HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — During the Guam Behavioral Health Planning Council meeting on Feb 15, attorney Daniel Somerfleck questioned where behavioral health officials were regarding the replacement of the Serenity Home program.
“For those of you not familiar, we have two residential treatment programs for children with serious emotional (issues). Obviously, the inpatient ward, then we have the Latte Program, and we used to have a step-down program of Serenity. We don’t have that anymore. So we have kids that are ready to transition to a less restrictive environment with no place to go,” Somerfleck told council members.
Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center’s James Cooper-Nurse, who is part of the council’s children’s committee, responded that there has been movement to provide the step-down service.
“We currently have the capacity to provide that step-down service with our current facilities, and we’ve been able to increase our residential staff to potentially support that. Also, we are exploring a possible partnership with Sanctuary as another means for expanding our bed space,” Cooper-Nurse said.
At the time of the council meeting, Cooper-Nurse said he had a meeting pending with Sanctuary to discuss what that partnership would look like.
“We are looking to broaden that (Serenity program) capacity through a community-based network,” Cooper-Nurse said, adding that the timeline still needs to be discussed.
Somerfleck also asked if GBHWC was involved in the Department of Public Health and Social Services Guma Ma’ase shelter.
“We are to the extent that we’ve had staff going to the shelter to meet with consumers at the shelter there. We’ve also been involved in training of the homemaker staff as well as some of the social worker staff that staff that facility,” Cooper-Nurse said.
GBHWC provides de-escalation behavioral strategy training for the youth, entailing health first-aid training as well as providing additional support, according to Cooper-Nurse.
“We’ve also gone in to help with direct observation consultation to the staff there (and) participated in their case staffing. But (the staff) also pointed us to how the facility is operating in terms of the physical logistics – of where kids are and that sort of thing,” he said.
Somerfleck followed up by asking whether GBHWC would staff the shelter with a psychologist.
“That’s not something that we’ve explored, but that’s definitely an interesting idea. I could take that back and see what our capacity is to do something like that,” Cooper-Nurse said.
But, according to GBHWC Director Theresa Arriola, dedicating a psychologist to the shelter is unlikely.
“With the difficulty of recruiting psychologists, having a dedicated psychologist just at Guma Ma’ase is probably unlikely. But having a presence on a weekly basis is very possible, even several times a week. … Not with recruitment being so difficult with psychologists nationwide and Guam,” Arriola said.
According to Somerfleck, Guma Ma’ase “is at capacity … right now, and everyone is kind of hoping you’re going to open another Serenity of some sort. We need that space.”
Guma Ma’ase is a foster care shelter for children who have been subjected to physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect.
“So they’re carrying a lot of luggage with them, and it would be very helpful to have a clinical eye working with those children, particularly when we don’t have Serenity,” Somerfleck said.
Arriola told Somerfleck that there was a program to keep an eye on the children.
“We do have an arrangement with one of our programs to do assessments on a weekly basis. I need to confirm whether that’s continuous or had happened. … I am not sure if that’s continuing, but I know that since the beginning of Guma Ma’ase, the Public Health shelter, that was the collaboration we had with Public Health,” Arriola said.
The Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center is seen on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023, in Tamuning.
