Options for Troubled Kids

“I’ve got to tell you, I do not sleep well at night.” That’s what Bryce Yokomizo, interim director at MacLaren Children’s Center, told a committee of the county’s Commission on Children and Families last week.

Yokomizo, who’s been on the job just three weeks now, told the oversight group that on weekends especially, when school’s not in session at the El Monte facility and the 140 or so residents have fewer activities, he worries. Some of the kids at MacLaren, the county’s emergency shelter for abused and neglected children, are self-mutilators. Many are violent toward others. Most of these 7-to-18-year-olds have severe emotional and behavior problems and have run away or been kicked out of other foster placements. All are scared and anxious.

Long neglected by the county, like the kids it shelters, MacLaren has in recent months drawn the attention of county officials who were pushed to make improvements by dependency court judges and child welfare advocates. At least six county commissions and task forces now deal wholly or in part with MacLaren. Yokomizo’s appointment came with a long “to-do” list of improvements. These changes, which he is now making, range from a 24-hour telephone system enabling kids in crisis to contact their social workers to additional staff and better training.

If worrying about MacLaren is keeping him up at night, even with these improvements Yokomizo isn’t likely to sleep peacefully any time soon. Many children linger at MacLaren for months. They are considered too difficult to place in foster care, but MacLaren is not set up to provide the intensive therapy that they need. There are promising pilot programs in other locales that could advance the care for these kids. The county should focus now on moving them out of MacLaren.

No one setting is likely to work for all children. Some have done well in a relative’s home with “wrap-around” social services. For example, a child could remain in a grandmother’s home and still see a psychologist or speech therapist regularly. With wrap-around care, the child can grow up in a loving home but still get the intensive help he or she needs.

For others, what works best are group homes, serving low-functioning adults as well as children, many of whom are offspring of drug addicts and born brain-damaged.

In extreme cases, a high-security facility with on-site psychological services may be appropriate. Vista del Mar in Palms is one such place; Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk is another.

Federal and state money is available; in fact, caring for these kids outside MacLaren, even with intensive therapy and other services, is far cheaper than housing them in MacLaren, where costs run to $923 per day per child.

The county hasn’t done nearly enough to develop additional homes, such as by helping would-be foster families and group homes get the required licensing and training. The county now has hired someone to take the lead in this effort. Only when the county focuses on these tasks will it solve MacLaren’s many, wrenching problems.