Grand Jury Praises Orangewood but Offers Suggestions

After a nine-month review, the Orange County Grand Jury concluded Monday that managers of the Orangewood Children’s Home are sometimes too aloof from shelter counselors and that new employees need better training.

But overall, the report praises the staff for their professional and caring attitude toward children at the 166-bed Orangewood shelter, which provides a temporary home for abused and neglected children in Orange County.

“I was pleased that they were thorough in looking at the facility,” Orangewood director Robert Theemling said. “For the most part, I can live with their recommendations.”

The grand jury recommended that managers keep closer ties with counselors, that open staff positions be filled as quickly as possible to reduce the amount of overtime hours worked by counselors, and that better training and resource materials be available to the staff.

The grand jury began its study of Orangewood last August as part of its responsibility to monitor children’s facilities operated by the juvenile court system, said Irvin T. Lathrop, chairman of the grand jury committee that evaluated Orangewood. No complaint or allegation prompted the review, he said.

Until last month, however, Orangewood had been under investigation by the county Juvenile Justice Commission after complaints were lodged that a male counselor had mistreated a teen-age girl and that staff members sometimes treated residents with too much regimentation.

The commission’s report, released May 14, concluded that no evidence existed to support the allegations.

The grand jury committee assisted in the commission’s investigation by interviewing several people connected with the allegations. However, the grand jury committee passed the information on to the Juvenile Justice Commission, Lathrop said. The grand jury committee restricted its report to an overall review of the Orangewood shelter.

“I want to divorce this report from that (the Juvenile Justice Commission investigation) because it had nothing to do with it,” Lathrop said.

The grand jury review uncovered no major problems with Orangewood, he said.

“They are doing a good job and they have a lot of dedicated, caring people over there,” he said. The jury’s report focused on “things that could make it run better and smoother,” he said.

Theemling said he disagreed with a criticism in the report that he and Gordon Andahl, the home’s program manager, are rarely seen around the residential units and are unavailable to discuss problems with counselors. Since staffing has been short at Orangewood, he and Andahl have regularly filled in as counselors during vacant shifts, Theemling said.

The jury recommended that training time for new child-care supervisors increase from one week to two weeks--a plan that has been in the works now for several months and might be implemented this fall, Theemling said. Orangewood has always wanted to offer more training to new and current staff members, he said, “but it doesn’t come cheap.”