Ex-employees speak out on Parc
Place
March 17, 2007
By Edythe Jensen
Parc Place, a lockdown
rehabilitation facility for troubled teens in north Chandler, is
under fire from former employees who say the place is plagued by
violence, poor management and lax care.
Several say they are in talks with
child advocates at the Arizona Center for Disability Law and are
seeking legal action against the facility and its operators, Austin,
Texas-based Youth and Family Centered Services.
But CEO Michael Puthoff said the
youths in his facility "are as safe there as in any place they could
be in the state of Arizona." advertisement
The ex-employees disagree. "We're
lucky we haven't had any dead kids on our hands," said former Parc
Place counselor Heidi Miller,who now works for the non-profit Child
Protection Project. "There are serious problems with racial gangs
and gang initiations. We have kids getting beat up," Miller said.
"One was tied up all night with sheets and the staff didn't find him
until morning."
Puthoff said he doesn't recall the
sheet incident and declined to discuss individual employees. Ed
Myers, litigation director for Arizona Center for Disability Law,
said the agency "does not comment on pending investigations."
Parc Place is a state-funded
for-profit institution charged with housing, treating and educating
up to 87 teenagers with mental health, substance abuse or behavior
issues. Many of these kids are wards of the state and placed there
by welfare agencies.
Facilities such as Parc Place are
under intense scrutiny by the Arizona Department of Health Services
and Child Protective Services and any complaints by employees to
those agencies would trigger inquiries, Puthoff said.
DHS records show the Chandler site
was cited and fined $500 to $750 three times last year for
violations. Two were for "failure to ensure a restraint or seclusion
does not result in harm to the client" and one for failure to
document staff training. DHS officials would not say if there are
pending investigations.
Puthoff said the low fines show the
offenses were not serious.
High turnover and complaints by
ex-workers isn't unusual for facilities that treat 13- to
17-year-olds with histories of abuse, serious addictions and
behavior problems and who are not suitable candidates for less
secure group homes or foster homes, he said. "We care about the
kids."
Miller said she was fired last
month "for standing up to ethical issues" and challenging elements
of some proposed new programs at the facility.
Former Parc Place School Principal
Dan Bradfield and teacher JoAnne Dangel resigned in recent weeks,
and both said every member of the teaching staff has quit during the
past two months. Dangel said the administrators have for years
refused to buy textbooks for students, the rooms are dirty, and the
facility has become so dangerous that she feared for her safety.
"The gang thing has gotten out of
hand and kids are getting the hell beat out of them. But not too
much is being done about it," she said. Dangel said she was
assigned, alone, to a classroom of 20 boys.
"I didn't feel safe there," she
said.
Puthoff said no teachers are alone
in classrooms without behavioral health aides.
Bradfield said he left because he
had been hired to run the education program but wasn't allowed to do
that, and because he couldn't convince management of the seriousness
of problems.
Maria Ross, former risk management
director and a member of the governor's Economic Security Advisory
Council, said she quit last month because she was appalled by the
conditions there.
"Most of these kids are wards of
the state and don't have parents to go to bat for them. Parc Place
has no reason to want to discharge them because of the revenue.
They're growing up in a locked setting with no activities, no books.
Anyone in that setting would go nuts." According to city records,
Chandler police were called to the site 100 times during the past 12
months and reported 30 assaults.
Puthoff, a psychiatric social
worker who said he has worked in residential treatment facilities
for nearly 30 years, said police are sometimes called for
documentation and reporting purposes or to transport a patient
accused of criminal behavior to a detention facility.
Rohno Geppert, team leader for
behavioral health licensing at DHS, said children sent to facilities
like Parc Place have such serious behavior problems that seclusion,
restraints and calls to police are not unusual. The trend is away
from having staff members confront violent clients; "instead they
call 911 and have the police deal with them," he said.
"It's a tough business," Puthoff
said. "You have kids in a lot of pain and a lot of anxiety" and some
act out violently.
Parc Place, which operates a
similar facility in Casa Grande, recently raised staff salaries to
be more competitive with other health care institutions, Puthoff
said, and he is seeking additional state funding for treatment.
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