Storm wrought extra effort from Heartland staff

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Nevada, Mo. -- Last week'ssnowstorm caused problems for everyone in southwest Missouri, but it posed unique challenges at Heartland Behavioral Health Services.

Blizzard-force winds driving 18 inches of snow buffeted the psychiatric hospital harder than most because many of its 200 employees commute from Lamar, El Dorado Springs and Joplin in Missouri and from Fort Scott and Pittsburg in Kansas, CEO Alyson Harder said Thursday.

So it developed that many staffers stayed over in a closed unit and worked extra shifts to help care for the hospital's 118 children and adolescents.

The 159-bed private facility also owns five horses that it usually keeps in a pasture north of the hospital, and the horses were moved into adjacent stables until the storm abated and they were let out to graze on fresh hay unrolled over the snow banks.

Heartland is so well known for its "therapy horses" that it has a bronze statue of one on the front lawn at 1500 W. Ashland St. It also brings in additional horses and often has eight to 10 in use, Harder said.

"We have a full equestrian program with two therapists trained to work with the children and horses," she said. "The storm was a huge emergency. We ran a four-wheel drive vehicle two hours to Lamar and back to get employees.

"It renewed my faith in the human spirit to see these people banding together."

Normally working 12-hour shifts between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., some were going 16 hours straight at the blizzard's height, said Harder.

Heartland spokeswoman Betsy Curtis said the hospital has two categories of patients, acute and residential, with former group typically staying one to two weeks to resolve crises and the latter being hospitalized for six months to a year.

Asked why the staff proved so dedicated, Curtis said, "They connect with the kids on a personal level. "They're sad to see them go, (when released from treatment) but they know it's a good thing because the kids are in a better place than when they came here."

Curtis said there were 34 acute patients and 84 in the residential program Thursday.

Owned by Universal Health Services of King of Prussia, Pa., the hospital treats boys and girls between ages 3 and 18 for behavior, impulse and detachment disorders, post-traumatic stress, self injury, bi-polarism and depression, its brochure says.

Built by the Christian Church in 1889, the original building was sold to the Benedictine Abbey of Arkansas in 1890 for use as a boys' school and three years later to five Swiss nuns who opened St. Francis' Academy girls' school and an orphanage that burned down in 1915.

The sisters then hand-washed 150,000 charred bricks to start the reconstruction, according to the Nevada and Vernon County's Heritage book of 2005.

The 50-acre complex was sold to Heartland Hospital after the school closed in 1982.

Harder said last week's esprit de corps crossed usual job lines with workers in the housekeeping and laundry departments joining staff psychologists to do extra work and keep the services going. "Some office people took care of patients," she said.

"Our kids did well. They loved seeing the snow and the staff worked hard to keep them feeling safe with activities like watching movies, making snow ice cream and snow cones and having slumber parties.

"Being in a hospital can be scary for a child, so we tried to make it as fun as possible."

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