Editor's note: This story contains mentions of mental and behavioral health conditions. If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available through the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
Pearl Youth Residence, one of four Children’s Long-term Inpatient Program sites in Washington, is scheduled to close at the end of November. The Tacoma facility provided inpatient psychiatric care for youth.
“We really toiled over this decision for a long time,” said Chris Gleason, the chief communications and community affairs officer for Comprehensive Life Resources, the nonprofit that runs Pearl Youth. “We've never closed a program of this scale, and we just did not take it lightly at all.”
Minors that come to Pearl Youth are struggling with serious and complex behavioral health issues, according to Gleason. These can include suicidal thoughts, self-harming behaviors, and co-occurring medical, developmental or substance use disorders.
When Pearl Youth Residence closes, there will be just three state-funded facilities left that offer this level of treatment. That includes the Child Study and Treatment Center on the Western State Hospital campus in Lakewood, Two Rivers Landing in Yakima and Tamarack Center in Spokane.
The majority of patients at Pearl Youth are on Medicaid, Gleason said.
The facility has a capacity of 27. Right now, there are 16 patients. While some would have completed treatment prior to the closure date, some will need to be placed in other programs.
Gleason said staff aren’t sure how many youth will need to be placed in different residential programs. They also don’t know if there will be enough open beds at the other state-funded facilities.
‘She is doing fantastic’
Nikki Taylor’s daughter is among the youth who have received treatment at Pearl Youth. Taylor’s daughter was a resident for 10 months. At the time, Taylor had received a cancer diagnosis and had become homeless.
“ I advocated really hard for her to get the help she needed in case I didn't make it,” Taylor said.
If not for Pearl Youth, Taylor said they both would have been homeless.
Taylor said her daughter’s time at the facility was great and life-changing. She had group therapy every day, individual therapy at least once a week and a team that met to discuss her medication needs.
Now, her daughter is stable and on consistent medication. She goes to therapy once a week. She has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
“ She's doing great now. I mean, she's a teenager, so of course she has fluctuating hormones and mood swings, and she has bipolar disorder and ADHD. So she's on medication, but she is doing fantastic,” Taylor said.
Taylor was sad to hear that Pearl Youth was closing, as was her daughter.
“ She was sobbing for about half an hour,” Taylor said. “She had such a great experience there and loved the staff, and it completely changed her life.”
What led to the closure?
Pearl Youth has been in operation for over 40 years. In 2020, Comprehensive Life Resources expanded the program from 13 beds to 27.
Since the expansion, Gleason said Pearl Youth has had to pause admissions during periods of low staffing levels. Gleason said they have struggled to recruit and retain behavioral health technicians, which are staff members who are on the floor at all times with residents.
Since 2020, the nonprofit has lost $3 million from facility operations.
“ It really just got to the point where we just realized operationally it wasn't feasible to run it anymore,” Gleason said. “ We didn't feel like the program met the needs fully of what the youth we were serving needed.”
Plus, Gleason said the facility has started to see more patients come from outside Pierce County.
Of the population that the center served since 2024, only 5% were from Pierce County. Slightly more than a third come from Pierce, King and Kitsap counties combined. This makes it hard to do weekend home visits, which are a crucial part of residents’ treatment.
“Ideally, youth are having frequent home visits where both they and their families can practice what they are learning in treatment,” Gleason said.
Without those visits, Gleason said it can be more disruptive for youth and their families once they exit treatment, which can worsen conditions.
As a community behavioral health agency that's responsible for serving the whole county, Gleason said Comprehensive Life Resources wants to restructure the organization to provide as much support within Pierce County as possible — including focusing on rural parts of the county.
The closure of Pearl Youth Residence will result in the layoff of 92 staff.
Read the audio transcript here.
