December, 2002
Holiday Greetings from your Gateway Center Community Advisory Committee! This is our second newsletter to the community as part of an effort to keep you informed about happenings at the Gateway Center, and to familiarize you with the staff and some of the young people who live there. If you should have questions or comments, our addresses and phone numbers are listed to the left, as well as a general email address. In the last newsletter, we told you about the Advisory Committee - who we are and the purpose of the committee. We also reported the results of a survey that was mailed to community residents during the summer. We promised to tell you more about the staff and clients in this issue. But before we do that, we'd like to take a few minutes to discuss some recent events at the Center. Many of you are probably aware that during the week of Thanksgiving, there were three separate incidents of children running away from the Gateway Center. The total number of runners was five - one client ran twice. All either returned on their own or were apprehended. No persons were threatened or harmed, and no property was damaged. Since January, 2002, there have only been two incidents of running other than these. The staff feel very strongly that these individuals were motivated by the holiday, just wanting to get home to their families. Two climbed out their bedroom windows, and the others went out an alarmed exit. In order to comply with both the law (because these young people are not criminals) and licensing as a Level II Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center, Gateway cannot lock or bar doors and windows. There are alarms on windows and doors, however. When clients run, it is the Gateway Center's general policy (although there may be times that circumstances warrant pursuit) that staff do not pursue the runners on foot because of the jeopardy a staff member's absence from the facility would impose on the remaining clients. The Blount County Sheriff's Department is called, as are a number of supervisory personnel. We know that many of you received a "reverse 911" call notifying you of these incidents, but no follow-up letting you know the clients were apprehended or had returned. The Gateway staff will work with the Sheriff's Department and 911 staff to coordinate better communications in the future. Clients who run are re-evaluated to determine if they are acceptable to remain in the program. The staff are persistent in their attempts to reduce the risk of running and to maintain discipline and the quality programming for which the Center is well known. The consequences for clients who remain at Gateway after running include loss of privileges and restriction. Gateway Center works on a reward system that enables clients to gain certain privileges as they progress in their treatment. Certain behaviors or actions can bring about loss of these privileges, and the process begins again. Clients who run are also placed on restriction or shutdown. Both of these actions remove all privileges and require that they are separated from the rest of the group during this time. They are with a staff member the entire time (except for sleeping) and are monitored each hour for positive behavior. If they do not exhibit positive behavior, they do not gain that hour, and their time in restriction or shutdown is extended by that hour. They are only allowed to work on school or other treatment-related assignments during this time. This is effective because the kids do not like to be separated from their peers, nor do they like spending this much time in a seat in the company of a staff member. The following are letters written by two of the clients who ran recently; one is 15 and the other is 16 years old.
Concerning the five young people who recently ran, three are remaining in the program at Gateway and
are doing well. The Center requested that the other two be removed from the program, but that request was denied
by the Department of Children's Services. An appeal has been filed concerning the young man who ran twice.
STAFF Barbara Davis has served as the Alcohol and Drug Adolescent Services Coordinator at the Gateway Center since January, 2002. Prior to this position, Ms. Davis supervised two juvenile justice services programs with the Helen Ross McNabb Center. She has also worked with at-risk teenagers at the Moses Teen Center in Knoxville, and served as education coordinator for the Knox County Sheriff's Department's Community Alternatives to Prison Program (CAPP). While employed with the Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections in Washington, DC, she was instrumental in the facilitation of training for Offender Specialists nationwide. While working on her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Barbara worked with troubled youth in various programs. She received both her BA in sociology and MS in counseling from the University of Tennessee. She is married and expecting a child in March. She is absolutely dedicated to helping young people make changes for the better and turn their lives around. Torrie Dorshug has served as the Program Coordinator at the Gateway Center since May, 2002. She graduated from Maryville College with a bachelor's degree in psychology, and earned her master's degree in social work from the University of Tennessee. She has been working with adolescents in the field of mental health since 1998. Her experience includes psychiatric hospitals, runaway shelters, level three residential programs, case management, prevention work, and clinical work as a therapist. Torrie is currently working toward becoming a licensed clinical social worker.
CLIENTS
Best regards, Joe, Sandy, Marie, David & Gena
| ||||||
