Schools, Programs & Visit Reports-
Dec, 1993 (#25) |
BUCKEYE BOYS RANCH
Grove City, Ohio
Sally Pedron, Admissions
614-875-2371 (FAX 614-875-2116)
Tom Croke Visit: Summer, 1993
412-532-0490
Buckeye Boy's Ranch is
a psychiatric residential treatment center in suburban Columbus,
Ohio, with some very special innovations. It serves boys and
girls from 10 to 18, although girls are served only in the
intensive treatment area. In the case of hearing impaired
person, the age runs up to 22. This facility occupies a beautiful
tract of land just beginning to acquire suburban homes for
neighbors. The physical plant is well kept, with a combination
of homey buildings from the ranch's early history, and the
latest in modern buildings. The residents represent a very
broad combination of needs ranging from ADHD/conduct disorder
issues to relatively mild thought disorders, mood disorders,
and children primarily characterized by difficulty in establishing
relationships. They also offer quality day treatment services.
I stayed overnight in a guest room in the all new (1991) Intensive
Care Center. The first sense that I was in a facility with
a really different character to it was the very open design
in the ICC, which is a locked facility which seemed to make
the security barriers disappear. The secured area is entered
through an administrative building, from which a person touring
passes into a large open courtyard, approximately the size
of a football field. All the other buildings of the ICC open
onto this courtyard. At the far end of the courtyard is an
opening between two buildings into open athletic fields. The
only obvious fencing is around the athletic fields, but since
fencing athletic fields is common, you feel as little closed
in as you would at your typical Little League field.
In the main courtyard itself,
the appearance is like rows of condo apartments on both sides
of the courtyard with fencing concealed by building walls
and wise use of foundation plantings. It is a warm, friendly
area.
The open campus, populated by
boys only, many of whom have graduated from the ICC, is well
equipped and homey. To the side is a large athletic stadium
used more by the community outside than by the ranch, a reminder
of the effort the ranch has put into keeping open interaction
with the surrounding community. It includes complete and well
equipped dining, recreational, and physical education facilities.
The distinction between secured
and unsecured facilities was purely clinical. There was no
such thing as using the secured area as a disciplinary response
for kids on the open campus. Although Ohio is a state which,
like most western states, permits juveniles to be placed in
secured facilities on parental authorization only, the eastern
emphasis on placing each child in the least restrictive environment
possible and keeping therapeutic security separate from discipline
governs actual practice. There are very well conceived and
effective procedures for discipline, for therapeutic behavior
modification, and for crisis management. Buckeye sees these
as three independent issues. Residents may be restrained in
a crisis, assigned to a secured area for clinical reasons,
and subjected to well reasoned and caring discipline, but
will never be locked up for a punishment.
Buckeye's approach to therapy
was, at first observation, very traditional. Both formal psychotherapy
and a familiar levels system are in evidence. However, within
its traditional psychotherapy, are some points of truly exceptional
excellence. First, there was a strong sense of accountability
to common procedures and philosophy. While there is clearly
ample room for staff creativity, this is not a program in
which underlying philosophy and procedure are dependent upon
therapist selection. Second, there is both a maturity and
an understated but sophisticated awareness of the most forward
looking approaches to unusual problems. Third, there are special
programs such as the art therapy program and Kinetic Learning
Methods (Issue #13, Woodbury Reports December, 1991).
There also is a very sophisticated
vocational program. There is also a willingness to acknowledge
what Buckeye does not do well. For example, they were willing
to acknowledge there are probably more cost-effective approaches
to uncomplicated adolescent oppositional behavior, and they
make no claim to do well with extremes of attachment disorder
which require the special holding therapies such as seen at
Forest Heights Lodge.
At Buckeye, some of the most
creative therapy which takes place is part of art therapy.
Every art project is a basis for further communication about
the real life issues each boy faces, based upon a real therapeutic
alliance with the art therapist.
The Kinetic Learning Methods
program (KLM) is a Buckeye creation with a twenty year track
record of innovation. Some of the same purposes are served
by ropes courses and the like in vogue in many other programs,
but at Buckeye, each resident works directly with Doug Kuhn,
Ph.D., who is a genuine innovator in this field.
The vocational program is the
most comprehensive I have seen. Boys from the open campus
have the opportunity to do professional grade work in manufacture
of office products, manufacture of awards and trophies, engraving,
printing, woodshop, building/ grounds maintenance and food
service. They work with modern equipment, including computer
controlled machinery, and deliver products and services fully
competitive in the local market, at a fair wage. The work
is done on the grounds of the ranch. In all work areas, they
experience competitive work place training and demands for
excellence. Boys who come to Buckeye Boys Ranch have the opportunity
to leave with quality work experience behind them.
It is fully JCAHO accredited,
is competitively priced among accredited psychiatric treatment
centers, and is an approved special education program by the
state of Ohio.
Staff morale seemed high. Retention
and longevity were good. The interaction I saw with the children
was consistently of good quality.
I would refer to this program
and recommend it to others, especially for a vocationally
oriented child in need of sub-acute psychiatric service, a
child who learns better by doing than by talking, and a child
with primarily behavioral issues indicating the need for residential
care but with complexity too great for those special schools
lacking psychiatric support. It is an obvious choice for any
deaf child needing psychiatric services. I would give strong
consideration for a boy needing psychiatric service and at
risk for sexual identity issues. An appealing point is greater
than average flexibility regarding children with borderline
intelligence. I would be comfortable with the Intensive Care
Center as a safe environment for boys and girls with mild
to moderate thought disorders.
Copyright
© 1993, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced
without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper
publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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