State to build 12-bed residential center for girls needing psychiatric treatment
PROVIDENCE — State officials announced Thursday plans to build an $11-million, 12-bed residential treatment facility in North Providence for adolescent girls needing psychiatric care to ease the crisis of too few such beds in Rhode Island.
For years, Family Court judges, child advocates and lawmakers have criticized state child welfare officials for not moving fast enough to address the situation that forces the state to send adolescent girls in its care and with serious mental health problems out of state to residential treatment centers.
In many instances, judges have complained these girls have had to remain in Rhode Island mental health hospitals, receiving little of the intensive specialized care they need, because of the lack of beds.
On Thursday Gov. Dan McKee announced that the state Department of Children, Youth & Families and St. Mary’s Home for Children had entered into an agreement for an additional psychiatric residential treatment facility on the agency’s North Providence campus.
The facility would be completed by November 2024 with an anticipated opening date sometime in spring 2025. The $11 million will come out of pandemic relief funds.
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DCYF has contracted with St. Mary’s for psychiatric residential treatment services since 2019. It currently offers 21 beds for youth ages 6-21. Of those beds, 14 are for female adolescents.
Kevin Aucoin, the acting DCYF director, said in a statement “this agreement with St. Mary’s is the culmination of months of hard work and determination to find the most appropriate solution to address the needs and required services to support the female youth of Rhode Island.”
Both House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Sen. President Dominick J. Ruggerio commended the plan, saying the crisis of too few psychiatric beds for girls has been a high priority for lawmakers.
Carlene Casciano-McCann, executive director for St. Mary’s Home, said the youth in their care are serviced by an interdisciplinary team that includes a psychiatrist, nurses, licensed therapists, an occupational therapist, a speech therapist, teachers and aids, and residential counselors.
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The goals include getting the children’s symptoms stabilized, help return them to their homes whenever possible and “ensuring that the child can be safely treated in the community and avoid costly, and challenging out-of-state placements.”
Last May, the state Child Advocate Jennifer Griffith told a House Finance Committee that Rhode Island at that time had about 60 adolescents being treated out of state for a variety of traumatic, behavioral or mental health needs. Of those, 45 were girls.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: St. Mary's Home for Children to build residential psychiatric center for girls
