[U]NDERHILL — The board of Maple Leaf Associates Inc., which operates drug treatment programs in Underhill and Colchester, has decided to cease operations, a Health Department spokesman confirmed.
The Maple Leaf Treatment Center in Underhill was one of three inpatient drug treatment programs in Vermont, and its 41 beds represented 30 percent of inpatient drug treatment beds statewide.
The Underhill center closed in mid-January for what Maple Leaf officials had said would be a 30 day period while they addressed staffing shortages. An outpatient facility in Colchester continued to operate but is now shutting down as well.
Health Department officials were told of the board’s decision late Thursday afternoon, according to spokesperson Ben Truman. The news came as a surprise to officials with the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program who were working with officials at the facility to remedy management problems, Truman said.
While Maple Leaf has been under investigation by four different state agencies, no state entity ordered the nonprofit company to close permanently, Truman said. ADAP officials were planning a site visit Monday to determine if Maple Leaf had adequate staffing to reopen Feb. 15, he said.
“It’s a concern. I don’t know that we’re talking about a crisis situation. Our primary goal is making sure the people that need services can get them,” Truman said.
Inpatient drug treatment services are often for people who also need medical or mental health services in addition to help with their addiction.
The Health Department will be working closely with other treatment providers to make sure that, even if people can’t immediately enter a residential treatment program, other services are available to them in the interim, Truman said.
In a Dec. 16 interview, Maple Leaf CEO Catey Iacuzzi told VTDigger that Maple Leaf faced a “chronic workforce shortage” and suggested that recent staff departures were part of normal industry churn.
However, several current and former staff told VTDigger that Maple Leaf was losing employees because of poor management and a hostile work environment.
VTDigger has since been unable to reach Iacuzzi, despite numerous attempts. A voicemail left on her cellphone Thursday was not returned.
In a statement provided to the Burlington Free Press, the board said, “We are heartbroken by this turn of events and are considering every option and opportunity to be able to reopen the facility to serve the recovering community.”
The statement does not provide any explanation for the closure, except that the board had determined at a Wednesday meeting that “it was not feasible to continue operations under the current circumstances.”
The statement was not provided to VTDigger, despite repeated attempts to reach company officials Thursday.
Board Chair Jeffrey Messina, a Burlington attorney, has not responded to more than a dozen calls and interview requests from VTDigger over the past six weeks.
Maple Leaf spokesman Ken Liatsos, a public relations specialist with the firm People Making Good, also did not respond to calls requesting comment Thursday. Liatsos has said Maple Leaf hired him in August.
State investigation identified failures
In late January the Division of Licensing and Protection, which regulates health care facilities in Vermont, released an investigation report that said allegations of harassment at Maple Leaf weren’t reported to the state as required.
The report also found that patients at Maple Leaf did not receive information about their rights; staff did not receive proper training; and the program was not keeping records of whether the facility was properly staffed.
Maple Leaf had submitted a plan of correction, which officials accepted.
The allegations and timeline set out in the report align closely with a series of interviews VTDigger had already done with a handful of current and former Maple Leaf employees.
The report said employees had reported that someone working at Maple Leaf was verbally abusive toward residents and staff, including “harassment and unprofessional conduct” toward a co-worker, the use of a “sexual term towards a resident,” and “inappropriate and unprofessional” questions about another resident’s history of trauma and abuse. It does not identify the employee.
The workers interviewed by VTDigger, who have asked not to be identified, all said the allegations of harassment center on the behavior of Clinical Director Dr. Charles Sprague Simonds, who was hired in May, about the time complaints of abuse identified by state investigators began.
An attorney for Maple Leaf has denied those allegations, calling them “false and defamatory.” In a January statement, the attorney, Thomas Somers, said multiple state agencies investigated the allegations against Simonds and cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Somers has since refused to say what agencies he was referring to. At the time Somers provided the statement, the Health Department’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs Division and the Division of Licensing and Protection had not completed investigations of complaints about Maple Leaf.
Earlier this month, two former employees said they were contacted by investigators from the Office of Professional Regulation, which regulates individual licensees, and the attorney general’s Medicaid fraud unit.
Legislators look at workforce issues
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee held a hearing Thursday on workforce issues facing the mental health and substance abuse field that make it difficult for treatment providers to meet the need of Vermonters.
Committee Chair Claire Ayer, D-Addison, said that several weeks ago she had invited Iacuzzi, Maple Leaf’s CEO, to testify at the hearing.
“Systemwide, it’s a crisis in the mental health field, and there’s a lot of overlap (with substance abuse treatment). That’s where my focus is right now,” said Ayer.
Having seen reports about the facility’s temporary closure, and Iacuzzi’s statements that the problem was a lack of qualified workers, Ayer said she thought it made sense to invite Iacuzzi to testify during Thursday’s hearing on that topic.
“We didn’t hear from her,” Ayer said. “She was invited and she didn’t respond.”
Ayer said it was her understanding that Iacuzzi may have chosen not to testify because “there’s legal stuff going on and she really can’t talk about it.” However, Ayer said it was never her intention to have a hearing on problems specific to Maple Leaf.
