Youth Home in Little Rock announced Wednesday that 31 of its 227 employees will be laid off by March 1. CEO David Napier said the job losses are the direct result of a challenging health care climate in the state.
The layoffs will include both administrative and direct-care staff who work primarily in the residential psychiatric care program at Youth Home’s 52-acre campus on Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock. The downsizing will mean the closing of one residential cottage and the loss of 12 beds.
The program is funded mostly through Medicaid, which has not provided a reimbursement increase since 2001, according to a news release. Napier told Arkansas Business the rate has “been stagnant for about 20 years.”
He said, “We’ve had no rate increase for our residential program during that time, and it’s just gotten to the point where we can’t sustain it any longer. Everybody knows what it’s like if you were trying to live on wages from 20 years ago and what inflation does to that. It’s a very painful day, having to make some hard calls. At any rate, that’s basically it in the nutshell. It’s just economics.”
While the program has lost money for more than 10 years, according to the release, Youth Home has raised funds and developed other programs to try to address the funding gap resulting from the Medicaid rate freeze.
Napier told Arkansas Business taking this step was decided at the nonprofit board’s meeting in the fall, but Youth Home didn’t want to announce the layoffs until after the holidays.
“These steps do not necessarily mean our organization will stop losing money, but it does ensure that our mission can continue on a slightly smaller scale for some time to come,” Napier said in the release. “This slows the financial loss, and these painful cuts allow us the opportunity to reorganize, reserve resources, explore new programs and continue to provide a broad range of vital services for families from all over the state.”
Four residential houses on the Colonel Glenn campus and the community-based care residence for teens living in the Beth Cartwright House will remain operational for now.
Napier also said in the release, “The need for our services has not diminished and neither has our commitment to fulfilling our mission. We will continue to serve and advocate for those families impacted by mental illness. I want to encourage anyone passionate about this topic or concerned with the direction things are going in our state in regards to available services for the mentally ill to stay informed, get involved and to consider ways you might support organizations like Youth Home.”
And he told Arkansas Business, “Not sure how people are going to get the help they need at this point, but we’ll just have to see how the system plays out and go from there.”
Youth Home provides mental health services through its adolescent residential treatment, community based treatment, outpatient and-school based programs through its outpatient clinic, Behavioral Health Services of Arkansas, at 10 Corporate Hill Drive in Little Rock.
Youth Home says it is organizing job fairs, providing résumé assistance, and, when appropriate, paying severance packages to the employees who will be laid off. The severance amount will be based on years of service.
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