Youth Home Inc.

Treatment Program Evolves as Client Needs Change

Youth Home Inc., the oldest and largest adolescent psychiatric residential treatment facility in Arkansas, has faced both changes in its clientele and in the structure of the health care industry.

Founded in 1966, Youth Home started with a group home model of treatment, in which emotionally disturbed adolescents lived together with counselors in a structured family setting. At one time, 10 such group homes operated in central Arkansas.

But as children with more serious problems were referred to Youth Home, the organization shifted to a medical model that allows for intensive treatment by trained professional teams of nurses, teachers, recreational and clinical therapists, and psychiatrists. A residential treatment center as developed on 33 acres on Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock, where children are taken out of the community and placed in a more isolated setting with a staff-to-student ratio that is almost one-to-one.

Youth Home has also introduced non-residential treatment programs.

Youth Home has 201 employees and 140 volunteers serving about 1,000 youngsters each year. It is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Its revenue for 1998-99 was $7.16 million and its operating expenses were just under $7 million. Most came from fees for services, including payments from government health care programs like Medicaid.

Medicaid mental health care benefits for Arkansans under the age of 21, such as those served by Youth Home, will be shifting to a managed care system in March. “We expect a decrease in our intensive residential program for emotionally disturbed adolescents and an increase in the need for outpatient, in-school, day treatment and in-home services,” says development director Fran Carter.

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