Hospital’s claims of “qualified staff”, “respect” and putting “patients rights” first ring hollow in the face of widespread accounts of youth being assaulted or abused – sometimes by the very people charged with protecting them – and administrators who ignored or silenced complaints.
Westwood Lodge, Westwood, Massachusetts
Despite its closure in 2017, claims of sex abuse at Westwood Lodge continue to surface, and it may not be too late to hold those responsible accountable. Like many other facilities, Westwood Lodge (owned by Arbour Health Systems) once portrayed itself as a trusted, community-centered psychiatric hospital devoted to “healing,” “respect,” and “quality care.” Its marketing touted a supportive environment staffed by skilled professionals dedicated to guiding children and young adults through mental health crises. Parents and caregivers were led to believe they were entrusting their loved ones to a safe facility designed for recovery.
In reality, Westwood Lodge became synonymous with neglect, abuse, and institutional failure. The Boston Globe reported in 2017 that Westwood was permanently closed due to issues of patient safety, quality of care, and the facility’s failure to comply with Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) requirements. Regulators repeatedly cited the facility for safety violations and patient mistreatment. Reports from former patients and staff detailed sex, physical, and emotional abuse, overuse of restraints, falsified records, and administrators who routinely ignored or covered up serious incidents, including the death of a patient. Despite mounting evidence, Westwood continued to operate for years until it was closed by DMH. Once again, a hospital’s marketing language portraying it as a place of “healing and hope” proved little more than a misleading façade.
Contact an Experienced, Compassionate Sexual Abuse Attorney Today
The disconnect between the public image presented by these Massachusetts residential treatment facilities (and others like them) and their internal reality reflects a systemic problem: facilities profiting from the suffering of vulnerable children while hiding behind therapeutic jargon, privacy laws, and corporate spin. It has to stop!
We are Massachusetts residential treatment facility sexual abuse lawyers. Survivors deserve justice. If you or a loved one suffered abuse in a Massachusetts residential treatment facility, Shepard O’Donnell is here to help. Our experienced, compassionate attorneys stand ready to listen, fight for your rights, and pursue accountability from those responsible. Learn more about commonly asked questions about a sex abuse case in our blog, or contact us for a confidential consultation.
