A Howard Center program that provides short-term stabilization services to children experiencing mental health crises is closing at the end of June. The announcement that the state-funded Jarrett House would close its doors has taken advocates by surprise, who say they wonder who might pick up the slack.
Lindsey St. Amour, the executive director of Disability Rights Vermont, said the program represents a “critical rung on the ladder” in the state’s system of child mental health care.
“It provides a brief intervention that isn't as restrictive or invasive and as risky as, like, an inpatient hospitalization,” she said.
The Howard Center, a Burlington-based nonprofit that provides an array of social services on behalf of the state, has struggled financially recently. It went through a round of layoffs and program cuts last year, and announced in January it would end its needle exchange program this summer, citing a need to steward its “limited resources.”
The nonprofit has operated Jarrett House, which accepts children ages 5-13 from across the state, as a 6-bed program for over a decade. Services include psychiatric consultations, medication management and help with treatment plans.
The stabilization program is supposed to offer its services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But faced with staff shortages, the nonprofit has struggled to consistently meet that standard and the state decided to end its contract June 30.
Officials “have repeatedly communicated concerns about the reduced capacity of available beds and days of operation,” Ashley Roy, a spokesperson for the Vermont Agency of Human Services, wrote in an email.
The state says it’s looking for a program to replace Jarrett House. But it’s been searching for an alternative to ensure 24/7 coverage since the beginning of the year, and has yet to line one up. Officials first put out a request for proposals in January, and then reposted the RFP in April. That RFP will close for bids on June 15, just two weeks before the Howard Center is shuttering its program.
Jarret House’s impending closure is concerning, said Matthew Bernstein, Vermont’s Child, Youth, and Family Advocate. He’s worried that when it closes, children may just end up in more restrictive settings.
“It feels like the state should be doing everything it can just to maintain this program, rather than not offer it another contract,” he said.
And even if someone bids on the state’s contract, St. Amour wonders whether it’ll be possible for a new program to be ready to accept children as soon as Jarrett House closes.
“What happens to those kids?” she said.
Roy, the AHS spokesperson, said the state was “aware of the tight deadline.”
About a dozen workers at the Jarrett House will lose their jobs when the program closes, according to Howard Center spokesperson Sharon Lifschutz, although they will be encouraged to apply for vacant positions at the nonprofit.
