Saturday, February 5, 2011

GUY B. RICHARDSON MEDICAL CENTER DIRECTOR/DAYTON VA

DARRELL HAMPTON



September 8, 2010
The Honorable Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Washington D C

The Director of the Dayton VA has been derelict in his duty and participated in so much nefarious conduct on so many different levels it’s hard to believe he remains in a position of authority. “Malfeasance” is the closet definitive word I could find to accurately describe his conduct.

While my VA experience, from a physical medical perspective has been superb and I’ve written many letters complimenting the treatment I have received. On the contrary, the MHCL and the Director’s office has done everything within their power to hinder my recovery and the redemption of my life by penalizing my free speech rights and denying me employment opportunities. With these sort of attitudes , is there any wonder why the rate of recidivism is so high for Veterans who need services from the MHCL? The one thing that is mandatory for a Veteran to recover from any mental health failing is sincerity. The Veteran/Patient must believe that his provider has his/her best interests at heart. Without this basic ingredient the Veteran is destined to stay stuck in wrong thinking and remain sick. Once the patient realizes their care-giver couldn’t care less about them all faith is lost, any progress halts and regression actualizes making subsequent recovery even more difficult. This is deliberate Patient Abuse! Over the past five (5) years I have been on two (2) week long “hunger Strikes” in front of the Center. It appears the only way to get the attention of those in Washington to address my concerns I need to began a third time.


Guy B. Richardson, at the least, is guilty of “malfeasance” and should be removed forthwith.

Because Mr. Richardson chooses to obfuscate and presents such a disingenuous persona to all those he encounters he is more disliked by his staff than any Medical Center Director I have seen at this VA. For five (5) years I have encouraged his employees to give him more time and I have aggressively supported his position on the Center. But…. “facts are stubborn things“. His personality lacks the requisite people skills needed for management and this utterly detestable puerile attitude renders him completely unable to lead. He has become a major perturbation here. His own employees routinely go the other way when they see him coming. Mr. Richardson suffers from a very common disease that has infected many executives in today’s society. This is the exact sickness that caused the financial downfall of our country and has blinded those on Wall Street, making them tone deaf to the consequences of their decisions. It‘s called “A hubristic arrogance of power” and he has it bad!. He is no longer reachable by the common man which renders him ineffective to provide services to America’s Honorably Discharged Veterans who are comprised of mostly poor and middle class people, He exhibits a cold detachment from them ( “I’m not here to feed hungry Veterans“) nor does he desire to even know them for anything other than how he can use them to provide him with a promotion to his next pay raise and/or next elevated duty station. Guy B. Richardson is unfit to lead this facility, Sir!
Mr. Richardson’s propensity at the Center has been to regularly promote African American females into positions they are not qualified to attain. He has demonstrated a repellant attitude towards any male seeking advancement and malicious total vitriol towards my existence. He has personalized my issues here and he has taken a vested interest in insuring I am never allowed to progress as a result of any American benefit I might receive from the Dayton VA. Any “Director” who lacks the self control to discipline his behavior so as not to carry contempt and actively participate in harm to a Patient/Veteran should be relieved of his position.
During the month of June, 2006, I was in the hospital finishing treatment for hep-C. I had taken weekly Interferon (chemo therapy)shots in my stomach and forty Ribavirin pills a week for eleven months. I felt and looked 90 years old. Beginning the first of June (the day of my final injection)the staff of the MHCL began to summon me to treatment teams in an effort to discharge me from the hospital. After I volunteered to surrender my disability payments to the Center and begged to stay because of my sickly weakened condition they still refused to allow me to stay! There were four (4) members on the team. Three of the members were emphatic that I was not to be discharged as it was blatantly obvious that I was still very, very weak and ill. This happened every week for three (3) weeks. On the fourth week another treatment team was ordered. This time the two in leadership of the MHCL Bill O’Brien and Florence Coleman attended and both voted that I be discharged. The result was a tied vote 3 to 3. Bill O’Brien, the MHCL Chief then overruled the tie and ordered me evicted from the center within three (3) days. I met with Mr. Richardson and asked that he reverse their decision and he refused to do so. Mr. Richardson, in a stunning display of malfeasance, allowed them to discharge me while I was severally ill. This resulted in my being made homeless while anemic, malnourished, completely emaciated and horribly weak. I was completely bald and obviously sick to any reasonable person with 20/20 plain vision yet he resolutely refused to intervene on my behalf and sent me outside homeless weak, susceptible to violence and vulnerable to disease. I had very low white blood cells.
When I notified him that Veterans were regularly coming to the Center for appointments “hungry” and leaving in the same condition, Mr. Richardson’s response was ostentatious, he said “I am not here to feed hungry Veterans”. A completely execrable pompously arrogant response and an abdication of his authority.
Mr. Richardson was made aware, two (2) years ago that his Veteran Industry staff was in direct violation of Title 38 and VHA policy in their failure to secure employment contracts for Veterans and they were not making any effort to fix this problem. He has failed to correct this department, mainly, I think because it was me who brought the breakdown to his attention. When I told him two (2) years ago that Title 38 stated “All VI counselors were supposed to spend no less than 75% of their day outside of their offices either securing new contracts or checking on Veterans currently working in contracts” his only response was to smile. The Dayton VA currently has 12-15 Vets working in their Compensated Work Program (CWT). By comparison the Bedford MA Veterans Industry Program currently has over 800 Vets currently working in their program. He uses, as an excuse, the current economic downfall as the reason his programs are failing so far below acceptable performance. That does not answer why the program has preformed equally as poor over the entire five (5) years he has been in charge here. I might add the current employment crisis hasn’t seemed to devastate the Bedford MA program. I mean, 12-15 Vets compared to 800 Vets is transparent malfeasance on it’s face. What is wrong with this picture? As I have explained to him, on numerous occasions, the problem with Veterans Industries is that he continues to expect Mental Health Care Counselors to perform a job they are not trained to do, secure contracts. I have recommended that a “sales personality” be used to do this job. Though I have over 30 years of sales experience I fully expect that he will look elsewhere to obtain this talent resulting in an additional intentional slight of my ability to provide service and an added denial of employment to me.
Mr. Richardson is in direct opposition of President Obama’s recent order that the VA Centers hire and train more Veterans as employees on the Center.
Mr. Richardson has colluded with his employees to punish anyone who dares disagree with him or has the gall to go outside of the Dayton VA seeking redress on any issues. He has instituted a sustained attack against me that has been effective for over four (4) years to deny me employment at the center. His efforts have risen to violations of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 9) by singling me out for a denial of government employment or contracts simply as “retribution and retaliation“ for bringing sustained charges against his staff members. This attack could not succeed without his explicit approval.
The Assistant Service Chief of EMS has a horrible reputation for not being able to control his sexual appetite. He has been arrested and convicted for soliciting paid sex acts from undercover Dayton Police Officers. In spite of this history Mr. Richardson allows him to recruit young female welfare recipients to work under him who do so to earn credits towards their food stamps and healthcare. It does not require the IQ of a brain surgeon to realize that a man with this type of track record will persuade an attractive, desperate young woman to “oblige” him in his priority desire. Mr. Richardson acts oblivious to the potential liability this man presents to the Dayton VA. This is a harassment lawsuit waiting to happen.
Mr. Richardson constantly receives the very same complaints, over and over again and adamantly refuses to resolve the same issues. He actually acts as if you are “getting on his nerves” when you bring complaints to him. Yes. He smiles at you and he says all the right things but he refuses to exercise any executive authority to change the environment. For over eight (8) months I wrote Mr. Richardson detailed documented facts about what his staff was doing to me while I was a patient in the “long term care” facility. I was taking Interferon and repairing for liver disease. I was sleeping 18 hours a day and being constantly harassed by his staff during my few waking hours. Sometimes they would actually wake me up to disrupt my rest. Mr. Richardson did nothing. He never even acknowledged my many letters to him. When I could take no more and began to bring “formal charges” placing him in an untenable position where he “had” to act or face possible career loss, only then did he order preliminary investigations which revealed not only was there smoke where I alleged a fire was burning, there was a roaring inferno beneath my charges. I suffered for at least five (5) months, while severally ill, had Mr. Richardson, done his job it would have spared me some of the most traumatic days of my life.
He has known for over five (5) years that the Coordinator of the Substance Abuse Program at the Dayton VA, Richard Riddle also owns a “Beer and Wine” store where he also sells “Crack Pipes” to the very same Veterans he provides treatment for when they are in his program. I, personally, know of one Veteran, Melvin Buford, who died two years ago, of liver disease, that Mr. Riddle sold alcoholic beverages to up until the last days of his life. If Richard Riddle was not in a department that required his Patients to believe in him or have some semblance of faith in his counsel Mr. Richardson’s response would make sense. I believe that Mr. Riddle’s outside activities renders him unfit and ineffective in his position. If the VA refuses to remove him the very least they should do is reassign him to another department where he can do no further harm to patients.

Mr. Richardson has refused to address this problem and told me “Although his behavior is highly immoral Mr. Riddle has not violated any policies or laws by operating this type of business”. Whew!

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