State Review Team Lauds Casa Pacifica but Cites Areas for Improvements

CAMARILLO — A state review team has found no evidence that children are in any danger at Casa Pacifica. But it is recommending that staff members receive improved training and that the shelter review its policies of taking in all needy abused and neglected children, regardless of the severity of their behavioral problems.

After three days at the shelter, the team assembled by the state Department of Social Services reported Friday that it had allayed its worst fears about the facility and actually found a dedicated, hard-working staff.

The eight-member review team also said that Casa Pacifica needs to improve on-campus communication, as well as communication with its county partners, and physically alter cottages so that children can be better separated by sex, age and behavior.

In an unprecedented move, the state agency assembled the team to gain a better understanding of the routines now under scrutiny.

“You can see by the incident reports that there are serious problems of supervision and of assessment of clients,” said Martha Lopez, deputy director of Community Care Licensing (CCL) in Sacramento. “The review team was there to give them advice on this.”

Since Ventura County’s only emergency and residential care facility and shelter program opened its doors in July 1994, CCL has issued more than 50 citations--with almost 60% of these issued since October when the state began an investigation prompted by a 9-year-old boy sexually assaulting a toddler.

“There has been a concern as to whether there’s an adequate ratio of staff to residents and whether staff has been adequately trained,” Lopez said.

The county’s need to use the shelter for children who have been removed from their homes under court order is what prompted Lopez to assemble the review team. Last year, 328 children were placed in the shelter, which has room for up to 50 children at one time.

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Casa Pacifica asked CCL several times to send out its technical support team to make recommendations, but the agency denied the requests because it doesn’t provide technical support when it is investigating a facility.

“But because this was a case where the county also approached us and asked for help, we decided to do something different,” Lopez said. “We assembled a multidisciplinary team that would be able to go in and look at the facility from lots of different perspectives and then give practical and concrete advice that would meet the needs of the county, the children and be in compliance with licensing requirements.”

It is too early to speculate how the team’s recommendations will affect action the state might take on Casa Pacifica’s license, Lopez said. The state could put Casa Pacifica on probation, hammer out an agreement as to how the facility plans to remedy its violations, or temporarily suspend its license.

“I understand the feedback from the review team has been very positive, and some very concrete recommendations were made that have to do with staffing, incident reporting and a whole myriad of things,” Lopez said. She said her department will take into consideration what actions Casa Pacifica takes in response to these recommendations when it is deciding which licensing action to pursue.

The review team, which included county and state officials, representatives from the state’s CCL agency, executive directors from Northern California group homes and a Casa Pacifica board member, orally presented recommendations to Casa Pacifica’s Board of Directors and staff Friday.

A written report will be submitted to Casa Pacifica and state and county officials in approximately two weeks. Members of the review team could not be reached for comment.

“The tone of the meeting was positive, complimentary of staff and they emphasized unanimously that health and safety issues were not” a major problem, said Steve Elson, Casa Pacifica’s executive director.

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Many of the team’s suggestions echoed an internal report Elson completed in February.

Elson is working the cost of cottage alterations into next year’s budget and hopes to begin these improvements by fall.

More intensive staff training is also something Elson has examined, but that has been prevented by costs. In response to the team’s recommendation that Casa Pacifica double its training time of new employees, Elson said he is reexamining the budget.

The team also recommended that Casa Pacifica and its county partners work on communication.

County Supervisor Susan Lacey suggested at the meeting that an oversight committee be developed that would consist of Casa Pacifica staff and county officials.

To keep children with more difficult behavioral problems out of Casa Pacifica, the team also suggested that Casa Pacifica seek modification to its current “no-reject, no-eject” policy.

The team said county officials should work to develop additional county resources to take care of children who pose imminent danger to themselves or others--a recommendation Elson also made.

If the county develops a network of specialized group homes to accept these children, they will have the same problem as Casa Pacifica in regard to licensing and CCL regulations, Lacey said.

“The next step is how do we change the rules and regulations for whoever has the no-eject, no-reject children,” Lacey said. “This is something the whole state has been talking about.

“The irony of all of this is that if these kids leave the state, they go to a locked facility with no therapy, and it’s absolutely against the law to have them in a locked facility in California,” Lacey said. “People at Casa Pacifica, in social services, mental health and at the state level are all equally frustrated and know we need to get to a new place.”