The odds are good that unless you have a colorful history, you have probably not heard of a program called YouthConnect. For those of you who have not heard about the facility here is a look at how it is described, “Founded in 1959 and formerly known as Colorado Boys Ranch, CBR YouthConnect (CBRYC) is a national residential treatment facility that provides accredited mental health services and education to at-risk boys, ages 10 to 21, from across the United States. Located on 340 acres in Southeast Colorado, near the rural town of La Junta, CBRYC serves youth who have coexisting psychiatric, behavioral and educational problems that prevent them from successfully functioning in their homes, schools and communities. CBRYC’s mission is to achieve excellence in providing troubled youth with the means to become hopeful and productive citizens.”

Well apparently the company has decided that they can do that without about 100 of its workers, as they are getting ready to close their psychiatric residential treatment program at the end of the summer. This kind of a job cut will, in addition to leaving many young boys looking for a new source of  mental health care, qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

For now the facility has not put out a release about the closures or the layoffs, so there are a lot of unknowns in the equation about how the staff will be let go, and what will happen to patients currently under their care. We do know that since this is a closure this will impact the clinical staff.

Of course this is not the only psychiatric facility that is feeling the pinch from the current economy and impacting the care of those with mental health needs. Here is an excerpt from some of our earlier coverage, “This time the job cuts are coming to the Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center.  According to information presented by the New York State Office of Mental Health the facility will be making job cuts and closing at least two of its wards. In addition the facility will have third ward moved to the Hutchings Psychiatric Center located in Syracuse, New York…. That having been said the Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center will, for the time being, not be closed completely. The facility will still continue working as a state-operated residential and outpatient services facility. The medical center will also keep the inpatient unit for Children and Youth up and running, according to the information in the official release.”