The Last Refuge : Group Homes Provide Security but Little Else for Abused Teens

On a framed poster board in her bedroom at the Olive Crest home for abused children, 15-year-old Laura has a collage of photos filled with the smiling faces of friends, pet animals and familiar places.

Conspicuously absent are any images of adults, particularly the father who abused her from an early age and the mother who kept silent about it.

The courts took her away from her parents, and the Orange County social services system put her in a private group home with five other teen-age girls. There, Laura probably will live without parental guidance and love until she becomes an adult in three years and must leave.

It isn’t a warm domestic scene from Ozzie and Harriet, but then, “Ozzie and Harriet couldn’t handle the problems these kids have,” said Gene Howard, director of children’s services for the Orange County Social Service Agency. “Ozzie and Harriet wouldn’t last two minutes.”

Group homes are the last refuge for a teen-age ward of the court. Because most foster parents prefer younger children, as teen-agers grow older, their chances of finding a foster home shrink.

As one of the largest group home providers in Orange County, Olive Crest’s goal is to provide familylike security and a stable environment.

Tucked into residential neighborhoods like any other home on the block, Olive Crest’s 13 group homes in the county have the look of suburbia. But it’s not a normal life.

Janet, 15, goes to a regular public school, “but when a van has to pick you up after school, the other kids want to know about it,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Why do you go home in a van every day?’ ”

There is a roof over her head, but constant bed checks at night. Three square meals and career guidance are provided, but so are strict limits on dating.

“No, this isn’t a normal life at all,” said Debbi Romero, an Olive Crest case worker. “We try to provide security and structure. . . . We don’t try to fill a parental role. Most of these kids have good reason not to trust their parents.”

Their backgrounds are always ugly, sometimes horrifying. Nearly all of them have been bitten, beaten or raped by their parents or other relatives--some even having to testify against a mother or father in court.

“The worst thing is the guilt they are made to feel,” said Romero. “The thought that ‘I broke the family up.’ ”

The children living in group homes are referred by the county Social Services Agency, which is charged with finding shelter for children after the courts take them from abusive parents.

But finding a home, even a group home, can be a problem. With limited space available, the county often sends children to group homes in other counties. And in Orange County last year, there were more than 32,000 reported cases of child abuse and 300 to 500 teen-age wards in group homes.

“There is a crying need for group home beds,” said Howard. “We’d like to place them within the Orange County community, but sometimes we can’t do that.”

The high cost of housing in the county and “not in my back yard” attitudes toward group homes are the main hurdles faced by county social service workers.

“We need residences (for group homes) and those cost a lot more here,” said Howard. “And quite frankly, it’s also a situation where people don’t want these kids in their neighborhood.”

Which is a shame, Howard said, because a recent county study shows that “children coming to us are more emotionally disturbed than ever before and are more in need than ever before.”

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Therapy is a large part of the Olive Crest program. Once a week, the whole group sits down with a psychologist. Most children also have individual sessions with a psychiatrist or therapist.

The basic Olive Crest group home shelters six teen-agers. Six workers watch over the youths in shifts, transporting them to and from school, cooking and performing bed checks at night.

The nonprofit group is one of about 20 organizations that offer group home care. Like most, Olive Crest’s main income comes from state Aid For Dependent Children funds.

At Olive Crest, a tutor comes in after school to help with homework. The teens are allowed part- time jobs and given $30 per month spending money. They can go out with members of the opposite sex, but dates must first visit the home at least three times. Privileges, such as telephone use, are granted for good behavior and taken away when shelter rules are broken.

“It’s a structured environment,” Romero said. “They don’t like it sometimes, but it’s necessary for their well-being.”

However, group home kids usually hate authority and the loss of privacy. The workers who watch over them are perceived as little more than jailers.

“Every group home has different expectations for you,” said 15-year-old Rachel, sitting on a couch with two other teen-age residents. “You’re very pressured to conform.”

Rachel laughs at the idea of case workers as parental role models. Are her house mates more like family? Rachel thinks for a moment, replies: “They’re not like sisters. More like friends. We all stick up for each other, anyhow.”

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Kris, 15, a former runaway, said, “I’d rather live on the streets. You can’t trust anyone here. . . . They say one thing and do something else.”

The girls sneer at the suggestion that they are permitted to date, within limits: “I don’t date,” Janet said. “I’m not allowed.”

Afterward, Romero, who attended the interview, smiled and commented “that was pretty mild. You should see them when they’re really angry.”

Stella Avina, a program administrator with the Adam Walsh Center, said anger is present in nearly all abused teens.

“It’s easier on the young ones,” she said. “When they get to the teen-age years, it’s really to tough to get through to them. When they have that anger inside, they don’t believe in anyone or anything.”

Olive Crest Foundation

Thousands of abused children who were made wards of the courts have lived in one of the 13 Orange County group homes established by the nonprofit Olive Crest Foundation. Some background on the foundation:

* Founded: 1973 by Dr. Donald Verleur and his wife, Lois

* Homes: 25 in Orange and Riverside counties

* Children per home: Six

* Ages: Preschoolers to 18 years

* Funding: Private contributions; state and county funds

* Goal: Provide security for abused, abandoned, neglected children taken from their families by the courts

* Other programs: Foster family program; older children in group homes are taught how to register to vote, balance a checkbook and work with computers

* Children served: About 7,000 since 1973

Source: Olive Crest Foundation; Researched by CAROLINE LEMKE / Los Angeles Times