TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Youth Center Layoffs Hit 125

ADVERTISEMENT

By ADAM EMERSON

aemerson@tampatrib.com

Published: January 4, 2009

A troubled youth mental health center in Riverview has laid off more than a third of its staff now that the state has removed many of the children in its care.
Tampa Bay Academy let go 125 workers in its residential treatment center last week, even as it prepared a final effort to stop a state agency from seizing its license to provide around-the-clock mental health care to children.

Three weeks ago, Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration reported that conditions at the for-profit academy's treatment center were "substandard." Inspectors found evidence that residents sexually preyed on workers and on each other - all made easier by the failures of a poorly trained and equipped staff.

Employees got pink slips after most of the 54 children and teenagers previously enrolled at the treatment center were placed in other group homes or mental health centers, said Rich Warden, the academy's executive director. The last two children will be moved this week.

Most of the laid-off workers were therapists, counselors and support staff needed to provide 24-hour care to children with severe mental health needs. About 200 employees remain in the academy's group homes and charter school, which aren't affected by the Health Care Administration's order.

But the academy kept 15 staff members from the treatment center to help rebuild what its leaders hope will be an effort the state will accept. Warden said the academy and its parent company, Youth and Family Centered Services in Austin, Texas, will submit an improvement plan to the Health Care Administration next week.

The state, however, plans to suspend the academy's license officially on Friday, said Fernando Senra, a spokesman for the Health Care Administration.

The troubles at the academy aren't new. Inspectors have found deficiencies at the academy during the past year, unearthing evidence that an inadequate staff with untrained workers repeatedly restrained children improperly and isolated them unnecessarily for days.

And the Department of Children & Families found many of the same problems at the academy three years ago, including inadequate staffing, abuse complaints and an alleged sexual assault on a patient.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT