This is a staff list for Foundations for Living in Ohio
(a.k.a. Universal Health Services (owners of notoriously abusive Provo Canyon School)
(we are working to acquire the complete records for ALL years)
We advise current and/or former staff to report any abuses you may have witnessed while working at Foundations for Living. For information on your rights and how to take action, visit www.heal-online.org/blowthewhistle.htm. If you were fired or forced to resign because you opposed any illegal and/or unethical practices at Foundations for Living, you have the right to take action.
If you were harmed (family or survivor) by Foundations for Living, please contact [email protected] if you remember the long-term employees and from which years. This will help! Also, if you recognize any of these staff as having worked at another program, please send in any information about their past or present employment at other facilities and/or cults.
|
Name |
Unit/Position |
Additional Information |
| Tom Brohm | CEO | Thomas O. Brohm (may be a different person) is a licensed professional clinical counselor with supervisory designation and has been since 1994 in Ohio. Brohm's license # is: E.0001775-SUPV. You can file complaints about this licensee at: http://cswmft.ohio.gov/InformationforthePublic/HowdoIFileaComplaint.aspx Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Lana Adams | Date Processing | Adams is not a licensed mental health nor medical professional in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Terry De Van | Human Resources | De Van is not a licensed mental health nor medical professional in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Danielle Burbridge | Marketing | HEAL does not perform background licensing checks on office, maintenance, nor food preparation staff unless they have direct contact and authority over youth in the facility. |
| Joseph Crabtree | TITLE UNKNOWN | Crabtree is not a licensed mental health nor medical professional in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Deb Armstrong | Purchasing | HEAL does not perform background licensing checks on office, maintenance, nor food preparation staff unless they have direct contact and authority over youth in the facility. |
| Ken Jacobs | Counselor | Jacobs is not a licensed counselor, social worker, nor therapist in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Kevin Hofstetter | Counselor | Kevin D. Hofstetter (may be a different person) is a licensed professional clinical counselor in Ohio and has been since 2007. His license # is: E.0008406 You can file complaints about this licensee at: http://cswmft.ohio.gov/InformationforthePublic/HowdoIFileaComplaint.aspx Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Matt Nelson | Counselor | Nelson is not a licensed counselor, social worker, nor therapist in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Clyone Washington | Counselor | Washington is not a licensed counselor, social worker, nor therapist in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Elizabeth Goudge | Counselor | Elizabeth A. Goudge (may be a different person) is licensed solely as an independent social worker in Ohio. Her license # is: I.0800344 You can file complaints about this licensee at: http://cswmft.ohio.gov/InformationforthePublic/HowdoIFileaComplaint.aspx Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Shelly Douce | Admissions | Douce is not a licensed counselor, social worker, nor therapist in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Karen Spires | CEO | Karen M. Spires is a licensed independent social worker with supervisory designation in Ohio and has been since 1994. Her license # is: I.0005800-SUPV You can file complaints about this licensee at: http://cswmft.ohio.gov/InformationforthePublic/HowdoIFileaComplaint.aspx Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| John G. Galbraith | Medical Director | John Grant Galbraith is a licensed medical doctor specializing in family medicine (not psychiatry). He has been licensed in Ohio since 1997. He has two license #s: 35.072381 and SUPV.19459-ALT. You can file complaints about this licensee at: http://med.ohio.gov/ForthePublic/FileaComplaint.aspx Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Josh Anderson | Residential Director | Anderson is not a licensed counselor, social worker, nor therapist in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Jennifer Ericsson | Director of Nursing | Jennifer Marie Ericsson (may be a different person) is a licensed registered nurse in Ohio and has been since June, 2015. Her license # is: RN.321899 You can file complaints about this licensee at: http://www.nursing.ohio.gov/forms.htm#ComplaintForms Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Jill Steele | Staff | Steele is not a licensed counselor, social worker, nor therapist in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Candice Himes | Human Resources | Himes is not a licensed counselor, social worker, nor therapist in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Shelly Brown | Risk Management | Brown is not a licensed counselor, social worker, nor therapist in Ohio. Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp |
| Dave Welsh | Operations | HEAL does not perform background licensing checks on office, maintenance, nor food preparation staff unless they have direct contact and authority over youth in the facility. |
| Michelle Mayes | Dietary Services/Manager | Mayes is not a licensed dietitian in Ohio. Source: http://www.dietetics.ohio.gov/ |
| HEAL is in the process of reviewing the enrollment materials for Foundations for Living. In the meantime, we have reviewed the Boulder Creek Academy Application. Boulder Creek Academy is also owned and operated by UHS. | ||
| Article: Violations and Problems at UHS, Inc. Owned Facilities | ||
| HEAL Report-- Provo Canyon School, Another UHS, Inc. Program | ||
| Harsh Treament: Violent incidents bedevil Ohio facility By Medill Watchdog on December 7, 2014 Former Foundations For Living staff member Dwayne Price said he needed stitches after a client sliced his hand with broken glass. (Medill Watchdog/John Kuhn & Anthony Settipani) This article was reported and written by Jani Actman, Lauren Caruba, John Kuhn, Anthony Settipani and Josh Solomon, with additional reporting by Amanda Oppold, Katherine Cooney and Rose Conry. In early 2013, two residents at an Ohio behavioral treatment facility trapped another resident in a room. They struck him repeatedly in the head and body, leaving his face bloody and his arm and knee bruised. It was not the first time the teenager was attacked. Both offenders were arrested, and one of them explained to police why he committed the assault: He saw it as his way out of the facility, and he would have done anything to get out. A Medill Watchdog investigation makes clear why. The review found troubling issues plaguing Foundations For Living, an 84-bed facility in Mansfield, Ohio, for youth 11 to 17 years old struggling with severe psychological, behavioral and addiction problems. Youth fought each other, they tried to runaway, they attacked staff members who were there to keep order. Mansfield, Ohio, police reports show incident after incident. In January 2014, officers responded to a “riot and staff members being assaulted,” an incident in which residents attacked staff members, took their keys and fled. Two months earlier, police responded to reports of several residents assaulting the staff with brooms. And three months before that, police responded to a call “that there were multiple fights going on at the same time and that the staff could not control the situation,” the police report states. “It was a volatile, hostile environment,” said Dwayne Price, a former supervisor. To be sure, operating a residential treatment facility for youth struggling with emotional and behavioral issues is a difficult task in the best of circumstances. Many of the youth were sent there as a last resort, after they could not be controlled in school or in foster homes. The Medill Watchdog investigation revealed that Foundations, operated as a for-profit facility by Universal Health Services Inc., has drawn significant attention from state officials and police over what occurs on its campus. “They definitely have a turbulent past,” said Mansfield Police Chief Kenneth Coontz. “Those issues have arisen many, many times.” In interviews, nine current and former Foundations for Living staff said their ability to protect the youth in their charge has been hampered by management decisions that caused high turnover and a shortage of trained employees to cope with the always-present potential for trouble. Current and past workers describe long hours for low pay – one said her salary after more than five years was still under $12 an hour. Ohio mandates a minimum of one staff member for every 10 residents, and staff members reported that Foundations was often staffed at the minimum allowed, especially at night. Administrators at the facility declined to be interviewed. In a prepared statement, Universal Health Services Inc. said that Foundations for Living, like all the company’s facilities, is dedicated to “compassionate, individualized care that makes a real difference in the lives of the kind of troubled youth that come to our facilities.” THe company statement added that all Universal Health facilities meet or exceed state requirements on staffing, and that the company does salary surveys to ensure that staff salaries are competitive within the industry. The statement also said that despite “financial challenges” at the facility, Universal Health Facilities has invested nearly $1.8 million in capital improvements while maintaining staff and salaries. Former staff paint a different picture. TWENTY-NINE GOING ON 50 “It’s the most stressful job I’ve ever had,” said Ashley Dewiel. “I’m 29, and when I wake up in the morning I feel like I’m 50.” Dewiel, who worked at the facility for five years as a youth care specialist, said that in that time she injured her wrist, shoulder and ankle, and suffered bites, blows and stabbings at the hands of residents. The Medill Watchdog review identified 68 incidents since 2011 in which police were called because residents attacked or assaulted staff. In the January 2014 incident, six residents created havoc while staff struggled to stop them. Mansfield police reports show the officers were dispatched “in reference to a riot and staff members being assaulted.” Youth at Foundations For Living fought each other, tried to runaway and attacked staff members who were there to keep order, a Medill Watchdog investigation found. (Medill Watchdog/John Kuhn & Anthony Settipani) The police reports describe the incident: Residents assaulted four staff members, including one whom they kicked in the groin before grabbing his keys to the facility. Another staff member was punched and kicked multiple times by three residents. Two of the residents escaped Foundations that day. A third was arrested for assault, while three other residents were issued a summons and released back to Foundations staff. In a statement, Universal Health Services disputed the characterization of the incident as a “near riot” and said the facility has never been out of the control of the staff. In April 2011, three residents attacked a staff member following a verbal exchange. One punched him in the throat and another wrestled him to the floor, police reports show. Ten days later, seven boys beat each other up in a major confrontation over “disrespect,” according to a police report. One resident was taken to the hospital and issued a summons. The remaining six residents were arrested. “You would get one going off the handle, and then the next one would fuel off that,” said Chris Plantz, who as a former director of maintenance at Foundations For Living witnessed repeated incidents. “It just snowballed.” In its prepared statement, the corporation said it had looked into incidents raised by reporters. “We strongly dispute these allegations, but are prohibited by privacy laws from providing more detail about what really happened,” the company said. PROVIDING CARE A CHALLENGE Across the country, officials at residential treatment centers wrestle with issues of providing a safe environment for the therapeutic treatment the residents need. “When we send a kid away to a residential treatment facility, I think the public likes to think that they’re getting the best possible care and I don’t think that’s what’s actually happening,” said Kimberly Jordan, director of the Justice for Children Project at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. “The day-to-day staff, who are interacting with the children the most on the units, who are monitoring the facility, are often underpaid, under-trained, under-qualified,” Jordan continued. “Those are the people who are having the most interaction with the kids who have these severe problems.” Ohio law permits residential treatment staffers to physically restrain residents during crisis situations in which “there exists an imminent risk of physical harm to the individual or others, and no other safe and effective intervention is possible.” Despite the law’s restrictive nature, former Foundations employees say staff restraints of out-of-control residents were common. “You were quick to place kids in restraints because of the multiple incidents that would occur if you didn’t,” former supervisor Price said. Ohio requires any staff who use restraints to be trained in doing so safely. But as former Foundations youth care specialist Sonnie Miller explained, “Sometimes when you’re in the heat of the moment you don’t think about the proper hold, you just want to get them in the hold so they don’t hurt themselves or others.” Added Miller, who worked at the facility for six years until April 2014, “If you just grab the kid not thinking about the way to do it, then you just slam them.” State reports submitted by Foundations For Living show injuries, usually minor, often happen during restraints. One record from 2012 describes a female resident’s knee popping during a restraint. The emergency room report stated the girl had a bruised kneecap. Various reports from 2011-2014 show residents suffering from cut lips, facial bruising and marks on their neck after restraints. STATE REVIEW LAUNCHED In February 2014, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services conducted an on-site investigation of Foundations over multiple concerns, including the high number of police calls, as well as “allegations of lack of appropriate staff supervision and control of the facility, rioting by residents, staff abuse of residents including staff placing hands around a resident’s neck, improper restraint techniques, and the facility’s failure to provide a trauma-informed care treatment environment.” At the close of the investigation, the state notified Foundations’ CEO in an April 2, 2014 letter that it had documented repeated incidents when staff was unnecessarily physical with residents. A staff member “engaged in a power struggle” when one youth refused to put down a cup of coffee, and the staff knocked the coffee cup out of his hand. In “multiple” cases youth were restrained when there was no evidence of crisis or imminent threat of harm, such as a youth who was restrained when he poured salt on a table and refused to give staff the salt-shaker. The state also found one female resident was restrained several times by male staff, even though her file advised against males restraining her. The state found no evidence that Foundation was inviting the parents or guardians of residents who had been restrained to debriefing sessions, as required, or that the facility was monitoring residents after they had been restrained to determine if they needed counseling. The state found that personnel records did not consistently document that Foundations’ employees were receiving the required continuing training. DAYS LATER, NEW PROBLEM Nine days after the state wrote Foundations its findings, a 15-year-old boy was held face-first against a wall, arms pulled behind his back, for 30 minutes, state reports show, leading to allegations of abuse. The state investigation into that incident raised significant questions about whether the facility had accurately reported what occurred. Foundation’s documentation reported one staff member was involved in the restraint, but the state discovered from surveillance video that three staff members were involved. The report said the boy was restrained for 15 minutes, but the video showed he was in a hold for twice that long, even though he was not resisting for most of that time. And the investigation discovered there was no documentation that one of the staff involved in the incident had received the training that Ohio mandates before staff can take part in restraints. Those discoveries prompted the state to bar the facility from accepting new residents in May 2014, a probationary status that lasted until late August 2014. While declining to discuss specific incidents, Universal Health Systems said in its statement that Foundations For Living takes steps to review the restraint procedures and improve them. The need for facilities to make corrections following state inspections “is not an uncommon or unusual occurrence,” the statement noted. “When mistakes happen we set out to correct them for the sake of our patients,” said Senior Universal Health Services Vice President for Clinical Services Karen Johnson, in a telephone interview. “We have encouraged, required, each of our facilitiies, including Foundations For Living, to make all the appropriate reports.” LOCAL POLICE ALSO CONCERNED Local police officials also are concerned about what goes on at Foundations. Police Chief Coontz cited the number of incidents involving the facility – more than once a week in 2013 and again in the first nine months of 2014. Even so, there are indications that the police are not always informed. In 2008, a former Foundations employee filed a lawsuit against the facility, alleging that he was terminated unfairly after reporting an altercation involving a resident to the police department. The suit states that Tom Brohm, who was then the facility’s Chief Executive Officer, “approached Plaintiff regarding company policy forbidding pursuing criminal charges against patients and asking that Plaintiff drop the criminal charges against the patient.” Universal Health Services said in its recent statement that the lawsuit was without merit, and that the former employee “basically abandoned his claims by accepting a nuisance value settlement, which amounted to a virtual admission that there was no merit to his claims.” The corporation emphasizes a culture of “transparency,” and Senior Vice President Johnson said she takes pride in the corporate culture of open reporting of problems. But indications persist that employees are discouraged from reporting incidents. A September 2013 police report describes a staff member who was punched in the left side of his face telling officers “he is not permitted to call the police while working because his employer does not want media attention.” Employees had to go through an on-call administrator before contacting the police, two former staff said in separate interviews. Former supervisor Price said he was told that if the situation was not an emergency he should report it to the police on his own time, after hours. This policy sometimes led to employees deciding against reporting an incident to the police, he said. Former CEO Brohm said the policies against frequent calls to police were for the good of the residents. If staff left their posts to call police, that could create staff shortages, he said. He also noted many of the youth already were struggling with a history of trauma and trouble, and a potential arrest would only worsen their situations. Senior Vice President Johnson said she is proud of her company’s record. That doesn’t mean, she said, that mistakes never happen. “We’re not perfect,” she said. “No facility is perfect.” Source: http://medillwatchdog.org/blog/2014/12/07/harsh-treament-violent-incidents-bedevil-ohio-facility/ | ||
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Glassdoor Employee Reviews: Staff Review: "worst place to work ever Nursing (Former Employee) – mansfield ohio – June 15, 2014 There is a reason they are offering a sign-on bonus. The worst place to work.! Cons everything about this place is terrible" Source: http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Foundations-For-Living/reviews?fcountry=US Staff Review: "Horrible Place to work Youth Care Specialist (Former Employee) – Mansfield, OH – November 16, 2013 Upper management does not support employees. Residents are rewarded for bad behavior to reduce acuity. Residents run the building. Foundations is always short staffed, they will say you will work a set of hours but you will end up working multiple 16hr shifts during a week. You are expected to work off of minimal sleep. Management plays favoritism. The pay is ridiculously low for this type of work. The building or management has no concern for employee health and safety. Pros some staff are cool, ocasional free lunches Cons short breaks, favoritism, low pay, poor management" Source: http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Foundations-For-Living/reviews?fcountry=US Staff Review: "Don't waste your time ycs (Former Employee) – Mansfield, OH – August 1, 2013 Management is terrible. You're told during your interview you have ONE mandation day and that's the only day you work over. False. If they ask you to stay on your non mandation day and you refuse, you get wrote up. If you like having no life and like being disrespected every day this is the job for you. Hardly any breaks, if you get one at all. Obvious favorites among staff, employees pick favorite residents and it's ridiculous and unfair. Pros free food on designated days, hr employees are awesome Cons short/no breaks, constant disrespect from everyone" Source: http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Foundations-For-Living/reviews?fcountr Staff Review: "Horrible place to work Youth Care Specialist (Former Employee) – Mansfield, OH – April 16, 2013 They will lie to you all day long about how many hours you are going to work. Changed the way the schedule looked to decrease same people being mandated all the time, however made it worse. It was always the same people. Management continues to change all the time. Rules will be implemented for a short time then they will slack off making things not as safe for residents or staff. Only some staff will abide by following rules and regulations. Management plays favorites on allowing some staff to get by with not abiding by the rules and regulations while cracking down on others. Most who start do not stay longer than 3-6 months. Mandation was to only be one day per week each employee had different days with up to 3 employees on one day, however, was asked for mandation other days than just the one day and if you refused for any reason then you would recieve a write-up even though they informed employees to only prepare for one day a week. Each employees mandation day was reflected on the schedule as well so we knew what day to prepare for and it was the same every week. It was a problem that many times you would be mandated several days a week for 16 hour shifts. Pros trying to help troubled kids be able to live effectively in the real world Cons long work hours" Source: http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Foundations-For-Living/reviews?fcountr |
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*(Foundations for Living, like many other programs in this industry, keeps a "tight lid" on any specific information regarding their staff, qualifications, and practices. Please contact us with the names of any staff of which you have firsthand knowledge or experience. Thank you for your help.)
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