May 1, 2009 7:11 pm US/Eastern
Westchester Therapy Center Under Investigation
Center For Children May Have Been Employing Unlicensed Therapists
CROSS RIVER, N.Y.
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Care Point treated hundreds of kids in the last five years. Parents are angry that the company was on a Westchester County list of approved therapy providers.
CBS
Some Westchester County parents are angry and concerned about a children's clinic that may have unlicensed therapists.
Virginia DiGuglielmo says her daughter, Drew, is one of dozens of kids put at risk by "Care Point," a company providing speech, occupational, and physical therapy to children with developmental delays.
"There's the possibility for serious harm to have been done," DiGuglielmo told CBS 2. "The business was doing business and it shouldn't have been in business."
Four-year-old Drew went to Care Point for more than a year to receive PT and OT, that is, until recently, when her mother got a letter telling her Care Point was under investigation for using unlicensed therapists. So she went to the state Web site, checked the names of the therapists working with Drew, and discovered they were indeed unlicensed.
She's convinced they were also unqualified to competently treat her daughter.
"We'll never know that difference, where she would be developmentally if she had been working with someone who knew what they were doing," she said.
Care Point treated hundreds of kids in the last five years. Parents are angry that the company was on a Westchester County list of approved therapy providers. In addition to concerns about unlicensed and uncertified therapists, Care Point has a problem with unpaid rent. It was evicted from its office in mid-April and now faces state and county investigations into the way it treated Drew and other children.
This case is a reminder to parents: do not assume the therapist treating your child is licensed. Ask the therapist for their full name and license number and then verify it. You can access the state Web site by
clicking here..
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