Fort Worth behavioral center for teens allowed to reopen after state shutdown
A Fort Worth behavioral health facility, which has several residential programs for teens, will be allowed to reopen 30 days after the state of Texas cited safety risks to children and shut it down.
Under a new agreement with the state, Fort Behavioral Health will be allowed to admit children again as soon as Saturday, but will remain under probation for one year.
In late January, the state issued an emergency suspension order for the adolescent programs run by the facility in southwest Fort Worth, citing “an immediate threat to the health and safety of children in care.” The facility offers a range of programs, according to its website, including a residential program for teens with autism and another for teens struggling with addiction.
The Jan. 26 order, which the Texas Health and Human Services Commission provided to the Star-Telegram, also required parents to pick up their children from the facility the same day, in order to prevent possible involvement by the state Department of Family and Protective Services.
The abruptness of the closure left families scrambling. A total of 40 children were discharged from the facility, according to an HHSC spokesperson.
In emails to parents and caregivers, which were obtained by the Star-Telegram, staff at Fort Behavioral Health denied at the time that the facility posed any risk to children. And, in the days after the closure, the facility filed documents with a Tarrant County district court, arguing that HHSC had not given the facility adequate time to respond to its inquiries and had shut down the facility with insufficient evidence.
The facility urged the court to lift the suspension order and allow the facility to resume operations.
Fort Behavioral’s court filings include documents that shed light on the reasons for and timeline of the facility’s closure.
On Jan. 24, two days before the facility was shut down, HHSC sent Fort Behavioral two letters. Across the letters, HHSC informed the facility that the Department of Family and Protective Services had opened two investigations, each due to “an allegation of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a child.” The Department of Family and Protective Services had shared its information with HHSC, according to the letter. HHSC then found, among other things, that:
- A Fort Behavioral staff member had “physically fought with a child and had to be held back by another staff to stop the conflict;”
- Staff had failed to provide medical care to a child who was injured while being restrained;
- A staff member “pushed a child against a wall as a form of discipline,” and;
- Staff restrained children inappropriately in several other instances.
HHSC required the facility to correct those offenses within three days of the letters.
The day after receiving those letters, documents show, Fort Behavioral requested HHSC review the citations, writing in response to both letters that the facility “wholeheartedly denies the allegations.”
However, one day after that, the state shut down the facility’s adolescent programs. It was a day of chaos for the families whose children had been admitted to Fort Behavioral, many of whom were given several hours’ notice to pick up their children.
And while the facility’s adolescent programs have sat empty, both Fort Behavioral and HHSC have submitted court filings back and forth, disagreeing over the specifics of the suspension.
In mid-February, though, the two sides came to an agreement: Fort Behavioral would be allowed to accept child patients again as early as Saturday, but would remain under probation with the state.
The probation will last for one year, according to the agreement, and the state reserves the right to shut down the facility if new information or allegations arise.
The “agreement is a placeholder agreement while we negotiate a final settlement,” an HHSC spokesperson said in an email Thursday.
Fort Behavioral Health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
