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State reins in Largo center

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By ADAM EMERSON

aemerson@tampatrib.com

Published: June 25, 2009

State regulators have prohibited a Pinellas County mental health center from admitting new residents to its child and adolescent program, saying the center's "substandard conditions" pose a threat to those in its care.

Personal Enrichment through Mental Health Services Inc. has failed to protect other children at its Largo center, according to court records filed by Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration.

This month, the agency inspected a ward housing nine girls and found little evidence that one patient's "explosive behaviors" were properly monitored.

Records state that the girl assaulted other patients and staff on nearly a dozen occasions and Personal Enrichment has not shown how it treated the girl or protected others.

"Children and adolescents must not be subjected to such threats and dangers," say documents regulators filed June 12 in Leon County Circuit Court. "The facts clearly reflect a situation where Personal Enrichment has failed to effectively manage, protect and treat its clients."

Administrators at Personal Enrichment referred questions to their attorney, St. Petersburg lawyer Aubrey Dicus, who could not be reached Wednesday.

The moratorium on admissions will stay in place until regulators are satisfied that Personal Enrichment, a nonprofit group, has corrected the alleged problems. The treatment center has submitted a plan, but officials at the Agency for Health Care Administration won't release it until they have reviewed it.

Florida regulators have not taken action such as this against a residential treatment center since they pulled children out of Tampa Bay Academy in Riverview in December.

At that time, state officials said they found substandard conditions and "gross mismanagement" at Tampa Bay Academy. Some of the children from the academy went to Personal Enrichment, said Shelisha Durden, a spokeswoman for the Agency for Health Care Administration.

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

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