Posts Tagged ‘Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center’

Hospital Pass Reboot

September 12th, 2011

Back in June a resident of our Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center (ACPTC) (one of our civilly committed sex offenders) escaped while he was on an approved pass to go to church.  He was found by Tempe police later that day.  Because of the security issues that the event raised, I asked the staff at the ACPTC and the Forensic Hospital to suspend the pass programs until we can assess what happened and to give us the time we need to review and revise our protocols for approving passes and setting the operational conditions under which they’re approved.  We’ve looked into a number of safety elements over the last couple of months and have landed on the new policies for issuing community passes for the ACPTC and the Forensic Hospital folks.

The new policies are unique to each program but contain many of the same principles.  For example, any forensic patient or ACPTC resident leaving the grounds of the hospital will be required to wear a GPS monitor.  The monitors are about the size of an average cell phone and are attached to the person’s ankle with a strap that completes an electrical circuit when connected.  Using GPS, our staff can locate folks on a pass to within a few feet.  If a person attempts to remove the unit an immediate alarm is sent notifying staff of the tamper attempt.

Forensic patients and ACPTC residents will also be required to complete a level system prior to gaining different off campus privileges.  The lower levels of the system require 1:1 monitoring by staff (who must remain within five feet of the person on all outings).  Intermediate levels allow graduated privileges including lower staff to patient/resident ratios, followed by outings with approved family members or sponsors and finally ending with individual outings prior to release from the program.  At each level patients or residents need to accomplish positive treatment outcomes and spend a predetermined minimum amount of days on each level.  Advancement or reduction of levels requires a review to make sure each person is suited for advancement or reduction.  The policy also includes protocols to inform local law enforcement about the pass so they’re better informed.

We think these new processes will help balance the treatment needs of individuals while balancing the public safety needs for our forensic patients and the civilly committed sex offenders in the ACPTC.

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Our Fix-it Specialist

July 2nd, 2011

Ann Froio has been the Department’s “Fix-it” specialist for the last several years. Most recently, Ann has served as Interim CEO for the Arizona State Hospital while the Department conducted a national search for a new CEO.  For the year prior to that, Ann served as the Interim Director at the Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center (ACPTC).  She’s also served as the ADHS Assistant Director for Operations/Organizational Development- while in that position, she rolled up her sleeves and helped us to improve efficiency and Stakeholder relations in various programs.

So, it’s a delight that Ann has agreed to share her talents with us as the new Assistant Director for behavioral health.  Ann’s experience in both state government and the private sector is amazing and includes multiple aspects of behavioral health and health care administration and service delivery. She has broad experience in health care leadership, management and direct service including organizational change; licensing; quality management, utilization and medical management in managed care organizations, outpatient and inpatient settings; medical records; medical coding; training and education; risk management; grant, contract and proposal writing; procurement; contract administration and monitoring; HIPAA implementation; drafting administrative rules; strategic planning; business informatics; developing policies, procedures; building rates and budgets; research and evaluation; and the provision of direct services as a clinician.

This is a perfect fit.  Thanks Ann!

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Hospital & ACPTC Passes

June 11th, 2011

Over the weekend a resident of our Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center (ACPTC) escaped while he was on an approved pass to go to church.  The resident was accompanied by one of our staff during the outing.  The resident was authorized to go on the pass to church because he had “LRA” or “Least Restrictive Alternative” status as determined by a judge, meaning that he had been entitled to some community outings.  Fortunately, alert, professional and creative law enforcement folks from the Tempe Police Department quickly followed leads and were able to apprehend the escaped resident by nightfall, and he’s been returned to our facility.  We’re investigating how the resident was able to escape and other circumstances that happened during the outing.

I asked the staff at the ACPTC and the Forensic Hospital to suspend the pass programs until we can assess what happened and to give us the time we need to review and revise our protocols for approving passes and setting the operational conditions under which they’re approved.  For example, we’ll be re-assessing the use of electronic monitoring devices (e.g. GPS tracking devices) as well as staffing ratios during passes.  We’ll also be reviewing other procedures such as setting up a protocol to notify police departments before somebody goes on a pass in their jurisdiction.

I know how important it is to give residents and patients an opportunity to experience life in the community and that passes are a critical component for Recovery and development of key skills.  Passes are also a critical legal component of our mission for folks that have achieved Least Restrictive Alternative status.  However, it’s also our responsibility to protect the community… and it can be tricky balancing passes with ensuring community protection.  I’m committed to resuming our pass program for our Forensic Hospital Patients and residents of the ACPTC, but not until we do a full assessment of the process and implement new procedures to ensure that the pass program doesn’t jeopardize community protection.

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New ACPTC Program Activities

November 16th, 2010

Ever since our Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center (on the grounds of the Arizona State Hospital) opened in 1998, we’ve been providing treatment to sexually violent persons who have a mental disorder and who have been convicted (or found guilty except insane) of a sexually violent offense or were charged with a sexually violent offense and determined incompetent to stand trial. Through the years, our treatment has consisted mostly of therapies to address the persons’ offense history, analyze their own cycle of behavior, to develop self-management techniques in order to reduce the risk of re-offending, and to develop empathy for their victims.

While our historic approach has been solid, it doesn’t really help them to eventually successfully reintegrate into the community, because they also need to know how to get (and keep) a job, budget & pay bills, prepare (balanced) meals, navigate public transportation, interact with people in socially acceptable ways, form healthy relationships, maintain social and personal boundaries, and eliminate addictions- you get the idea- they also need skills to live in society.  Many of our ACPTC residents come from impoverished, traumatic  backgrounds and haven’t lived successfully in society, so a lot of work is needed to prepare them to (eventually) live in the community.

This month, we kicked off our new therapeutic program which will help residents gain and practice skills that will help them to (eventually) function in the community.  While the psychosexual treatment remains the cornerstone of our therapeutic approach, residents are now being offered therapies for social and living skills, educational and vocational assessment and exploration, addictive behavior therapy, anger management, therapeutic recreation and structured daily therapeutic schedules that include self-directed leisure and work.  The new program goals help them on their way to forming healthy social relationships with guidance of trained staff.  In other words, the whole person is being treated with the goal of helping the person lead a productive life and affording protection to the community when they’re eventually transitioned to the community.

Ann Froio and her team at the ACPTC have been working on this new therapy design for the last few months and it’s great to see it actually being executed.  This new approach doesn’t really cost any additional money, rather, it’s a re-design of the daily activities.  It’s actually a lot like the Empower Pack, a redesign of daily activities to achieve a goal but without requiring a huge financial investment.

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ACPTC Security Enhancements

August 12th, 2010

Last October a person that was awaiting a civil commitment hearing escaped from our Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center ACPTC, which provides for the civil commitment of people who have a mental disorder that predisposes them to commit sexual acts that pose a danger to the health and safety of others.  Fortunately the person that escaped was apprehended by an alert law enforcement officer. 

 

That event triggered a thorough investigation by ourselves with help from our partners at the Arizona Department of Corrections.  We concluded that the escape happened because of a combination of physical security weaknesses along with some operational problems.  We were able to fix the operational problems right away- but it took until this week to finish the physical security enhancements.  We completed major security enhancements this week including miles of new razor wire, new security cameras, night-time lighting improvements, motion detectors on the fences, and new visual security technology.  We were able to keep the labor costs way down by using qualified inmates from the Arizona Department of Corrections for much of the labor.

 

This transition time has been difficult for our team at the ACPTC because daily patterns needed to be changed so that we could complete the security enhancements safely.  Thank you all out at the ACPTC for your hard work day-in and day-out during the transition.

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