The Times

Grant Center: Special place for youths with troubled minds

By ANA MARIA ALVAREZ Staff Writer Sitting on a wooden picnic table under a breezy chickee some Seminole Indians built, 14-year-old Jeannie sits by herself, alone and in a world of her very own. Until she reached the age of puberty, Jeannie was a perfectly normal child. Today, the withdrawn and mentally disturbed teenager's condition has been diagnosed as schizophrenia. She stares at most everything, but won't look you straight in the eye. There seems to be a total lack of emotional response at times, yet she quickly moves away at the sight of a stranger approaching her. She hurries to another empty corner of the large outdoor playground, where she can be alone in her fantasy world. Around her, other children and teenagers sit together, talking and relaxing. Some are busy playing badminton with their recreational therapist on one of the outdoor courts. At another chickee, a child psychiatrist conducts psychotherapy in the outdoor picnic area. An almost invisible fence around this particular stilt house separates a small group of children with severe mental problems, from others who are allowed almost complete mobility. The rural setting and peaceful surroundings are all part of the philosophy behind the Grant Center Hospital in South Dade, the only independent psychiatric hospital for children and young adults in South Florida. There are no visible signs around the large, modern complex that are traditionally associated with mental hospitals. There are no sterile white uniforms to be seen. Instead, the staff members, many clad in jeans and T-shirts, blend right in with the patient population. Colorfully decorated walls and cheery living quarters broken up into double rooms by wall dividers, have replaced the long, bare hallways and impersonal hospital wards. The Grant Center Hospital, located on 20 acres of land at 20601 SW 157th Ave., received its hospital operational license this month, although the treatment center and school have been in operation at the South Dade location since 1973. Founded by the Grant family in 1970, the center has grown from a day school with an enrollment of three children to a $3 million private facility specializing in a wide range of services "The state hospital model is the antithesis of everything we stand for," said Dr. Joni Grant, co-director of the center. "This is more like a summer camp where children have mobility and are free. It is intensively therapeutic." The center, nearly finished, has already admitted 52 patients. Most of the children and teenagers in the facility had been attending the treatment center prior to the opening of the hospital, but needed in-patient care. The 100-bed facility offers individual and group psychotherapy, multiple therapy, patient-staff meetings, occupational therapy as well as a full educational program from kindergarten through senior high school. There is a full range of outdoor and indoor activities at the center, including a large agricultural-horticultural program. A four-acre greenhouse, mist bed and planting area provides the setting for the agricultural therapy. "The act of planting, nurturing and healing plants is such a wonderful experience for these children," said Dr. Grant. "They can relate to these growing things and know that if they don't take care of their plants, they will die." The greenhouse is full of beautifully kept plants, all cared for by the children. On occasion, they sell their plants to local grocery stores and use the money to buy things for themselves, said Dr. Grant. Other recreational activities include horseback riding, physical education, bicycle and scooter riding and swimming in a large outdoor pool. A large theater where patients sit on wide, carpeted steps leading to a stage, is where psycho-drama is conducted, and where movies are viewed. Margaret Dubinski, the center's occupational therapist, works out of a large craft room where she teaches the patients anything from hemming a pair of jeans to boiling an egg. "We are dealing with crafts, but ones which are reality oriented," said Ms. Dubinski. "There is a wide range of activities that they can become involved in, and that will help them function when they go back into the community," she said. Ceramics, leather crafts, weaving, candlemaking, cooking and sewing are just some of the activities available in the occupational therapy wing. The center, directed by Lee Grant has a full professional staff including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, mental health workers, a dietitian, recreational therapists, consulting physicians, registered psychiatric nurses, therapists and teachers. Children and young adults ranging in age from four to 21 are admitted into the hospital after they have been diagnosed and evaluated by the staff and it has been determined that in-patient care is needed. "At that point, the psychiatrist and social worker, along with the school principal, form an individualized treatment plan for each child," said Dr. Grant. "The plan determines how that child is going to spend the 24 hours in a day so he can begin down the road back to a normal life" she said. Depending on the diagnosis, patients are separated by levels of mobility. An intensive care area, with its own nursing and doctor units, is used for very agitated patients. A double ceiling in the rooms of the intensive care section protects the actual ceiling and smoke detector from patients with severe psychotic behavior. There is also an area for patients who are totally confined. They are restricted to an area which includes a small nursing unit and two bedrooms until they are ready to move on to the moderate mobility or complete mobility sections. The costs of patient care at the Grant Center ranges from $80 to $135 a day, although Dr. Grant said many patients are charged on a sliding scale basis. "Unfortunately, we have to turn many children away because of the lack of funding," said Dr. Grant. "If you have a normal IQ, and unless your parents have mental health insurance or money, there is no place to turn," she said. Dr. Joni Grant . . . founded hospital Therapist, two patients . . . walk together, share thoughts

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