Oct. 16 Pike Lecture
Abuse of Mentally Ill Patients at Bridgewater State Hospital: How the Media Can Help Medicine and the Law Protect Patients
Michael Rezendes of the Boston Globe will review a year of investigative reporting on the state’s prison for the mentally ill and explain how his reporting led to revelations of major abuses and significant reforms.
Michael Rezendes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who has played a key role in many of the Globe’s most significant investigations, including those probing the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, financial corruption in the nation’s charitable foundations, and the plight of mentally ill state prisoners. As a member of the Globe’s Spotlight Team he shared a 2003 Pulitzer Prize for investigating the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. More recently, Rezendes has uncovered the widespread abuse of mental health patients at Bridgewater State Hospital, including the soaring use of isolation and restraints, and the death of a 23-year-old mental health patient who was killed while prison guards were placing him in four-point restraints.
To learn more on Rezendes’s reporting about Bridgewater State Hospital, please see A death in restraints after ‘standard procedure’ and Scathing study cites Bridgewater practices.
The annual Pike Lecture on Health Law is held in honor of Boston University School of Law alumni Neal Pike (‘37), a distinguished lawyer and lifelong advocate for individuals with disabilities.
Abuse of Mentally Ill Patients at Bridgewater State Hospital: How the Media Can Help Medicine and the Law Protect Patients
- Thursday, Oct. 16
- Noon-1 p.m.
- BUSM Instructional Building, L-112
- Open to students, faculty, staff, general public
Co-Sponsored by BU School of Law and Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights at BU School of Public Health. For more information, contact Gina Duong.