A mental health care company is set to halt its contract to provide therapy at the Lewisville Juvenile Treatment Center later this month because of late payments, a lack of resources and a hostile work environment, according to the company.
The Southwest Arkansas Counseling and Mental Health Center Inc. began treating children at the Lewisville center in July, under contract with Youth Opportunity Investments LLC. Indiana-based Youth Opportunity has a contract with the state to run youth lockups in Lewisville, Dermott, Harrisburg and Mansfield.
Southwest Arkansas Counseling will stop providing regular therapy to youths at Lewisville on Feb. 14, and Youth Opportunity plans to hire in-house clinicians, said Michael Crump, the director for the Division of Youth Services at the state Department of Human Services.
In a Jan. 10 letter to Southwest Arkansas Counseling executive director Danny Stanley, the counseling service's clinical director and assistant clinical director outlined seven primary points of concern that constitute reasons for terminating the contract with Youth Opportunity.
Those reasons were:
• Late payments for services, including $61,250.01 in unpaid bills for November and December.
• Only one office and one computer provided for two therapists.
• Only one therapist provided with a connection to the Department of Human Services network.
• Therapists are told "on a daily basis" by the Youth Opportunity staff that they are out of compliance with the contract.
• Youth Opportunity staff members told the Southwest Arkansas Counseling staff that it was "unprofessional" and "negligent" to allow a therapist to apply for an internal transfer.
• Youth Opportunity staff members "constantly place our staff in impossible situations where they are unable to comply with the standards and expectations" of Youth Opportunity.
• Youth Opportunity is actively advertising and looking for a therapist at Lewisville to replace Southwest Arkansas Counseling.
"We are of the opinion that our staff are facing a hostile work environment created by the management and other personnel employed by YOI at the Juvenile Detention Center," the letter says.
Stanley said the counseling group will still provide emergency mental health services to the Lewisville facility as a part of its duties as a community mental health center.
"I'm interested in those kids getting services," Stanley said. "I think that's kind of what the letter reflected, and we just felt a little uncomfortable to continue our relationship."
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained the letter, which was also sent to state Division of Youth Services officials, through an open records request under the state Freedom of Information Act.
Youth Opportunity spokesman Gary Sallee did not respond to requests for comment by Friday afternoon.
The firm has already hired a clinical director and is in the process of hiring a therapist, said Amy Webb, a spokeswoman for the Human Services Department. Youth Opportunity's usual practice is to hire in-house therapists, although the firm had a separate contract with another mental health center at the Mansfield Juvenile Treatment Center until September.
"They've always stated to us that they planned to bring them [therapy services] in-house eventually," Crump said of Youth Opportunity.
The efforts to find clinicians to replace those at Southwest Arkansas Counseling began before the mental health provider announced its intention to withdraw from the contract.
Crump and Webb said that while receiving a letter of this type is unusual, the state doesn't generally get involved with the relationship between companies it contracts with and subcontractors.
"We didn't want that to interfere with the kids getting services," Crump said. "It just sounds like there have been difficulties in the relationship between the two."
He added that after receiving the letter, his staff went to Lewisville to ensure that the kids were still getting therapy. The state also sent a letter of concern to Youth Opportunity president Jim Hill on Jan. 15.
"We would like to know your plan for continuing to provide this service [therapy] for our youth located in this facility," the state's letter of concern reads in part.
Southwest Arkansas Counseling's contract was to continue through June, according to the letter the counseling service forwarded to the state.
Since the time the contract started, each month's payments to the counseling company have been late. Youth Opportunity didn't pay for services for July and August until Nov. 12 and didn't pay for September and October until Nov. 25, the counseling service's Jan. 10 letter says.
In an interview Wednesday, Stanley said the counseling group hadn't yet received payments for November and December.
When the Lewisville lockup was under state control, Southwest Arkansas Counseling had the contract to provide counseling with one therapist.
After Youth Opportunity took over management of the facility in July, it asked Southwest Arkansas Counseling to add a second therapist so that the ratio at Lewisville would be one therapist per 18 kids, said Van Morris, the counseling group's assistant clinical director.
Lewisville has the capacity for 32 children, but there are only 15 children there now, Crump said.
The counseling service also provided a paraprofessional, according to its Jan. 10 letter. The letter, which Morris signed, said that when the second therapist was provided, Youth Opportunity refused to provide a second office space and computer with a connection to the state network.
Therapists are required to report certain information about the care of children who are in state custody, Webb said.
"It is difficult for three people to see clients and maintain confidentiality when there is not space to do so," the counseling service's letter says.
Youth Opportunity's schedule for the kids at Lewisville also didn't include time for transitioning between activities, which means that youths are often late to group or individual therapy sessions, Morris said.
"I think it got frustrating sometimes because they [Youth Opportunity] wanted the full hour," Morris said.
Youth Opportunity staff members also have not provided a list of when children have other appointments, creating another block to scheduling therapy. A Southwest Arkansas Counseling therapists had asked for a copy of the schedule, according to the letter.
The letter also cites therapists being "spoken down to often" because documentation isn't completed and they aren't seeing kids as outlined in the contract; "however they have not been provided the resources needed to complete these tasks," the letter says.
Therapists have been told repeatedly that Southwest Arkansas Counseling is "negligent" and should "move on down the road," according to the letter.
Because of the "hostile work environment," at Lewisville, one of the therapists asked for an internal transfer, and although Southwest Arkansas Counseling provided a replacement for her at Lewisville, Youth Opportunity staff members said it was "unprofessional" and "negligent" to allow the transfer because the company had "invested in them."
"Their repeated insistence that we are not meeting the terms of our contract leads us to suspect this will lead up to the reason we have not received the past two months' payment and will not receive future payments," the letter says.
Stanley said he was still hopeful Southwest Arkansas Counseling would receive payment for its services.
SundayMonday on 02/02/2020