Volunteers of American looking at women’s inpatient facility at former Lawton school site

Volunteers of America wants to give new life to an old school.

The group wants to convert the one-time Kuntz Elementary School and now church at 4814 NW Floyd into a first of its kind clinic for Southwest Oklahoma: an inpatient mental facility for women and their children. That proposal came to the City Planning Commission last week as a Use Permitted on Review, a process that allows a specific use on property only with the recommendation of the City Planning Commission and a final decision by the City Council.

Kameron Good, a city planner, said the proposed use meets the site’s current zoning, which is P-F Public Facilities District. That designation covers uses such as schools and other types of government-related buildings, as well as parks and some medical facilities. Use Permitted on Review uses range from churches and day care centers, to private medical offices and facilities providing in-patient mental health treatment.

That is the plan by Volunteers of America, said Christina Erman, chief of integrated behavioral health services for Volunteers of America, about the new behavioral clinic planned for “specifically for women with their children.” The Lawton facility will provide in-patient treatment, meaning it also will provide dormitory space for women and their children to live on site while the mother is receiving treatment. Erman said the difference in this clinic and one already operating in Lawton is that children will be allowed to stay with their mothers while they take treatment.

“There’s not another facility like it in Southwest Oklahoma,” she said

Erman said the concept will allow the patient to receive all her treatment on site, rather than having to go to another location. And, the on-site living arrangement means children can stay with their mothers without the Department of Human Services becoming involved.

Erman said the facility will have to hold state and national accreditation to operate, and will work under the auspices of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, and the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.

The building will be remodeled to hold 20 to 30 family rooms (the total amount of rooms available will depend on family size), with treatment facilities and room for staff who will man the facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The average length of stay for inpatient care is expected to be 30 to 90 days, with secondary “step down” outpatient care time of about three months. The facility will provide treatment to women for half the day, with the other half dedicated to developing job skills, Erman said. And, the facility will be able to handle women with children, as well as those who are pregnant.

Erman said experts expect most of the families to stay within the program for six months, half of that time living at the facility.

Good said property owners within 300 feet of the building were notified about the new proposed use, and the city had not received any comments as of last week. He said in addition to remodeling the interior of the building, Volunteers of America will add parking on the northwest side of the building and is looking at an optional entrance on Floyd Avenue.

Volunteers of America Oklahoma, headquartered in Tulsa, is dedicated to serving veterans, the aging, the homeless and the disabled, according to its website.