Former patients are suing Streamwood Behavioral Healthcare System in a series of civil cases that accuse the Illinois psychiatric facility and its parent company, Universal Health Services, of allowing staff to sexually assault child and adolescent patients, housing vulnerable minors with sexually aggressive peers, and retaliating against those who reported abuse. The Streamwood Behavioral Health lawsuit filings, brought in 2025 and 2026, are being pursued as individual civil claims rather than a class action, and Illinois law gives many childhood abuse survivors decades to come forward.
What the Lawsuits Allege
The complaints share a common set of factual claims. Plaintiffs describe chronic understaffing, negligent hiring, and decisions to place aggressive patients in rooms with younger or more vulnerable children.1TorHoerman Law. Streamwood Hospital Abuse Lawsuit The harms alleged fall into a few categories:
- Sexual assault by staff members, including assaults on minors with autism and developmental disorders.
- Peer-on-peer sexual abuse tied to how the facility grouped patients and supervised units.
- Use of chemical restraints, forced sedation, and prolonged isolation as punishment rather than clinically justified treatment.
- Retaliation against patients who reported abuse, including placement in seclusion rooms, restraints, or transfer to a unit for sexually aggressive residents.2Sauder Schelkopf. Jane Doe S.M. Complaint
The complaints also allege a corporate culture that discouraged reporting incidents to outside authorities.1TorHoerman Law. Streamwood Hospital Abuse Lawsuit
The Jane Doe S.M. Complaint
The most detailed publicly available filing is Jane Doe S.M. v. BHC Streamwood Hospital, Inc., et al., Case No. 1:25-cv-13512, filed November 4, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.3Sauder Schelkopf. Sauder Schelkopf Filed Lawsuit The plaintiff was ten years old during hospitalizations at Streamwood between 2004 and 2006. She alleges she was molested by a roommate, sexually assaulted by a 17-year-old patient, and sexually assaulted on three separate occasions by a female staff member. The complaint further alleges that staff encouraged other patients to attack her and told her she “deserved” to be hit.2Sauder Schelkopf. Jane Doe S.M. Complaint
The suit brings claims under Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and Illinois state law, and cites publicly available federal and state investigation reports about the facility.3Sauder Schelkopf. Sauder Schelkopf Filed Lawsuit As of the most recent available information, the defendants had not yet responded to the allegations.
Who Can Sue and How Long They Have
Many of the claims involve abuse that occurred years or decades ago, which is possible because Illinois has expanded its filing windows for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. For abuse that occurred on or after January 1, 2014, there is no deadline to file. For abuse before that date, survivors generally have until their 38th birthday, or within 20 years of discovering the connection between the abuse and their injury.4Victims Civil Attorneys. Illinois Statute of Limitations These rules are what allow a plaintiff like Jane Doe S.M. to sue in 2025 over conduct alleged to have occurred from 2004 to 2006.
Plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages for harms that include long-term psychiatric treatment costs, emotional distress, and loss of developmental opportunities.
The Joseph Majko Criminal Case
Civil complaints against the facility often point to a 2017 criminal prosecution as evidence of failures in screening and supervision. On May 19, 2017, Joseph Majko, a 25-year-old former behavioral health technician at Streamwood, was charged with predatory criminal sexual assault, a felony carrying up to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors alleged that Majko woke a 12-year-old patient with autism and developmental disorders in the middle of the night on May 2, 2017, and sexually abused her in her room and an adjacent bathroom. His bail was set at $1.5 million.5Daily Herald. Former Streamwood Behavioral Health Worker Charged With Abusing Girl
How Streamwood Fits Into the Broader UHS Litigation
Streamwood is operated by a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, the largest provider of inpatient behavioral health services in the United States, which runs roughly one out of every five psychiatric beds in the country.6SEIU. UHS Fact Sheet The Streamwood suits are part of a wider legal picture for UHS.
In 2024, UHS subsidiaries were hit with a combined $895 million in jury verdicts related to child abuse at behavioral health facilities.7Healthcare Dive. UHS Damages Child Sexual Abuse Pavilion At Pavilion Behavioral Health System in Champaign, Illinois, a jury awarded $535 million in March 2024 after a 13-year-old patient was sexually assaulted by a 16-year-old patient. A judge later reduced the total to $180 million by cutting punitive damages from $475 million to $120 million, and UHS has said it intends to appeal.8Becker’s Behavioral Health. Judge Reduces Verdict by $355M In September 2024, a Virginia jury awarded $360 million against Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents, another UHS subsidiary, after finding that a former medical director sexually abused patients under the guise of performing medical exams. Roughly 40 additional plaintiffs have pending claims there.9WTVR. Jury Reaches Verdict in Cumberland Hospital Trial
In July 2020, UHS paid $122 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations by the Department of Justice. The government alleged that UHS facilities admitted patients who did not need inpatient care, failed to discharge patients when treatment was no longer necessary, improperly used restraints and seclusion, and billed for services not rendered, over a period stretching from 2006 to 2018. As part of that settlement, UHS entered a five-year corporate integrity agreement with the HHS Office of Inspector General, which ran from July 2020 through March 2026.10U.S. Department of Justice. UHS $122 Million Settlement11HHS OIG. UHS Corporate Integrity Agreement
In June 2024, the Senate Finance Committee released a report titled “Warehouses of Neglect,” based on a two-year investigation into youth residential treatment facilities run by UHS and three other companies. The report said sexual, physical, and emotional abuse were “endemic” to a business model that prioritized filling beds and cutting staff costs.12U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Wyden Investigation Exposes Systemic Abuse The report did not name Streamwood specifically, but its findings about UHS corporate practices are cited in the Streamwood complaints.2Sauder Schelkopf. Jane Doe S.M. Complaint
UHS has acknowledged in regulatory filings that the ongoing litigation could have a “material adverse effect” on operations and financial resources. In September 2024, the company issued $1 billion in senior secured notes to shore up its liquidity.7Healthcare Dive. UHS Damages Child Sexual Abuse Pavilion
Where the Streamwood Cases Stand
The suits are individual civil actions. Multiple law firms are investigating and filing claims on behalf of survivors.1TorHoerman Law. Streamwood Hospital Abuse Lawsuit As of mid-2026, no trial dates, consolidated proceedings, or abuse-related settlements have been publicly reported for the Streamwood cases specifically. Anyone considering a claim should note that Illinois’s extended limitation rules for childhood sexual abuse are what open the door to older allegations, and the deadline that applies depends on when the abuse occurred and when the survivor connected it to their injury.