KidsPeace

Last updated
Registered KidsPeace logo with dove in hand NewKP Logo.png
Registered KidsPeace logo with dove in hand

KidsPeace is an American private charity that provides behavioral and mental health services for children, families, and communities. Founded in 1882, it operates a psychiatric hospital, residential treatment programs, educational services, foster care offices, and community-based treatment programs.

Contents

KidsPeace offers services in Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

KidsPeace was founded by William Thurston, president of the predecessor to Bethlehem Steel Corporation, in response to a smallpox epidemic that resulted in a number of orphaned and homeless children in southern Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1895, Captain James Wiley donated a Salisbury Township (PA) home and 6 acres (24,000 m2) of surrounding land to the charity. The organization was later renamed 'Wiley House,' a name it retained for many years before officially becoming 'KidsPeace' in January 1992.

Treatment programs

KidsPeace provides a range of services to children in need of mental and behavioral health treatment, and to their families. [1]

The largest KidsPeace facility is its Orchard Hills Campus in Orefield, outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania. This 262-acre (106 ha) campus includes an inpatient children’s psychiatric hospital and several residential treatment programs. The campus includes an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a ropes course, an apple orchard, playgrounds, a gym with a wrap-around track, multiple athletic fields, and recreation lounges. KidsPeace operates private schools for the children in its care, staffed with educators trained to work with its student population.

At its Graham Lake Campus in Maine, KidsPeace provides residential treatment, autism spectrum disorders residential treatment, therapeutic day treatment, and a licensed, approved special-purpose school. It has five other offices around the state to provide services like foster care, a supported families program, a family visitation program, and outpatient mental health services.

In Georgia, the KidsPeace Bowdon Campus is a 70-bed residential facility, with a separate unit that houses males aged 12–17 with sexual issues. The Georgia facility also offers outpatient mental health services. The on-site KidsPeace School of Georgia is accredited through the Carroll County School System by the Southern Accreditation of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

In 2015, KidsPeace School of Georgia received Bronze level recognition by U.S. News & World Report 's listing of the best high schools in the nation. [2]

KidsPeace also provides foster care and community programs services through offices in Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana. In 2016 the organization started Orchard Behavioral Health, an initiative to provide outpatient services for adults aged 21 to 65.

KidsPeace is accredited by the Joint Commission in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

According to the organization’s annual report, in 2018 KidsPeace served nearly 10,000 clients through its various programs. Since 1882, it has treated more than 200,000 children and adults in need. [3]

Concerns over care of clients

In 1993, Dean Sine, a counselor in the Orefield, Pennsylvania, facility, restrained a 12-year-old boy by sitting on his buttocks and then lower back. The boy reported that he couldn't breathe, but the restraint was continued until after he was unresponsive, when it was discovered that he had stopped breathing. Resuscitation attempts failed, and the counselor was subsequently charged and acquitted of homicide in criminal court in 1995.

On February 21, 2002, a resident of Kidspeace's Orfield, PA campus took her own life. Chloe Cohen of Betsy Ross House hung herself while being placed on "suicide watch" to ensure her safety.

In 2007, admissions to KidsPeace were halted by state officials due to seven children sustaining broken bones while being restrained by KidsPeace staff. Admissions resumed in December 2007 after KidsPeace implemented new policies on use of restraints and restricting admission of violent and aggressive clients into the program. [4]

In April 2008, two 16-year-old girls accessed a counselor's supply of methadone pills in her car. The girls took a total of 28 pills, resulting in one fatally overdosing and another being partially paralyzed. They were being given a ride home from a group home for children with drug problems. [5]

Financial issues, pension default, and bankruptcy

As of 2010, the pension plan for KidsPeace was underfunded by $42 million. In January 2012, it failed to make a $1.4 million bond payment. In March 2012, a lien was filed against KidsPeace for failing to contribute $3 million to its retirement plan. As a partial result, Moody's downgraded KidsPeace's bond rating to a C. [6]

In May 2013, KidsPeace filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. [7] [8] The filing listed organizational debts totaling nearly $249 million, including nearly $100 million in unfunded pension obligations. Also in May 2013, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation assumed control of the KidsPeace pension plan after KidsPeace officials defaulted on making required payments. [9]

KidsPeace emerged from bankruptcy protection in July 2014. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario</span> Hospital in Ontario, Canada

The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario — Ottawa Children's Treatment Centre, commonly known by its acronym CHEO, is a children's hospital and tertiary trauma centre for children and youth located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CHEO serves patients from eastern Ontario, northern Ontario, Nunavut, and the Outaouais region of Quebec.

A methadone clinic is a medical facility where medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are dispensed-—historically and most commonly methadone, although buprenorphine is also increasingly prescribed. Medically assisted drug therapy treatment is indicated in patients who are opioid-dependent or have a history of opioid dependence. Methadone is a schedule II (USA) opioid analgesic, that is also prescribed for pain management. It is a long-acting opioid that can delay the opioid withdrawal symptoms that patients experience from taking short-acting opioids, like heroin, and allow time for withdrawal management. In the United States, by law, patients must receive methadone under the supervision of a physician, and dispensed through the Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Learning Center for the Deaf</span> Private, publicly funded school

The Learning Center for the Deaf (TLC) is a Framingham, Massachusetts-based non-profit organization and school serving deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adults. The mission of The Learning Center for the Deaf is to ensure that all deaf and hard of hearing children and adults thrive by having the knowledge, opportunity and power to design the future of their choice.

Phoenix House Foundation was a national nonprofit drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization operating in ten states with 150 programs throughout the United States. Programs served individuals, families, and communities affected by substance abuse and dependency.

A mental health professional is a health care practitioner or social and human services provider who offers services for the purpose of improving an individual's mental health or to treat mental disorders. This broad category was developed as a name for community personnel who worked in the new community mental health agencies begun in the 1970s to assist individuals moving from state hospitals, to prevent admissions, and to provide support in homes, jobs, education, and community. These individuals were the forefront brigade to develop the community programs, which today may be referred to by names such as supported housing, psychiatric rehabilitation, supported or transitional employment, sheltered workshops, supported education, daily living skills, affirmative industries, dual diagnosis treatment, individual and family psychoeducation, adult day care, foster care, family services and mental health counseling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services</span> Hospital in Michigan, United States

Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services is a psychiatric hospital and behavioral health provider, with the main treatment campus located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Chief Executive Officer and President is Dr. Mark Eastburg, appointed December, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers</span> Former healthcare system in New York, United States

Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers was a healthcare system in New York City, anchored by its flagship hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Residential treatment center</span> Live-in healthcare facility

A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral problems. Residential treatment may be considered the "last-ditch" approach to treating abnormal psychology or psychopathology.

The Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a non-profit organization, was the primary educational and support services resource for Deaf and Hard of Hearing residents in Vermont and surrounding areas. The Vermont Center, headquartered at Brattleboro’s Austin’s School For The Deaf, was launched by the Austine School in 1998 and operated until 2014. The Austine School was one of four independent schools and twelve outreach programs through which the Vermont Center assisted thousands of Deaf Vermonters.

Community mental health services (CMHS), also known as community mental health teams (CMHT) in the United Kingdom, support or treat people with mental disorders in a domiciliary setting, instead of a psychiatric hospital (asylum). The array of community mental health services vary depending on the country in which the services are provided. It refers to a system of care in which the patient's community, not a specific facility such as a hospital, is the primary provider of care for people with a mental illness. The goal of community mental health services often includes much more than simply providing outpatient psychiatric treatment.

Silver Hill Hospital is a non-profit psychiatric hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut established in 1931. The hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission and provides behavioral health care treatment. This includes psychiatric and addiction services.

Willingway, located in Statesboro, Georgia, is a privately owned Substance Use Disorder facility which specializes in treating alcoholism and drug addiction. The treatment modality at Willingway is based on the principles of the twelve-step program, Alcoholics Anonymous. It is referred to by many as "The Betty Ford Center of the South."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huntsman Mental Health Institute</span> Salt Lake City institute for psychiatric education, research, treatment

The Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI), formerly University Neuropsychiatric Institute (UNI), is an assemblage of psychiatric treatment, education, and research programs based in Salt Lake City, Utah. HMHI is a component of University of Utah Health Hospitals & Clinics. The institute was dedicated on 14 January 2021 after the Huntsman family, in November 2019, committed $150 million over 10 years to create the institute

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VA Butler Healthcare</span>

VA Butler Healthcare is a Health Care Center operated by the Department of Veteran Affairs. Serving over 22,000 veterans in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. The hospital is located on a 90-acre campus on New Castle Road in Butler Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania.

Rosecrance is a provider of behavioral health services with addiction treatment programs. Rosecrance serves clients at locations across Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System is a health care organization that provides care to Massachusetts’ Veterans. It is part of the VA New England Healthcare System, one of 21 Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs) within the VA. The VA New England Healthcare System includes VA medical centers in Boston and all six New England states. The VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System includes a medical center in Northampton and community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) in Greenfield, Worcester, Pittsfield, Springfield and Fitchburg.

Clinical mental health counseling is a healthcare profession addressing issues such as substance abuse, addiction, relational problems, stress management, as well as more serious conditions such as suicidal ideation and acute behavioral disorders. Practitioners may also assist with occupational growth in neurodivergent populations and behavioral and educational development. Clinical mental health (CMH) counselors include psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health technicians, marriage counselors, social workers, and family therapists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockland Psychiatric Center</span> Hospital in New York, United States

The Rockland Psychiatric Center, originally Rockland State Hospital, in Orangeburg, New York, is a psychiatric facility for adults operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health. It offers in-patient and transitional treatment for adults, as well as research facilities. There are 13 outpatient facilities and 11 residential programs in the four surrounding counties. The facility shares space with the co-located Nathan Kline Institute. The inpatient treatment center has 410 beds. The current hospital replaces an older hospital on the same 615-acre (249 ha) site.

Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. is an American provider of for-profit behavioral healthcare services. It operates a network of over 225 facilities across the United States and Puerto Rico.

Howard Center is a Burlington, Vermont-based nonprofit organization that offers professional crisis and counseling services to children and adults; supportive services to individuals with autism and developmental disabilities who need help with education, employment, and life maintenance skills; counseling and medical services for those struggling with substance use disorders; and interventions and supports for adults with serious and persistent mental health challenges in Chittenden County, Vermont's most populous county. Howard Center collaborates with many community partners and is a United Way of Northwest Vermont-funded agency.

References

  1. ↑ "KidsPeace Website". KidsPeace.org. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  2. ↑ "KidsPeace Overview". usnews.com. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  3. ↑ "Outcomes and Annual Report 2019" (PDF). KidsPeace.org. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  4. ↑ "Crisis brings KidsPeace to a crossroads: High number of restraints, spike in police calls bring state probe. Can the 125-year-old agency survive?". tmcnet.com. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  5. ↑ Matt Assad, "4 critical errors identified in KidsPeace death ** Investigation: Girls stole methadone from worker, report says". The Morning Call. 26 June 2008. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  6. ↑ JD Malone, "KidsPeace finances shaky, misses bond and pension payments". The Morning Call. 3 April 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  7. ↑ Matt Assad, "KidsPeace files for bankruptcy". The Morning Call. 21 May 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  8. ↑ "Who We Are". omnimgt.com. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  9. ↑ "Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation". pbgc.gov. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  10. ↑ Matt Assad, "KidsPeace emerges from bankruptcy". 2 August 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.