THE AUGUST AICHHORN CENTER
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ADOLESCENT RESIDENTIAL CARE, Inc.

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SPECIAL STATEMENT BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The August Aichhorn Center is deeply concerned by the allegations of illegal conduct made by current and former residents against members of our staff. Aichhorn has been fully cooperative with the New York County District Attorney’s Office in its investigation and we will continue to cooperate with all relevant investigations so that it can be determined whether these allegations are true or false.

For over 15 years Aichhorn has been recognized as a respected residential treatment facility which is unique in consistently accepting the most severely troubled teenagers in the New York area. The Center follows stringent, documented procedures for the protection of both residents and our staff, as a healthy and safe environment is necessary for the successful treatment and rehabilitation of the adolescents in our care. All allegations of mistreatment which are brought to our attention are taken seriously, internally investigated, and always reported to the proper authorities for an outside, independent review. We have followed these procedures in this matter, and for the sake of our residents and our staff, we hope for a just and speedy resolution.

--Michael A. Pawel, M.D.    
Executive Director    

One Year Ago--
The Aichhorn RTF Turns Fifteen

The Aichhorn Residential Treatment Facility celebrated the 15th anniversary of its first admissions on May 23, 2006 with a party for staff, Board members, friends from OMH and related agencies, and providers who have worked with us over the years.  Among the latter were architect Larry Litchfield who designed the building, systems engineer Jonathan Markow who wrote the original Aichhorn Clinical Records System software, and researcher Berny Horowitz who has overseen our on-going outcome study.   Acting OMH Field Office Director Anita Appel, who participated in the first planning for the RTF at OMH more than 20 years ago, delivered a message of congratulations from OMH Commissioner Sharon Carpinello.  OMH was also represented by Susan Thaler,  who has overseen  the RTF activities for OMH since the facility opened, and, from Albany, Rick Tenenini, Bob Blaauw, and David Pannicia of the OMH finance group. 

 
         LPawel,DWhite,BHorowitz               CLeach,TBlackburn,DAlpert
Laura Pawel, David White of MHLS, and researcher                      Clarence Leach, Tony Blackburn, Dave Alpert
                      Berny Horowitz

                                                                       Anita Appel
                                                                      OMH Field Office Director
                                                                                 Anita Appel

          finance group                   psarti,brosner,mpawel
             Q.I. coordinator Patrice O'Connor  with                Three psychiatrists:  Pell Sarti, Michael Pawel, and Bennett Rosner
             Rick Tenenini and Bob Blaauw of OMH
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Executive Director Michael A. Pawel,  M.D., delivered the following remarks:

mpawel

Welcome and thanks for coming.  This is an item from the front page of yesterday's Wall Street Journal:

                     Prisons and jails added more than 1000 inmates weekly for the year to June 30, meaning 2.2 million
                     -- one in 136 U.S. residents -- are behind bars.      [WSJ - 5/22/2006]

Once upon a time that would have been an upsetting item.  In that more enlightened age,  the mental health professions were not leading the charge to punish the socially deviant, and some of us even began to pursue the idea of trying to divert a few of the most difficult young people from the downhill spiral of treatment facilities, hospitals, detention centers, training schools and then jails and prisons.  We wondered whether we could come up with an alternative to the revolving doors of courts and emergency
rooms.   We envisaged a safe, stable, caring, nurturing permanent home where these angry, disorganized children could calm down and grow up.   No one knew if it would work, but it seemed to be worth trying.

After more than a decade of work by many people, including many of the people who are here tonight, an experimental model program was ready and on the afternoon of Thursday, May 23, 1991 -- just fifteen years ago -- the first four residents were admitted to Aichhorn RTF.

A lot has happened since then.  We have admitted 192 teenagers sent to us by the Pre-Admission Certification Committee as a placement of last resort.  We have never refused to admit a youngster because he or she was too difficult to manage, and we have never transferred a youngster to a hospital or other program because we could not handle her or him.  During these
fifteen years, one child seriously injured herself, but no one -- patient or staff -- has been seriously hurt by anyone else.  In our early years, we had one completed pregnancy, subsequently we had several terminations, but for at least the last five years this issue has not arisen.   In the last three years, only one youngster has been discharged after running from the facility. 
 
Our first residents are now approaching their 30th birthdays.  Most of them keep in touch.  Several are apparently successful parents, a few in stable relationships.   Many are employed.   A few have received advanced degrees.   One is a certified substance abuse counselor, and another a residential child care worker.  Overall, more than three fourths of the 160 --
at least 120 --  are living in their communities independently, with family members, or in supported housing.   Only a quarter are in hospitals or prisons, or lost to all follow-up.  

Back in that never-neverland of good will when this project was conceived and created, no one could have confidently predicted such a striking outcome.  But many predicted that if this approach did show any success at
all, it would be rapidly expanded.  Of course, that was then and this is another time.  The most impaired of our alumni -- those who remain in total care facilities -- have moved from predominantly hospital settings to predominantly prisons.  And youngsters with the most severe social impairments today -- including the most obviously mentally ill -- are being routed in rapidly increasing numbers into the world of police, courts and corrections.  Inpatient mental health programs and residential foster care
programs for children -- especially for boys -- are being closed as delinquency caseloads rise dramatically. 

We here know tonight that it is possible to do better than this.    We don't have the resources to speak as loudly as the billionaires who make public policy in this country and this state and this city.  But no matter what they say, we know the truth:  we know how to take good care of the young people with the greatest social impairments, we know how to support them
in growing and developing whatever their potential.   We can say, after 15 years, that we know how to do better.

The only question is whether anyone cares.  Only the future will tell.  But whatever it brings, we know that what have accomplished here.

Twenty-seven of us have been working in this RTF for more than 10 years (15 for more than 14 years, and 5 for more than 15 years).  I'd like now to mention their names:
 
10 year staff
            Standing Rear:  Dave Alpert, Randy McGhee, Larry Fox, Carmen Torres, Dayvina Brannon, Desmond Heath, Michael Pawel
Standing middle:  Carmen Lopez, Laura Pawel, Deirdre Samuel, Jeanne Goshay, Carmen Torres, Phyllis Allison, Maria Vega, Patrice O'Connor
              Seated:  Manego Washington, Lisa Ginsburg, Tony Blackburn, Tonya Parker, Clarence Leach, Maribel Rosado, Hirma Vallejo
Not shown:  Manning Conyer, Bill Cordero, Mary Gooden, Mary Pillsworth, Jannette Rodriguez

Thanks to all of them and to the steadfast members of our Board of  Directors, many of whom have been with us from the beginning.