Youth care facility revises plan

Public outcry may have swayed the Brown Schools to modify part of a treatment and service plan for severely emotionally disturbed clients.

By JIM ROSS

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 6, 2000

LECANTO -- The Brown Schools will hold an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday at its new facility here. But not everyone is in a celebratory mood.

Some residents remain opposed to, or at least wary of, Brown's plan to transform the old Heritage Hospital building into a residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed adolescents.

The dissent has been particularly vocal at Black Diamond, which is near the Brown site. Clark Stillwell, the lawyer who represents that upscale community, noted Monday that residents still have time to appeal a recent Citrus County government decision that would allow Brown to operate according to the property's existing zoning and land-use designations.

"Any open house may be premature in light of that" appellate option, Stillwell said. He declined to comment further.

Brown, a private, Texas-based company, is busy these days setting up shop inside the old Heritage building off County Road 491 north of County Road 486.

The company will provide residential treatment for adolescents who are severely emotionally disturbed. Those children will come through the state Department of Children and Families, the social service agency that has hired Brown to serve such clients.

That part of the plan has not drawn much controversy. But many residents have questioned a second part of Brown's blueprint: to use the Citrus site as part of its program to help adolescents deemed incompetent to proceed in juvenile criminal court.

Adolescents in that program stand accused of a felony-level crime but cannot proceed any further in court because mental illness impedes their competency.

Lecanto was slated to become the seventh site throughout Florida where Brown could house the children in that program who need residential treatment.

People who live near the facility have expressed safety concerns. What if the children left the Brown campus and entered the community, committing crimes?

But it now appears that Brown, at least in part because of those community concerns, has slightly shifted from its original course.

Larry Lowe, a program administrator with the Department of Children and Families in this region, said he recently learned that Brown will not count Citrus as one of the places where it will directly help the incompetent-to-proceed population.

It's possible that some children from that program might enter the Citrus site. But only if they meet all other admission criteria.

Lowe said that represents a shift in Brown's plans.

"That wasn't what we understood at all" in the beginning, Lowe said.

Mary Dell McClaren also works for the Department of Children and Families. But her office is in Tallahassee, and her task is to oversee the incompetent-to-proceed program.

McClaren, like Lowe, agreed that Brown's plan is a change from the original. The new guidelines will result in fewer children from the incompetent-to-proceed program heading to Citrus.

Her understanding is that Brown shifted course because of public outcry.

"It doesn't bother me," McClaren said, "I have got facilities throughout the state."

Brown spokeswoman Donna Burtanger said the company wasn't changing course. Rather, it was "refining (its) clinical admission requirements for the facility."

Residents might view the "refinement" as significant, but not meaningful: After all, no matter how the categories are defined, children who stand accused of felony-level crimes and are emotionally disturbed still will be staying in the facility.

Meanwhile, Brown is making progress on other fronts.

Last week, the Department of Children and Families issued Brown a license to operate the building as a child-caring facility. (Other facilities that carry the same license designation are wilderness camps such as Camp E-Nini-Hassee in Floral City.)

Brown must renew its license annually, Lowe said. As of Oct. 1, however, the licensing task will shift from Children and Families to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

The Citrus County school system has indicated that it is close to sealing a contract to provide educational services at Brown, Lowe said. That agreement awaits School Board consideration next week, and Lowe said the prospects appear good.

Finally, Lowe said Children and Families is getting closer to clearing the last major hurdle: negotiating a contract with Brown to serve the emotionally disturbed children.

"We're working in good faith, I think, on both sides to try to come to an agreement," he said.

Last week, Brown mailed 250 or so invitations for the open house. The event begins at 8 a.m. Thursday, with the ribbon cutting at 9. Festivities are scheduled to end at 11 a.m.

The general public is invited to tour the facility between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

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