New Crisis-Stabilization Unit For Children Fills Gap
by Michael Martz (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Lanell Robinson had a hard year. His father died suddenly in June, leaving the 11-year-old feeling upset and confused.
"I felt like my dad left me, and didn't say bye or nothing," he said. "A lot of people had to tell me he didn't know he was going."
His mother, Francine Ellis, is a recovering addict who has regained her life and her son. In the fall, Lanell began intensive in-home therapy with a counselor, Maurice E. Morgan Jr., who saw a family dynamic that needed to be addressed in their home in South Richmond's Blackwell neighborhood.
It all came crashing down just before Thanksgiving. An incident at Binford Middle School between Lanell and another boy escalated into a fight. When Lanell realized his mother was being called, his anxiety overcame him and he became potentially dangerous to himself.
Fortunately, Lanell had somewhere to go to get help other than a hospital — Virginia's first crisis-stabilization unit for children, which opened in May at St. Joseph's Villa in Henrico County.
When Lanell left the unit seven days later, he felt better about himself, and so did his mother, who entered family services with her son to learn about her role in how he was feeling and acting.
"I was willing to get family services along with individual services (for Lanell) to take a look at it," Ellis said, "because I wanted my baby to be as healthy as possible."
The six-bed crisis-stabilization unit is an important tool in a new array of services for children that mental health providers and advocates are developing in the Richmond and Southside areas, along with two other regions of the state.
In 2012, the General Assembly budgeted $3.25 million over two years for the projects, which already have resulted in an expanded mobile response team for children in crisis in the Lynchburg region and the hiring of clinicians for children in parts of Southwest Virginia where there had been none before.
There are plans under way to form mobile crisis teams in the Richmond region as well as Southside, to expand the reach of child psychiatrists both in person and by telecommunications, and to train pediatricians and other primary-care providers how to handle mental health crises in children and adolescents.
Gov. Bob McDonnell last month proposed an additional $1 million in state funding in the next budget to pay for initiatives in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to expand their capacity to help children in crisis.
"Each region is able to start where they are and develop the services they think will have the most impact," said Margaret Nimmo Crowe, director of policy at Voices for Virginia's Children, one of the advocacy groups that pushed the initiative with community services boards for mental health services.
The mental health coalition will seek additional funding for the child services in the two additional regions in the General Assembly session that begins Jan. 9, but the governor's proposal "gives us a big leg up going into session," Crowe said.
The crisis-stabilization unit is housed in a former cottage at St. Joseph's Villa, established in 1834 as an orphanage.
"The crisis-stabilization unit is one of the most important things the Villa has ever done in 178 years," Kathleen Burke Barrett, its chief executive officer, said during a recent tour of the unit for state Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax.
"We feel like these children need significant help," Barrett said.
The unit looks more like a summer cottage than a hospital, and it offers a wide range of services for children between 5 and 17 years old who live in 22 jurisdictions in central and Southside Virginia.
"They had everything there," said Morgan, Lanell's counselor. "The key is they have wraparound services."
Morgan is CEO and program director at New Pathways Youth and Mental Health Services Inc. Because New Pathways already was working with Lanell and his family, Morgan has stayed in close communication with the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, which assessed the boy before referring him to crisis stabilization.
The authority also is the fiscal agent for the unit and other child mental health initiatives, which grew out of a two-year state study that found a need for more resources to help children with behavioral issues.
Since the unit opened in May with money borrowed from regional funds for adult mental health services, 78 children had been referred through the end of October and 34 admitted.
Of those admitted, 82 percent were diverted from more costly care at hospitals, including the state-run Commonwealth Center for Children & Adolescents in Staunton. Six ultimately needed more intensive inpatient care.
Most residents of the unit stayed fewer than nine days. Helping their families is a big part of the treatment.
"This is about involving the child's family and primary-care system in the treatment," said Amy Erb, director of regional programs at the Richmond authority.
For Lanell and his mother, that means continuing to work with Morgan, who has used role-playing exercises to help them learn how to interact better.
Ellis realized, for example, that although she wouldn't spank her son when he acted out, "I was hollering and screaming at the top of my lungs."
"It was taking him to places I didn't know it was taking him," she said.
Lanell also found ways to deal with the death of his father, Guy Lee Robinson, whose black-and-white photograph from high school hangs on the wall of their Blackwell townhouse. Morgan introduced Lanell to strategies to assist him in coping with the loss of his father, including the "empty chair technique."
"You say to the chair what you would have said if your dad was still there," Lanell said.
While at St. Joseph's, Lanell also made a clay sculpture that showed him with Morgan, his father and mother, and his stepfather, Tony Martin. "At the bottom I put a fist for defeating anger," he said.
When Martin was preparing to leave for work one day recently, Lanell rushed to him and embraced him.
"This is one of those rare families you see where there are both parents around," Morgan said. "There is a mother and a father figure around the house."
All of these things together have made a huge difference in Lanell's life.
"I can't even explain how good he is doing," Ellis said.
Lanell flung himself on her and said, "Yes, you can."
"I felt like my dad left me, and didn't say bye or nothing," he said. "A lot of people had to tell me he didn't know he was going."
His mother, Francine Ellis, is a recovering addict who has regained her life and her son. In the fall, Lanell began intensive in-home therapy with a counselor, Maurice E. Morgan Jr., who saw a family dynamic that needed to be addressed in their home in South Richmond's Blackwell neighborhood.
It all came crashing down just before Thanksgiving. An incident at Binford Middle School between Lanell and another boy escalated into a fight. When Lanell realized his mother was being called, his anxiety overcame him and he became potentially dangerous to himself.
Fortunately, Lanell had somewhere to go to get help other than a hospital — Virginia's first crisis-stabilization unit for children, which opened in May at St. Joseph's Villa in Henrico County.
When Lanell left the unit seven days later, he felt better about himself, and so did his mother, who entered family services with her son to learn about her role in how he was feeling and acting.
"I was willing to get family services along with individual services (for Lanell) to take a look at it," Ellis said, "because I wanted my baby to be as healthy as possible."
The six-bed crisis-stabilization unit is an important tool in a new array of services for children that mental health providers and advocates are developing in the Richmond and Southside areas, along with two other regions of the state.
In 2012, the General Assembly budgeted $3.25 million over two years for the projects, which already have resulted in an expanded mobile response team for children in crisis in the Lynchburg region and the hiring of clinicians for children in parts of Southwest Virginia where there had been none before.
There are plans under way to form mobile crisis teams in the Richmond region as well as Southside, to expand the reach of child psychiatrists both in person and by telecommunications, and to train pediatricians and other primary-care providers how to handle mental health crises in children and adolescents.
Gov. Bob McDonnell last month proposed an additional $1 million in state funding in the next budget to pay for initiatives in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to expand their capacity to help children in crisis.
"Each region is able to start where they are and develop the services they think will have the most impact," said Margaret Nimmo Crowe, director of policy at Voices for Virginia's Children, one of the advocacy groups that pushed the initiative with community services boards for mental health services.
The mental health coalition will seek additional funding for the child services in the two additional regions in the General Assembly session that begins Jan. 9, but the governor's proposal "gives us a big leg up going into session," Crowe said.
The crisis-stabilization unit is housed in a former cottage at St. Joseph's Villa, established in 1834 as an orphanage.
"The crisis-stabilization unit is one of the most important things the Villa has ever done in 178 years," Kathleen Burke Barrett, its chief executive officer, said during a recent tour of the unit for state Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax.
"We feel like these children need significant help," Barrett said.
The unit looks more like a summer cottage than a hospital, and it offers a wide range of services for children between 5 and 17 years old who live in 22 jurisdictions in central and Southside Virginia.
"They had everything there," said Morgan, Lanell's counselor. "The key is they have wraparound services."
Morgan is CEO and program director at New Pathways Youth and Mental Health Services Inc. Because New Pathways already was working with Lanell and his family, Morgan has stayed in close communication with the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, which assessed the boy before referring him to crisis stabilization.
The authority also is the fiscal agent for the unit and other child mental health initiatives, which grew out of a two-year state study that found a need for more resources to help children with behavioral issues.
Since the unit opened in May with money borrowed from regional funds for adult mental health services, 78 children had been referred through the end of October and 34 admitted.
Of those admitted, 82 percent were diverted from more costly care at hospitals, including the state-run Commonwealth Center for Children & Adolescents in Staunton. Six ultimately needed more intensive inpatient care.
Most residents of the unit stayed fewer than nine days. Helping their families is a big part of the treatment.
"This is about involving the child's family and primary-care system in the treatment," said Amy Erb, director of regional programs at the Richmond authority.
For Lanell and his mother, that means continuing to work with Morgan, who has used role-playing exercises to help them learn how to interact better.
Ellis realized, for example, that although she wouldn't spank her son when he acted out, "I was hollering and screaming at the top of my lungs."
"It was taking him to places I didn't know it was taking him," she said.
Lanell also found ways to deal with the death of his father, Guy Lee Robinson, whose black-and-white photograph from high school hangs on the wall of their Blackwell townhouse. Morgan introduced Lanell to strategies to assist him in coping with the loss of his father, including the "empty chair technique."
"You say to the chair what you would have said if your dad was still there," Lanell said.
While at St. Joseph's, Lanell also made a clay sculpture that showed him with Morgan, his father and mother, and his stepfather, Tony Martin. "At the bottom I put a fist for defeating anger," he said.
When Martin was preparing to leave for work one day recently, Lanell rushed to him and embraced him.
"This is one of those rare families you see where there are both parents around," Morgan said. "There is a mother and a father figure around the house."
All of these things together have made a huge difference in Lanell's life.
"I can't even explain how good he is doing," Ellis said.
Lanell flung himself on her and said, "Yes, you can."