MacDonell home’s future in question

For many people growing up in Houma, a 17-acre campus at the confluence of Bayou Terrebonne and the Intracoastal Waterway, between the old Main Street drawbridge and Grand Caillou Road, and bordered with Marmande and Buron streets was always shrouded in ambiguity.

Some thought the park-like location with frame buildings dating back to the early 20th century was an orphanage, others a mental institution, one former resident of the mysterious property described being told as a child, “If you are bad, that’s where they send you.”

In truth, MacDonell Children’s Services has a 93-year history of first being a French mission school, then a refuge for children from broken homes, and is currently a residential center for juvenile wards of the state.

Many of those wards face an uncertain future as Louisiana shuffles budget challenges in a manner that could impact them by mid-summer.

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is ending the way it conducts business regarding youths it has in protective custody and the organizations contracted with their care.

LDCFS officials contend operation changes are necessary to properly manage taxpayer funds. Administrators of homes like MacDonell – itself currently with 17 residential children ages 11 to 17 – are wondering what might happen to the youths in their care if they can no longer afford survival as they know it.

On July 1, MacDonell Children’s Services will no longer have a direct contracting arrangement with the LDCFS. That change is expected to impact the facility’s operation and focus.

The LDCFS has decided to no longer directly pay for services to place its wards in group homes. Instead, LDCFS has introduced Magellan Health to potentially finance services like MacDonell, with the state being removed from compensating this and other facilities.

“It is confusing,” MacDonell Children’s Services CEO Heidi Hillery said. “What it means is there will be changes in the number of beds we are allowed to have and the price of care associated with those occupants. It could also mean asking if we will continue to be the kind of facility we have been or take on different roles.”

According to Hillery, children at this residential center have been taken from abusive homes by the court system and possess behavioral conditions that make them inappropriate candidates for traditional foster care.

LDCFS spokesman Trey Williams said Hillery and other residential group directors are making the situation sound negative.

“Most of the children these days are in foster homes,” Williams said, “although some are still in residential care facilities. There have been no cuts. The state has moved to a new model, coordinated-care system.”

Williams said the new system offers a more business-like approach to caring for homeless juveniles. “We have seen that when a child can be placed in a foster home they have a better outcome than in an institutional setting,” he said. “With this system, it will be up to the business [like MacDonell] to decide if they want to be a medical or non-medical group home. There are restrictions on beds and how money can be used. It is a more efficient way of doing business and meeting the needs of children.”

MacDonell is presently approved to have 28 beds under the existing state plan. That cap drops to 16 beds with a new system. Additionally, the $135 per resident per day the state had paid until now will be reduced to $126. The center’s CEO estimated that could represent a loss of more than $89,000 a year on beds filled and compensation received annually.

Williams did not have figures available to describe how much the state could save with the new procedure. Magellan Health officials declined to comment on the arrangement.

“We are accountable to our [local community] governing board and the United Methodist Women,” Hillery said. “We are contracted to the state for reimbursement and we are licensed by LDCFS. So we have to live by their licensing standards and budgeting requirements. The thing is with the coordinated system of care, Magellan will name residential treatment programs as Institutes of Mental Disease and a need for 24-hour care.”

All current residential facilities for children in Louisiana meet the IMD requirements because of the percentage of residents with behavioral or psychological issues. However, not all residential facilities qualify as locations where medication can be administered.

“All of our kids are Medicaid recipients because they are considered homeless,” Hillery said. “With the coordinated system of care we have a contract with the state. Now we won’t have one.”

When asked how organizations like MacDonell might be financed without the LDCFS’ involvement, Williams said, “It is up to the business to decide if they want to be part of the system. The state is turning over all that stuff to Magellan. They are in charge of creating a network to satisfy needs. Residential placement will be a last resort. ”

When asked how residential facilities might secure funding Williams said, “Each business will need to find its own resources. It is all strictly a business decision they will have to make.”

During the two and a half years Hillery has been leading MacDonell Children’s Services, the facility went from being completely state funded and losing $500,000 on a $1.5 million budget, to depending on fewer state funds but making a profit of $88,000. Nevertheless, the CEO said a more than 70 percent budgetary loss creates serious concerns.

Paula Carpenter Clement is a teacher at Raceland Middle School. She and her sister were residents of MacDonell Children’s Services 30 years ago, until they were adopted by Linda and Bruce Arcement of Lockport.

“The time I spent here … I felt safe,” Clement said. “The children here are in crisis and they need what this place has to offer. It made all the difference to me. They taught me to say to my student’s today, ‘I’m not going to give up on you.’”

Hillery explained that MacDonnell Children’s Services has its roots in the Methodist Church, and the property is owned by the United Methodist Women. However, the program, which includes security, counseling and tutorial services on top of basic living needs, has been 70 percent state funded. The remainder of financial support comes from individuals at a level of 9 percent, while 21 percent backing is secured by a combination of charitable groups, local congregations, and in-kind leases.

“We will have to change some of our services and how we do things,” Hillary said. “We also need funding.”

Since 1919, MacDonell Children’s Services has been an answer for many and a mystery for some. Hillary said the immediate future might seem ambiguous, but her primary goal for the next seven years is to simply make sure the center sees its 100th anniversary.

Looking over scrapbooks at the MacDonell Children‘s Services are Linda Arcement of Lockport, left, CEO Heidi Hillary and Raceland Middle School Teacher Paula Clement. Twenty-seven years ago Arcement and her husband, Bruce, took Clement into their home and later adopted her and her sister, the experience was one that the teacher hopes will someday be one she can return to other kids in need.

MIKE NIXON | TRI-PARISH TIMES