Nevada steps up scrutiny of Colorado mental health program

Brendan Riley

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2000 | 4:39 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Nevada has stepped up its monitoring of children from this state placed in a Colorado mental health program that was accused of overusing restraints and illegally locking up some youths.

A legislative panel looking into the Devereux-Cleo Wallace Center was told Wednesday that visits to the center by Nevada Division of Child and Family Services staffers have increased from twice to four times a year.

Division chief Steve Shaw said the idea is "to err on the side of safety" by increasing visits and also requiring additional reports from the center on any incidents involving children and on any Colorado licensing issues.

Shaw also said Nevada had been averaging 15 placements at the center, but that's now down to three children.

Nevada's decision to increase its monitoring follows a Colorado move in November to temporarily step up its review of the center because of a rise in the number of physical restraints and injuries to children.

Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas, chairwoman of the legislative Committee on Health Care, said she has assurances that the Nevada children are safe.

But Koivisto added that Nevada must look into conflicting information from Devereux-Cleo Wallace and from a whistleblower who used to run one of its three centers.

Michael Montgomery, Devereux-Cleo Wallace executive director, said "everybody in the world investigated us," but the U.S. attorney's office decided not to join in a lawsuit filed by the whistleblower, Ross Wright.

Wright said he spent hours explaining to authorities how the center broke the law and provided improper care to children. He termed the case "the largest Medicaid fraud case of its sort in Colorado."

Montgomery countered that Wright at this point is "acting on his own" - and not for unselfish reasons. He said Wright stands to get a cut of any judgment against the center.

Cleo Wallace centers provide inpatient and outpatient care. Nevada children have been in a residential treatment center, where they go to school, have off-campus activities and are in long-term therapy.

Cleo Wallace also has a separate lockup program for acute, short-term care or psychiatric emergencies.

In 1995, Colorado started a two-year pilot program that put all Medicaid mental health patients into managed care. The result was a substantial drop in the need for inpatient placements.

Soon afterward, staffers at Cleo Wallace were told the program had been given the go-ahead by state licensing agencies to place residential treatment children in the locked inpatient facility.

Montgomery says the residential children sleeping in the inpatient unit got all the appropriate services. But Wright said that's not the case, adding that the claimed go-ahead from authorities was never granted.