BestSelf shuts down inpatient drug treatment program for youth

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Local provider BestSelf Behavioral Health said its made the difficult decision to shut down a drug treatment program for youth that families have relied on for years due in part to a lack of funding.

For the past two years, BestSelf had operated an inpatient residential program for adolescents on the Renaissance Campus, which is located on Harlem Road in West Seneca. The program served young people between the ages of 12 and 21 and offered therapy, educational services, early intervention and stabilization.

BestSelf said it received funding from a combination of insurance, reimbursement rates and government funding.

The provider's adolescent inpatient program had become too expensive and was underutilized, serving fewer than 10 people, BestSelf said. Leaders said those residents have been informed of the closure and referred to other addiction services.

"I think, of course, initially people were surprised and probably a bit shocked," said Jennifer Seib, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at BestSelf. "Many of the residents we had were already nearing kind of graduation so for them, they were kind of anticipating to leave within a week or so anyway."

15 employees with the provider who previously worked in the adolescent inpatient program have found new roles at BestSelf. Leaders at BestSelf said they will continue to operate a rehab and reintegration program on the Renaissance Campus.

"We were not able to give a lot of advanced notice for that, but what I will say is that when we knew we were moving forward with it, we very much incorporated the families, so we talked to each individual resident or client that we had there along with their families and guardians," Seib said.

Another reason for the program's closure, BestSelf said, is a shift in behavioral health care to outpatient and at-home care away from inpatient care. BestSelf said it received approval from the New York State Office of Addiction Services to close its adolescent inpatient program.

"The trend in the state is there's other facilities, not a ton, but there's other facilities that do this same type of work across the state and all of those had been going underutilized for quite some time, so the message was we have more beds across the state than we have demand for," Seib said.

To families in need of addiction services, experts at BestSelf said help is still there.

This closure has no effect on Kids Escaping Drugs, which remains on the Renaissance Campus.

Find some resources here: NAMI Buffalo and Western New York, Kids Escaping Drugs and Horizon Health Services.