Wyllow Canales, who is 13, was attacked by another patient on her fifth day inside Options Behavioral Health Hospital.
A 12-year-old boy slammed her head into the ground, stomped on her rib cage and threatened to kill her, according to a police report filed after the April 7 assault.
But when the girl asked for help afterward, police and dispatch records show, none of the staff at the Lawrence-based facility called 911.
“They said I had ‘inside bruises,’” Wyllow told Mirror Indy in July, “and they’d go away in a few days.”
She may have never received medical care if her mother hadn’t noticed the lumps on her head when she returned home from Options the next day. Her mom called the police, and a day after that, Wyllow finally got a medical exam.
Doctors found hematomas under her scalp, which are collections of blood from broken vessels caused by head trauma. Wyllow already lives with constant seizures from epilepsy. After the attack, medical records show, she started having more frequent episodes.
Even if Options had immediately sought medical care, there is a chance that Wyllow would have experienced similar injuries. But to prevent lasting damage, medical experts told Mirror Indy, Options staff should have sought emergency care.
“Anyone with a serious head injury needs to be evaluated immediately at the ER,” said Dr. Daniel Lowenstein, a neurologist at the University of California San Francisco. “Especially a child with an underlying condition that could be exacerbated.”
Acadia Healthcare, which operates Options and dozens of other for-profit psychiatric hospitals across the country, did not dispute the family’s description of what happened. The company declined to comment on the incident, a spokesperson said, because of patient privacy.
Get the backstory
Out of Options
Mirror Indy investigates widespread allegations of abuse at Options Behavioral Health Hospital: Patients held against their will. No therapy. Sex abuse. Employees struggling to contain the chaos.
“We take all matters related to patient care and facility standards seriously,” Options said in a July 18 statement, adding that the facility remains licensed and accredited after more than 50 inspections since 2020 from accreditors and state and federal authorities.
For more than a decade, however, Acadia has been embroiled in a series of lawsuits and local and federal investigations across the country. And a New York Times investigation published in September 2024 found Acadia facilities are holding people against their will when it isn’t medically necessary in order to collect insurance money.
Multiple patients said the same thing happened to them at Options. Mirror Indy also detailed widespread allegations of sex abuse at the facility, where former employees described how dangerously low staffing levels resulted in unsupervised patients fighting and assaulting each other.
New patients may be unaware of these conditions before arriving at Options. They come from all across Indiana, usually after first receiving care in a local emergency room for a mental health crisis.
Wyllow’s mother, Angel Canales, had no idea about that history until after her daughter returned to their home in Goshen. She filed a complaint with the Indiana Department of Health, which found Options did not complete safety checks on patients before the attack and did not properly evaluate Wyllow’s injuries afterward.
See the report
As a result of those failures, Options was required to complete what’s known as a plan of correction. Records show Options promised it would improve staff’s supervision of patients, discuss mistakes in leadership meetings, conduct an audit of incidents and increase documentation.
Those actions fell far short of what Canales expected. And ultimately, she’s not convinced they will fix anything.
That’s because the state health department has substantiated at least 30 deficiencies at the facility since 2020. And for each one, Options pledged to do better next time.
Chad Bradford, an Indianapolis attorney representing the Canales family in a lawsuit against Options and Acadia, said he hopes the Indiana Department of Health and other state authorities are taking the pattern of cases seriously.
“At what point do you stop taking Acadia’s word that they’re addressing it?” Bradford said.
‘No one is holding these facilities accountable’
Bradford is part of the law firm Cohen & Malad, which is representing about a dozen patients in lawsuits against Options and Acadia.
Another family found the firm after their 12-year-old daughter’s stay at Options.
Craig Inman said the facility held his daughter against the family’s wishes for nearly two weeks last September, billing their insurance $36,000 for a stay where no therapy was provided.
Records show the child from Frankfort, who is not being named at the request of her parents to protect her privacy, was also in multiple fights with another patient at Options. In the aftermath, staff held her down, according to the lawsuit and a health department investigation, and injected her with benzodiazepines.
“All they did was overmedicate her,” said Inman, 46. “This was a little girl who was depressed, and they sent her back to us in complete psychosis.”
Acadia declined to comment on the case, citing patient privacy.
Health investigators cited Options for failing to show they used less restrictive methods, such as de-escalation, before administering drugs to the 12-year-old girl. Medical records, investigators also found, showed a nurse didn’t evaluate her physical or mental condition after the injection.
And the plan of correction? Options re-educated staff about the facility’s policies on using restraints.
See the report
Inman, who has worked in mental health facilities for years, said it amounted to a slap on the wrist.
“If I went out and did what Acadia does to people, I’d be in jail,” he said. “But they’re a billion-dollar corporation, so our state just lets them get away with it.”
“She’s not the same little girl anymore.”
— Craig Inman
Indiana’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction, which is a part of the Family and Social Services Administration, can shut down facilities like Options when patient safety is threatened or the facility has violated federal, state or local regulations.
DMHA can also take less drastic measures by placing temporary conditions on a facility’s license, such as stopping new patients from being admitted until the hospital is in compliance again.
But state records show as of May 27, Options still has an active license without any conditions.
A DMHA spokesperson did not answer questions about whether the agency investigated the complaints described in this article or took any disciplinary action against Options. The agency also declined to release several records requested by Mirror Indy, saying they were confidential under a state law protecting the release of medical records.
The DMHA isn’t the only government agency with the power to investigate facilities like Options.
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office can look for fraud, abuse and neglect at mental health facilities that receive Medicaid payments.
Canales and Inman said they were interviewed by investigators from the attorney general’s office this year. But neither have heard back in months, and investigators haven’t interviewed their children, provided updates or answered numerous phone calls and emails.
“They are probably just hoping I go away,” Inman said, referring to the several agencies he’s contacted. “They give you the runaround. They make it very obvious they don’t care.”
A spokesperson for Attorney General Todd Rokita said his office could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. The office declined to comment on the families’ concerns, citing a state law about the confidentiality of complaints.
The federal government could also intervene. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, for example, could de-certify Options, which would stop the facility from being able to receive Medicaid and Medicare payments.
A CMS spokesperson did not answer several questions posed by Mirror Indy through an email and an online request form.
“My daughter has a lifetime of damage to recover from. I don’t think Acadia realizes what they’ve done to her. Or if they do, they don’t care.”
— Angel Canales, Wyllow’s mom
Ashley Reed-Kimble, a social worker who previously ran the outpatient program at Options, said a big chunk of Acadia’s revenue comes from patients on Medicaid and Medicare.
“You have to hit them where it hurts financially,” she said. “Otherwise, nobody cares.”
But that’s not happening.
Arthur Caplan, a New York University bioethics professor who has extensively studied mental health issues, said patients in Indiana are being failed by state and federal regulators who he says are passing the buck.
“No one is holding these facilities accountable,” Caplan said. “There has to be a single agency in charge.”
Another Acadia facility in Indianapolis
The last recourse for families is civil court.
A financial settlement with Acadia isn’t the accountability that Inman wants.
“Acadia has the same playbook,” Inman said. “When they lose, they offer people a lot of money to go away.”
But after staying at Options, Inman’s daughter needs more frequent therapy, he said — and right now, the family can’t afford it.
The expenses are also piling up for the Canales family. Wyllow’s mother was forced to reduce her hours at work to take care of her daughter, along with a newborn and four other children. Wyllow still wakes up screaming from nightmares. Her seizures are worse than ever.
“My daughter has a lifetime of damage to recover from,” Canales said. “I don’t think Acadia realizes what they’ve done to her. Or if they do, they don’t care.”
The only reprieve is when Wyllow’s music therapist knocks on the door. In early May, the girl ran down to greet her. They played some of her favorite songs on guitar and ukulele.
“Music therapy has been wonderful. It’s the only thing she seems to trust right now.”
— Angel Canales, Wyllow’s mom
“What have you overcome?” the therapist asked.
“Hearing hurtful words actually hurts me,” Wyllow said. “But I just take a deep breath and ignore it.”
Sometimes, she said, she snuggles her plush doll of Jack Skellington from “A Nightmare Before Christmas” to feel better.
The 12-year-old boy, meanwhile, is facing criminal charges in connection with the assault.
Canales believes Acadia and Options should face stronger consequences from state and federal regulators.
“What the boy did was wrong,” Canales said, “but the staff let it happen.”
Acadia, though, is in the process of opening another mental health facility in Indianapolis.
It’s about 15 miles from Options.
How we reported this story
In 2024, Mirror Indy published a series of stories about the troubling experiences of patients at Options Behavioral Health Hospital. The Lawrence mental health facility is operated by Acadia Healthcare, a multibillion-dollar company at the center of abuse and fraud allegations across the country.
Patients here told us they were held against their will for insurance money. Former employees said Options prioritized profits over safety while violence broke out on understaffed units. Police reports detailed widespread allegations of sex abuse.
This year, health reporter Mary Claire Molloy learned the problems were continuing.
She heard from the mother of a 13-year-old girl who was assaulted at the facility in April. Records show staff failed to watch patients leading up to the attack and never called 911 for the injured child.
The girl’s family followed the steps to report the attack — and state investigators substantiated their complaint.
The result? Local prosecutors charged a 12-year-old boy in connection with the assault. Options had to fill out a plan of correction, promising to do better next time.
The family was outraged. They have joined a growing number of former patients calling on state and federal agencies to take stronger action against the Acadia facility.
Molloy reviewed more than 130 pages of surveys, complaints and plans of correction at Options. She found that, since 2020, health investigators have substantiated at least 30 deficiencies at the facility.
Acadia declined to comment, citing patient privacy. A spokesperson noted that Options remains fully licensed after more than 50 inspections from accreditors and state and federal authorities since 2020.
Meanwhile, the state and federal agencies that regulate Options did not specifically answer questions about any investigations or potential disciplinary decisions. They also didn’t comment on the concerns of families, who have criticized the agencies as enabling the alleged abuse within Options.
This article is part of a series. Molloy will continue reporting on Options and other mental health facilities in Indianapolis. If you have tips, comments or complaints, you can reach her at the contact information below.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
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