Buckeye Ranch officials exploring options to modernize Grove City campus

After marking its 60th anniversary last year, the Buckeye Ranch mental-health counseling and treatment facility for children and their families is evaluating options for upgrading its Grove City campus.

"As the needs of the community change, we continue to evolve to meet those needs," said Vickie Thompson-Sandy, president and CEO of the Buckeye Ranch. "As we have seen more kids with mental-health challenges, we have tried to modernize our campus in Grove City. We are in the process of evaluating if we can build new facilities on the campus to serve up to 48 children and add an education center."

The new buildings would allow the Buckeye Ranch to retire some of the older of the nine houses where youngsters stay while receiving in-person treatment on the campus at 5665 Hoover Road, Thompson-Sandy said.

"It's not so much an expansion plan as a replacement and modernizing plan," she said. "We're exploring that possibility and trying to secure the funding to move forward with a plan. We hope to get that determined within the first quarter or two of this year."

The Buckeye Ranch has a total staff of about 500 people, including about 200 who work at the Grove City campus, Thompson-Sandy said.

In addition to the Grove City campus, the Buckeye Ranch has sites in several other Ohio locations, including Columbus, Whitehall, Newark and Cincinnati, Thompson-Sandy said.

The intention is to maintain the residential campus at the same site in Grove City that has served the Buckeye Ranch since its start in 1961, she said.

"Our mission remains to raise hope and provide healing for children experiencing challenges related to mental-health issues," Thompson-Sandy said.

The Buckeye Ranch was established by a women's group first known as the Women's Juvenile Service Board and later the Buckeye Ranch Service Board.

"When the Buckeye Ranch began in 1961, 10 boys came to stay there, and the treatment center was run with a home-based family-like approach," Thompson-Sandy said. "There was a couple hired to serve as the house parents for the boys" under the direction of the ranch's first director, Lee Bostic.

A second house was built on the 75-acre site in 1965 to accommodate 12 more boys, she said.

Today, the nine houses on the campus serve up to 92 youngsters at a time, both boys and girls, Thompson-Sandy said. About 300 children stay at the Buckeye Ranch in an average year.

"I was just talking recently with one of the original 10 boys we served, and he was telling me he lived at the ranch for about four years," she said. "Now, the average stay at the ranch is three or four months."

The goal is to get youngsters back into their home or a foster home as quickly as possible while making sure they will be safe and secure, Thompson-Sandy said.

In addition to the resident services offered at the Grove City campus, the Buckeye Ranch also offers day treatment programs in a school setting at two locations, foster care in more than 20 Ohio counties, community-based services for children and their families in their homes and clinicians at schools in the South-Western, Columbus, Reynoldsburg and Westerville school districts.

"We have evolved as science has evolved," Thompson-Sandy said. "Our programs are evidence-based for what it the best way to help children in need."

Across its scope of services, the Buckeye Ranch assisted more than 4,700 children last year, she said.

"When children come to the Buckeye Ranch to receive mental-health treatment, we want to make sure we are responding to their needs," Thompson-Sandy said.

Different children will respond to different methods, she said.

So the scope of services at the residential center in Grove City involves more than just talking about issues, Thompson-Sandy said.

Youngsters are able to participate in a variety of activities to help with their treatment, including art therapy, recreational therapy, adventure therapy and animal-assisted therapy.

"It's not a one-size-fits-all approach," said Heather Syrus, the Buckeye Ranch's mental-health day treatment clinical supervisor and supervisor of of the animal-therapy program.

The adventure therapy offers ropes or other activities that are similar to team-building sessions companies might hold for their employees, Thompson-Sandy said.

The animal-therapy program gives children at the Buckeye Ranch the chance to interact with the small animals housed in a center dedicated to the program, Syrus said.

"We have about 15 animals in the center, a combination of small mammals and reptiles, including rabbits, a guinea pit, a hamster, a ball python, a bearded dragon, a gecko and a cat," she said. "We also have a therapy dog that roams around the campus."

The children living in each house on the campus are able to visit the animal-therapy center as a group once a week for a session that typically lasts about 100 minutes, Syrus said.

"The interaction they are able to have with an animal can be quite powerful," she said.

Typically, one animal is brought out for a session and used to address a specific topic, Syrus said.

"We might talk about how to care for and handle that particular animal and how to look for the signs they might be showing as to whether they want to be touched or not touched," she said.

The lessons the children learn about taking into account the feelings and needs of an animal can be applied to dealing with other human beings, Syrus said.

Many people, especially children, have a natural affinity for animals, she said.

The animal therapy can help make it easier for youngsters to develop a more positive connection to other people, Syrus said.

"It's so amazing to see how attached some of the kids grow to the animals," she said.

Many youngsters ask if a specific animal can be included in the ceremony held when a child is ready to leave the Buckeye Ranch, Syrus said.

Plans are in place to renovate the animal-therapy center to provide more open space on the floor and out of cages for the animals to live and more room for group activities and events, she said.

Meanwhile, although the Buckeye Ranch's official 60th anniversary was marked in 2021, the organization will continue the celebration with a gala planned for 6 p.m. May 5 at KEMBA Live!, 405 Neil Ave. in Columbus.

More information about the event will be posted as details are finalized at buckeyeranch.org, Thompson-Sandy said.

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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Buckeye Ranch officials exploring options to modernize Grove City campus