The new leader of the region’s lone state mental hospital has a two-part plan for the vast majority of its 350 patients.
Get them better.
Get them out.
“We want people to get what they need and help them to get community-ready and get back into the community,” said Val Vicari, 48, CEO of Torrance State Hospital since June, in an interview last week.
That hasn’t been a strength of Torrance, in Derry, which over the past year has gotten poor reviews from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the American Civil Liberties Union, and some patients and their families. The ACLU went to court to force a settlement aimed at speeding the transfer of forensic patients from two state hospitals, including Torrance. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this month reported on the deaths of two patients in their twenties.
Can Ms. Vicari catalyze change at the 700-employee institution?
“Val was always energetic, a positive person. From my experience with her, she was always willing to listen to thoughts and ideas,” said Rich Kuppelweiser, who ran the now-closed Mayview State Hospital. “I think Val is very committed and she’s got a lot of experience from the community level.”
Torrance houses and treats patients sent there on civil commitments, and others subject to criminal charges or in the Sexual Responsibility & Treatment Program.
Addressing concerns that patients watched TV for 14 hours a day, Ms. Vicari is implementing evening and weekend physical activities, ranging from greenhouse gardening to softball and walks “to get people moving ... and to utilize the beautiful grounds here.”
She is boosting the number of psychiatrists from 10 to 11, and the number of other doctors from five to six.
A “peer pal” program and a patient-produced newsletter will give the hospital’s clients more of a role and a voice, she said.
New training in subjects like computer use and cooking, plus supervised outings for select patients, will prepare them to move to community housing, she said.
“They’re great goals, great ideas,” said Mr. Kuppelweiser, “but you’re going to have to have your staff as a whole on board to support, to implement them, in order to make them successful.”
Ms. Vicari might be able to pull it off, said Carol Horowitz, managing attorney at the Pittsburgh office of Disability Rights Pennsylvania, who interacted with the new CEO when both were grappling with Mayview’s closure.
“I think that the tone that’s set [by the CEO] is very important,” Ms. Horowitz said. “I think she’s very serious about her work. ... I think she’s well-qualified.”
Former CEO Robert Snyder, whose academic background was in electrical construction, rose through the facilities management ranks during 19 years in the state hospital system, including 14 years at Torrance. Ms. Vicari, by contrast, is rooted in the behavioral health field and is neither a stranger, nor an insider, at Torrance.
A Mercer County native, she studied education and social sciences at Clarion University, and later earned a master’s degree in professional leadership at Carlow University. Over two decades, she worked at Mercer County Children and Youth Services, as director of the Butler County Drug and Alcohol Program, and, since 2001, with the state Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. At OHMSAS, she worked with community behavioral health programs in 48 counties and, in 2009, as interim CEO of Warren State Hospital.
“I don’t see individuals spending their lives in a state hospital,” said Ms. Vicari.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this month chronicled a Johnstown-area woman's experience in the mental health system, which ended in June with her death at Torrance at age 25. A 27-year-old woman died at Torrance in December 2014.
Dr. Dale Adair, medical director and chief psychiatric officer for the state Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, said every such death is reviewed. “Part of that review is always to look and see — are there things that could have been done differently?” he said.
Ms. Vicari said that she’s about to get the hospital up to a “full complement” of doctors. “Having doctors come on, it does cost,” she said, “but it’s the cost of doing business and caring for the individuals here.
“The team I get to work with here is really strong,” she said. “I think we’re going to be able to move forward and do some great things for the people who are here and the people who will come here.”
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale has criticized Torrance managers for allowing dozens of positions to go unfilled and forcing employees to work extra shifts, driving both overtime costs and sick leave. He called Ms. Vicari’s agenda items “all positive steps … It's good that somebody's taking care of people who sometimes fall into the shadows of our society, because they can sometimes be neglected.
“Is that going to turn around the whole fiscal issue? Of course not. But that's not going to turn around overnight."
Ms. Vicari will be paid approximately $120,000. She said she applied to lead Torrance knowing it would be challenging.
“I engaged that, because of where I’m grounded at — because I believe in community programming, and I believe in supporting individuals,” she said. “Our role is to support the individuals through their recovery journey to make sure they have what they need.”
Rich Lord: rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542. Twitter @richelord
First Published: September 18, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
