One young man turns his life around

Maryhaven extends reach
$1 million project will expand services for troubled youths
Encarnacion Pyle, Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 30, 2006, News pg B1.

Growing up, Shaindo Pirtle never really knew his father, didn't feel nurtured by his mother and was bounced from relatives to group homes.

To escape his troubles, he sucked in his emotions, started smoking marijuana and "ripping and running the streets" -- robbing and selling drugs.

Fearing Pirtle was headed to jail or worse, a Franklin County Children Services caseworker sent the teenager to Maryhaven to face his addictions and discover his talents.

Today, the 18-year-old is finishing his senior year at Groveport Madison High School, singing in the choir and mapping a future that includes going to barber school, getting a doctorate at Ohio State University and helping other lost souls.

"I want to help youths, broken families and make everyone I encounter feel good about themselves, inside and out," Pirtle said.

Bolstered by success stories such as Pirtle's, Maryhaven has raised more than $1 million to expand and improve services to children and teenagers who have alcohol, drug or mental-health problems.

Demand for these services, especially for children in foster care, has skyrocketed in recent years, with as many as 6,300 going untreated each year, according to a 2002 report by the Franklin County Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board.

"The good news is we, as a society, are intervening earlier, making better diagnoses and referring sick children to mental-health services," said Paul H. Coleman, Maryhaven's president and chief executive officer.

"The bad news is there will always be more kids in need than available beds."

In 2001, Franklin County ADAMH's network of 42 mental-health and substance-abuse agencies served 9,200 children. Last year the agencies helped more than 11,000 youngsters, said David A. Royer, ADAMH's chief executive officer.

Maryhaven started providing inpatient treatment to teens hooked on alcohol and drugs when it opened a 16-bed unit in 1982. The treatment center expanded to 40 beds -- 25 for boys, 15 for girls -- in 2003 to help Franklin County Children Services keep children with severe behavioral, emotional and mental-health problems in the county.

Maryhaven also added counseling and other mental-health services. Sixty-six percent of children in the program suffer from a mental illness such as bipolar disorder or depression in addition to being addicted to alcohol, marijuana or prescription drugs, Coleman said.

"Maryhaven has always been known for their substance-abuse services," said Eric Fenner, Children Services' deputy director. "The fact that they've gone out and gotten accredited to provide mental-health treatment shows their commitment to restoring families."

Fenner said Children Services has always tried to link children and their families to counseling, parenting classes and other services from their homes.

But advocates have criticized the agency for removing too many children from families, not looking for alternatives to foster care and sending children out of county and to other states too often.

"In 2002, Children Services sent 466 adolescents to residential care outside of Franklin County," Coleman said. "By 2004, the agency had cut the number down to 265, helping families who didn't have the means to travel extensively, up to Akron or down to Athens, to see their children for a visit."

Fenner said having more and better services for children at Maryhaven also has "helped us return kids home more quickly."

Studies have found that children in foster care who are allowed to maintain a relationship with their parents are generally happier and more likely to be returned to their homes.

Teens at Maryhaven stay an average of 89 days. That's less than the 112-day length of stay for a program in Milwaukee that's often cited by the federal government as an example of a project that is doing things right.

Maryhaven is adding 20 adolescent beds, which will allow the center to serve 90 more teens a year. It also is adding 2,200 square feet of group therapy and other treatment rooms, creating a state-of-the-art math and science room and building outdoor recreational facilities for both boys and girls.

Space is so cramped at Maryhaven's main campus at 1791 Alum Creek Dr. on the South Side, the center had to move its weekend intervention program for intoxicated motorists to a hotel and its adolescent and adult outpatient services to a Downtown building, Coleman said.

Work already has started on the improvements and is expected to be complete by the end of next year.

Speaking to the boys on the unit last week, Pirtle offered this message of encouragement: "Do what you gotta do to go where you want to go without simply accepting the bare essentials," he said.

"Maryhaven is a stepping stone to your dreams."

Pirtle, 18, speaks to a group of young men in a treatment program at Maryhaven. Pirtle spoke about conquering his addictions.