Abused Children Staying Longer in O.C. Shelter

The Orangewood Children’s Home has to shelter abused children almost twice as long as it did a decade ago, creating severe overcrowding conditions at the 263-bed facility, a new county study has found.

And most of the children being sheltered there for two months or more suffer from such severe problems that it’s nearly impossible to find foster homes for them, according to a Social Services Agency report released Monday.

In an effort to address the overcrowding problem, Orange County Supervisor William G. Steiner asked the Social Services Agency to conduct a comprehensive study of factors affecting the length of time that children typically spend there.

The situation has become so dire in recent years that the staff at the children’s home has been forced at times to scramble just to find enough cots and cribs for the children.

The chronic overcrowding reflects the rapid increase in child abuse reports, which doubled between 1985 and 1993 to nearly 37,000 reported cases, according to the agency.

“We feel like we’re walking on a tightrope,” Steiner said Monday. “What we are talking about today is probably the tip of the iceberg.”

According to the study, 263 substance-addicted babies were admitted to Orangewood in 1993--a dramatic increase over previous years, says Steiner, formerly Orangewood director.

The study further found that 500 of the 2,452 children admitted in 1992 remained in the county-run shelter for more than two months because social workers could not find a relative, foster or group home to take them.

One in five of these children was described as suicidal, 20% were taking medication for mental illness, 12% had been hospitalized in a mental institution and half had a variety of medical problems resulting from cigarette burns, beatings, sexual molestation and general neglect.

” . . . The children coming into Orangewood in recent years are more and more disturbed, difficult, behaviorally aggressive” and “out of control,” the report stated. “Some fail placement after placement and ‘burn out’ all of the placement resources.”

They include children such as a 15-year-old girl from Tustin who found herself a reluctant guest at Orangewood when her stepfather was arrested for the double murder of her mother and a step-sibling two years ago.

According to social workers, the girl steals, skips school, runs away and sometimes threatens suicide.

Social services officials have tried to place her with foster parents four times. But on each occasion she has been sent back to Orangewood because of severe behavioral problems.

The study further concluded that one quarter of the children who remain at Orangewood longer than 60 days belong in the juvenile justice system, but there is no room for them because the available programs are already swamped with hard-core teen-age offenders.

The study detailed a variety of factors that often delay the placement of children in foster homes--increasing the time that they must spend at Orangewood.

Half of the children in Orangewood have siblings there, while 16% belong to families having three to seven children. Since social workers try to keep children together whenever possible, larger families pose difficulties.

Meanwhile, the numbers of Latino children requiring placement have doubled in six years. They now number 36% of the children at Orangewood. However, only 12% of foster homes have Latino-surnamed parents, and not all of those foster parents are fluent in Spanish.

At the same time, the number of licensed foster care beds has decreased 22% in six years. Group home beds in Orange County are also in short supply, with the result that 26% of the children have to be placed out of the county.

But Orangewood Director Bob Theemling says having the same number of beds as there are needy children is not enough.

“It’s not easy to find the right match,” Theemling said. “And to find the best match you can, you need to have choices--at least twice as many beds as children.”

The study offered a variety of recommendations for combatting the problem of overcrowding.

They included:

* Launching an aggressive recruitment program for foster parents.

* Providing additional resources for adoption when it is unlikely that children will be reunited with their natural parents.

* Refocusing efforts and resources on outreach programs to prevent child abuse.

Social Services officials said they plan to ask the county for $350,000 to use for foster parent recruitment.

The study’s findings were praised by children’s advocates who have long argued that the county should channel more money into anti-poverty programs rather than expand the current Orangewood facility.

In 1978, the county spent $4 million to expand Orangewood. The study found, however, that the average stay has doubled since then--all but negating the effect of the extra beds.

“This is something that we’ve been pushing for a long while,” said Sandy Sladen, director of community services for the Children’s Bureau of Southern California. “The best way to prevent child abuse is to teach people to be good parents so their children are never abused and they never see the inside of Orangewood.”

The nonprofit agency was recently awarded a $450,000 grant over three years to launch a program to help combat child abuse. The program is one of six funded by the state Department of Social Services.

“I think in the past, we’ve been so overwhelmed by responding to the pain of child abuse that we haven’t focused attention on what causes child abuse in the first place,” Sladen said. “I think now we’re getting the first movement in that direction.”

Barbara Oliver, director of the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Council, agreed: “In terms of the work we do, it’s clear that what we really need to focus on is early intervention to help preserve families.”

Judy Nelson, the executive director of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, also stressed what many called a changing approach to dealing with child abuse.

“What we did for many years was raise money to build Orangewood,” Nelson said. “But putting an Orangewood on every corner wouldn’t be enough. To prevent the abuse, you need to teach people about child abuse.”

Longer Stays at Orangewood

Children with severe emotional, physical and behavioral problems are staying longer than the usual 60 days at Orangewood Children’s Home. The average stay has doubled in the past 15 years. In 1992:

* About 500 children out of 2,452 admitted stayed longer than 60 days.

* One in five was suicidal and on psychiatric medication.

* Twelve percent had a history of being hospitalized for psychiatric reasons.

* Nearly one-third were aggressive or violent with this behavior shown at a younger age.

* Half had a variety of medical problems.

* One-fourth of those who stayed longer than 60 days belonged in the juvenile justice system, but stayed put because there was no room in Juvenile Hall.

Source: Orange County Social Services Agency