Allegheny County juvenile court judges have removed all children they placed in Southwood Psychiatric Hospital's residential treatment facilities because state officials downgraded the licenses and county officials found continuing problems.
In an action rarely taken, Allegheny County's Office of Children, Youth and Families asked the judges to move seven children out of Southwood over the past several weeks.
In the past, CYF has suspended admissions at group homes after discovering problems but almost never removed youngsters.
In this case, the agency decided to place the youngsters in other treatment facilities after the county office of mental health conducted an inspection and found unresolved problems that had been uncovered earlier by the state Department of Public Welfare.
During routine annual licensing inspections at five Southwood facilities in Western Pennsylvania in August, welfare investigators said they found broken windows in children's bedrooms, a dining area and two entrances; broken tile flooring; urine stench in a bedroom; 18 ripped mattresses; a broken bed board and a broken toilet and shower. Also, in one case, welfare cited inadequate staffing.
Because of the violations, welfare issued downgraded licenses called provisional. They remain in effect for six months instead of 12 and subject the facility to additional inspections that are sometimes conducted without advance notice.
Shortly after the welfare department reduced the license status in September, Lynn Struble left as Southwood's executive director. The new executive director, Lisa Machado, blamed the problems in part on the children to whom the facility is supposed to provide mental health treatment, saying "We deal with some very difficult children here."
Welfare has not cited other Allegheny County mental health treatment facilities for children for the sorts of problems found at Southwood.
Medicaid pays Southwood as much as $285 a day for each child placed there for mental health treatment.
Ms. Machado said in a brief telephone interview this week that she felt Southwood had corrected the problems and would ask the Welfare Department to conduct new inspections and give the facilities full licenses.
First Published: November 5, 2005, 5:00 a.m.
