Program aims to keep kids in Alaska

If you build it, they will come home - that is what local groups are hoping will happen with a new residential treatment center that officially opened Wednesday in Juneau.

• Photos

Sound off on the important issues at

Juneau Youth Services and SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium have teamed up to run the new $3 million Montana Creek Residential Facility and Program, which provides mental health and drug and alcohol treatment for as many as 15 kids from ages 12 to 18.

"Most programs like this deal with either mental health or substance abuse, and what we're doing is we're dealing with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse problems," JYS Executive Director Walter Majoros said.

An opening ceremony was held Wednesday with local leaders, representatives from funding partners, Native elders and dancing groups. The center opened its doors Aug. 23 to coincide with the first day of school in the Juneau School District.

"For us to partner with someone who has that expertise is a win-win."

Kenneth Brewer

President and CEO of SEARHC

The program and youth center are part of the state's "Bring the Kids Home Initiative," designed to address the lack of mental health and substance abuse treatment centers in the region. Families are often forced to send their kids to the Lower 48 for treatment at a high cost.

"The primary catalyst for causing this to occur is because so many of our youth who need psychiatric care are being sent out of state," SEARHC President and CEO Kenneth Brewer said. "We look at it more aggressively as to keep them home in the first place."

The price of sending youth out of state for treatment is not only expensive but also can be costly to the patients and their families, Majoros said.

"It's to prevent kids from this region who have to go outside and to bring kids back to the region that are outside so that the kids can be closer to their homes, their communities and their natural support systems," he said.

The new 7,212-square-foot co-ed facility has living quarters, programming rooms and an on-site classroom. The program is designed to encompass contemporary and traditional Native education, Majoros said.

"It's a culturally based program and that is part of the reason we wanted to partner with SEARHC," he said.

The new center has six clients and 10 staff. In the next several months, the facility will grow to its capacity of 15 clients and nearly 20 staff members, Majoros said. Both custody and non-custody youth are served by the program.

Facilities and programs such as this are highly needed in the Native community, Brewer said.

"It's a very strong need for Native health services, yet we don't have the capacity or expertise to provide that service, so for us to partner with someone who has that expertise is a win-win," he said.

Majoros and Brewer said the collaboration of the many groups made this new center and program come to fruition at an impressive rate.

"From the idea to opening the doors was two years," Majoros said. "That's pretty much light-speed with a capital project."

A number of groups aided Juneau Youth Services and SEARHC with funds, including the Denali Commission, the Rasmuson Foundation, the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and the Department of Health and Social Services, as well as state and federal grants.

"It's a great example of what can be achieved through community collaboration," Majoros said.

It will take more local and statewide partnerships to help bring specialized health-care needs to the next level in the community and the region, Brewer said.

"I think this is indicative of future trends in health care," he said.