Changing times close children’s home (MI)

Saturday, November 1, 2008
Grosse Pointe Woods

Changing times close children’s home
State treatment policy shifts, tough economy too much for facility that dates to 1836.
Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News

GROSSE POINTE WOODS — A Grosse Pointe Woods children’s home that has provided treatment for troubled children for 172 years will be shuttered at the end of November, a result of the state’s shifting priorities for residential treatment of children and the economy.

The board of trustees of the Children’s Home of Detroit voted Thursday to shutter the facility, which houses 5-to-17-year-olds in cottages on a 13-acre country-like campus. The home can house about 90 children; it has 28 children in residence, said Executive Director William Steele.

The state is placing fewer children in residential treatment settings partly because of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the New York City-based child advocacy group Children’s Rights. The group sued Michigan over poor treatment of children in foster care that resulted in several deaths.

Boot Camp Nurse Criticized – Gives Up State License (FL)

Kristen Schmidt, the former Bay County Juvenile Boot Camp nurse at the center of the Martin Lee Anderson case, will no longer be able to practice in the state of Florida. She’s voluntarily relinquished her nursing license to State Board of Nursing.

The board filed the final order with the Florida Department of Health Tuesday afternoon.

Schmidt was a central figure in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson at the Bay County Juvenile Boot Camp on January 5th, 2006. Schmidt was the nurse on-duty that day, which was Anderson’s first day at the facility.

Anderson collapsed during a physical assessment run in the recreation yard. At first drill instructors believed Anderson was faking illness to get out of running. For 20-minutes they tried to get him back on his feet.
But during the process, the drill instructors used some arm strikes and take-downs, as well as ammonia capsules to revive the teenager.

Pendleton Academies may face closure

ODHS plans to revoke facility’s certificate

The East Oregonian

The Oregon Department of Human Services-Addictions and Mental Health Division (AMH) on Tuesday notified the Pendleton Academies’ board of directors of their intention to revoke the treatment facility’s certificate of approval to operate as a provider of psychiatric residential treatment services and psychiatric day treatment services for children.

On Aug. 20, AMH placed conditions on Pendleton Academies’ certificate of approval to operate. At that time, the board appointed Interim Executive Director Terry Edvalson, who has been working with Pendleton Academies’ staff to meet the standards required by AMH. Since then, Pendleton Academies has continued to care for clients, but has not been permitted to admit new clients to the program.

As recently as late October, AMH indicated they would lift the restrictions on Pendleton Academies and allow the admission of new clients, according to a statement released by the Pendleton Academies board Tuesday afternoon.

Given Pendleton Academies’ efforts and progress in meeting AMH requirements, said the news release, Edvalson and the board were surprised by AMH’s most recent action, the statement said.

The board plans to investigate its appeal rights and will be meeting again this Friday when more information is available, according to the statement.

http://www.eastoregonian.info/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=48&ArticleID=85475&TM=58775.37

A Call to Revise or Reject HR 6358, the “Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs Act of 2008”

To: United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and President of the United States

We, the undersigned, call on Congress and the President of the United States to revise or reject HR 6358, the “Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs Act of 2008″.

There are a number of problems with the legislation as it is now written. HR 6358 fails to include:

*Regulation of the referral and transport (hired kidnapping) industry
*Regulation of “faith-based” programs such as Bethel Boys Academy and Hephzibah House
*A federal ban on off-shore programs
*A federal rule banning psychological torture and unethical, experimental behavior modification methods in residential teen programs
*Additional civil and criminal remedies for victims (i.e. extending statute of limitations)

Stop unregulated behavioral modification programs

This petition calls on federal and state governments to increase oversight and regulation of behavioral modification programs that advertise themselves as drug rehabilatation centers but are actually private juvenile and adult detention centers many of which are poorly monitored and regulated by outside governmental authorities to insure the humane and fair treatment of youth and young adults.