[A] therapeutic community in Rutland County has stopped accepting patients who have attempted suicide within the past 12 months.
Spring Lake Ranch said it would not take such patients after being cited 10 times by the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living’s Division of Licensing and Protection. Spring Lake Ranch is in the Cuttingsville area of the town of Shrewsbury.
Lynn Pilcher, the executive director of Spring Lake Ranch, said the policy is only temporary, and she rejected the idea that the facility is not accepting patients with any suicidal history.
“We have returned to a practice that has been our approach for nearly 85 years, which is to look at each person and his or her appropriateness for our program and ability to benefit from it,” she said.
The facility — centered on a working farm — says it offers a variety of programs, including psychiatric residential treatment and a rehabilitation program for people with both addiction and mental illness.
The Division of Licensing and Protection wrote in a report dated May 11 that a patient with a history of attempting suicide eventually took his or her own life after staff at the facility did not inform each other about the patient’s risk of self-harm.
The patient — who is not identified by name, age or gender — had attempted suicide twice, according to the report. The second attempt happened within four weeks of being admitted to Spring Lake Ranch, and that was considered an attempt “of high lethality.”
“Although the resident seemed to be adjusting well to the facility, during the last week s/he was there, staff stated that they began to observe some worrisome behaviors,” the report said. But key staff members “were not informed of critical information regarding the resident’s risk of self-harm.”
Spring Lake Ranch had a treatment plan for the patient, according to the report, but that plan “failed to identify and to address the resident’s previous history of recent suicide attempts.”
Additionally, the patient had told a nurse about signs that she or he might be in danger of self-harm, according to the report, but the patient’s treatment plan did not mention those dangerous signs or tell staff how they should intervene if the patient was exhibiting those signs.
The Division of Licensing and Protection also cited the facility for violations related to fire drills, keeping pictures of patients in their medical files, and a requirement that management can leave the facility only if the manager delegates authority “to a competent staff person at least 18 years of age” who is “sufficiently familiar with the needs of the residents.”
The report said a Spring Lake Ranch staffer working during a weekend shift “had not been previously aware” of the patient’s “significant suicide attempts.” The report reiterated that the treatment plan available for the weekend staff did not mention those suicide attempts.
In a corrective action plan, Spring Lake Ranch wrote that “any previous suicide attempts will now be noted and addressed on the resident’s action plan.”
A document submitted in June explained the new policy: “No one shall be admitted to (Spring Lake Ranch) with known history of suicide attempt within past 12 months. Should a history of (suicidal ideation) be revealed at any point in the admission process, the prospective resident will be screened out and referred elsewhere.”
In the case that a patient already staying at Spring Lake Ranch develops suicidal ideation, according to the corrective action plan, staff will perform an updated risk assessment of the patient and potentially refer that patient elsewhere.
Mental Health Commissioner Frank Reed said Spring Lake Ranch is not controlled by the state and that most patients there pay privately, as opposed to with Medicaid.
Reed said people with a history of attempting suicide could still get services through state-funded programs. “The fact that someone might have a history of suicide attempts should not be a limiting factor in most of our programs,” he said.
