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Community Health Network Collaborates With Lutheran Child and Family Services

For release on January 25, 2013

INDIANAPOLIS—Community Health Network and Lutheran Child and Family Services (LCFS) are announcing a collaboration that will enhance and expand the treatment for children who have experienced trauma and are dealing with behavioral challenges. Community Health Network will manage, in collaboration with LCFS, the behavioral health services for children and adolescents at Lutherwood, a private and secure youth residential facility, and Trinity House, a transitional group home for young men. The collaboration will also include blended community-based programs previously managed separately under Gallahue Community Mental Health Center and LCFS.

“The collaboration between LCFS and Community Health Network allows us to strengthen our level of care for children who suffer from complex mental health issues by providing them with a larger network of trained behavioral healthcare specialists to meet their needs,” said LCFS CEO Sven Schumacher. “The collaboration will lead to better outcomes for more children and their families, at a time when these services are in great demand,” added Schumacher. Through its participation in this collaboration, LCFS will continue its programs for troubled children and families. LCFS itself will offer spiritual care programs for children and their families and the staff as it has since 1883.

“This collaboration between Community Health Network’s Behavioral Health Services and LCFS’s youth residential programs adds a level of care that has been missing in our continuum,” said Executive Vice President for Community’s Behavioral Health Services Eric Crouse, Ph.D. “It will allow us to work in a more integrated manner by fully coordinating across a comprehensive continuum of care with the ability to address any treatment need of the youth and families that come to us in need of help.”

Community Health Network is central Indiana's largest provider of behavioral health, with an extensive continuum of treatment options. It serves more than 25,000 patients each year and employs more than 600 physicians, psychologists, advance practice nurses, psychiatric nurses, therapists, counselors and bachelor-level life skills specialists and care managers.

The collaboration will continue to serve children and young adults ages 6 to 21 statewide who have been abused or neglected or who are exhibiting psychiatric disorders and provide them with a safe and secure environment in which to seek treatment. The collaboration will also provide emergency shelter care for children and adolescents ages 12 to 18.

“Collaborating with Community Health Network is a natural fit because they are central Indiana’s largest provider of behavioral health services and are committed to providing a continuum of care to everyone they serve,” said LCFS Agency Board of Directors President Lew Beckwith.

The collaboration will also allow LCFS to strengthen the quality of its services and programs to provide the best opportunities for children and their families to resume their lives together.

“This collaboration is a tremendous opportunity to explore new programs and opportunities with Community Health Network as LCFS continually looks to enhance its mission and further benefit those it serves in the community,” said LCFS Foundation President Bob Kassing.

In addition, LCFS and Community Health Network are announcing that George Hurd, who most recently served as chief executive officer for a group of companies owned by Tennessee-based Acadia Healthcare that includes Resolute Treatment Facility, Success Group Home and Resource Community Based Services, has returned to LCFS to serve as chief operating officer of the collaboration effort. Hurd served as director of business development, controller, director of administrative services and as senior director of finance at LCFS from 2002 to 2007. Hurd is a graduate of Ball State University and received a Master of Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University. George Hurd expressed his excitement about the collaboration by saying: “The community will greatly benefit from the synergy born from the collaboration between LCFS and Community Health Network as this new arrangement will enable an expansive continuum of care that will provide a wide array of services to meet the daily needs of youth and families seeking help, understanding and healing.”

About Community Health Network
Ranked among the nation’s most integrated healthcare systems, Community Health Network is Central Indiana’s leader in providing convenient access to exceptional healthcare services, where and when patients need them—in hospitals, health pavilions and doctor’s offices, as well as workplaces, schools and homes. As a non-profit health system with over 200 sites of care and affiliates throughout Central Indiana, Community’s full continuum of care integrates hundreds of physicians, specialty and acute care hospitals, surgery centers, home care services, MedChecks, behavioral health and employer health services. To learn more, visit eCommunity.com or call 800-777-7775.

About Lutheran Child and Family Services
Lutheran Child and Family Services (LCFS), based in Indianapolis, Ind., has been providing compassionate and spiritual care to children and their families for 130 years. The 501 (c) 3 serves children and young adults ages 6-21 who have been abused, neglected or are suffering from psychiatric disorders. LCFS’ programs include Lutherwood Residential Treatment Center and Academy, Emergency Shelter Care, Community-Based services, Trinity House community-based group home, the Sharing Place food bank and YouthBuild-Indy, which prepares youth for entering the workforce. LCFS is a longtime member agency of the United Way of Central Indiana. To learn more about LCFS and the programs it offers, visit www.LutheranFamily.org.

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Lacey Clifford
Media Relations