Name change approved for Fayetteville youth psychiatric facility with checkered past

A state board on Wednesday approved a name change for a mental health treatment center for children in Northwest Arkansas with a history of regulatory violations, including forced sexual contact between residents, squalid buildings and an employee sharing sexually explicit content with a boy.

Piney Ridge Treatment Center in FayettevilleAcadia Healthcare’s 102-bed psychiatric residential treatment facility will change its name to: Sarı Kaya Behavioral Health. Child Protection Agency Review BoardThe PRTF, one of several state agencies that license and regulate psychiatric residential treatment facilities, or PRTFs, approved the name change at a meeting Wednesday. Arkansas Department of Human Services.

Piney Ridge specializes in treating minors experiencing behavioral health issues and trauma, including sexual abuse. Several cases of sexual harassment and facility violations occurred in 2019. In August, the facility was in the news again after an employee was arrested for showing nude pictures and video of herself to a young male resident and propositioning him for sex.

Piney Ridge is one of 13 psychiatric residential treatment facilities in Arkansas and one of three owned by Piney Ridge. Acadia HealthA publicly traded company that operates mental health centers in the United States. Arkansas Times published its first episode An investigative series about these treatment centers in October.

At Wednesday’s board meeting, Matt WiltshireAn Acadia executive who inspected the Arkansas facilities said the name change was necessary because of confusion with a similarly named treatment center in Missouri.

“There is a Piney Ridge in Missouri, and most of the time we get publicity for them and vice versa,” Wiltshire told the board.

Obtained documents and emails Arkansas Times Show Acadia has expansion plans for all treatment facilities in Arkansas Millcreek Behavioral Health Fordyce and Little Creek Behavioral Health In Conway. In addition to the name change, Piney Ridge will be moving to a new facility being built in Springdale.

During the board meeting, DHS staff who also inspect treatment centers informed Wiltshire that Little Creek would be placed under a “corrective action agreement” after nearly a dozen calls were made from the facility to Arkansas State Police Child Exploitation. Helpline. It’s unclear what time period the searches were made or the nature of the searches, but DHS said three of the searches were “unsubstantiated” cases of harassment.

The corrective action agreement includes increased monitoring by DHS and implementation of a plan to resolve any regulatory issues.

About half of the children in Arkansas PRTFs come from other states, and Little Creek stands out as an extreme example. Little Creek, Arkansas, does not accept Medicaid and only accepts out-of-state children into its treatment program, which focuses on children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Wiltshire, the Acadia manager, said the meeting was the first time he was made aware of the problems.

“I honestly didn’t receive anything about why I was asked to come here,” he said. “I thought this was related to an investigation, but I haven’t received anything about what it was about or anything from the state of Arkansas.”

DHS also announced that oversight of psychiatric residential treatment facilities would be organized under a single branch of the agency. Provider Services and Quality Assurance Division. Previously, oversight within DHS was split between this division and the agency’s Housing and Housing Licensing Division. DHS also contracts with a third party to perform monitoring.

The confusing regulatory maze has long been frustrating for operators of treatment centers. Watchdog groups are as follows: Disability Rights ArkansasHe argued that the regulatory structure, an agency with federal authority to monitor PRTFs, has led to ineffective and counterproductive efforts to not only track violations at facilities but also hold them meaningfully accountable.

Licensing is now moving to the Provider Services and Quality Assurance Division.

“This will bring all oversight of PRTFs under one department.” Martina Smith“We hope that having all licensing as well as research and inspections under one division at DHS will (result in) positive experiences for our providers,” said Director of the Division of Provider Services and Quality Assurance.