GRAFTON SCHOOL INCORPORATED
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Mission Statement
Grafton creates solution-focused opportunities for individual challenged by complex disabilities.
About This Cause
Grafton is committed to excellence in the delivery of person-centered care and value-added services. We believe that by operationalizing our core values of quality, customer focus, integrity, accountability and flexibility, Grafton will become internationally recognized as the preferred: • Provider of Choice • Employer of Choice • Strategic Partner of Choice Grafton Integrated Health Network has been providing person-centered services to children, adolescents and adults with intellectual disability, developmental delay and autism spectrum disorders, often coupled with concurrent psychiatric conditions and challenging behaviors, for over 60 years. We are based in Winchester, Virginia, and serve the entire Commonwealth as well as referrals from the mid-Atlantic region, including Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Our organization was founded in 1958 by Ruth Birch, a resident of Clarke County Virginia, whose son had been expelled from the public school system due to his own special needs. Ms. Birch was a teacher herself and decided to home-school him using his preferences, strengths and abilities as the foundation of all educational planning. Within a short period of time she was providing education to several children of local residents at her kitchen table. Many of her friends joined this effort under her guidance and training. Her school soon expanded to several sites throughout Clarke County. By 1973 Grafton was operating the first residential school for children with autism in Virginia in Berryville at the Questover Estate. Services continue there to this day. By 1981 Mr. Steig, in close collaboration with State stakeholders, had piloted an innovative community based program in Winchester, in which much of the professional infrastructure of a residential center was used to support individuals in single-family homes in our community. These therapeutic community living homes continue to provide a crucial part of the system of care for individuals with intellectual or developmental disability and autism in Virginia – they are a real community-based alternative to institutional care. This program and the therapeutic schools attached to it were replicated in Richmond by the end of the 80s. These programs serve males and females up to age 21 in single family homes directly in the community. These youth also attend Grafton’s private day educational services. Typical diagnoses include intellectual delay or autism spectrum disorder with a comorbid mood disorder, impulse control disorder, psychosis, attention deficit, or other psychiatric disabilities. Some youth communicate using assistive devices. Some youth have complex medical conditions that require intensive oversight. Each child has demonstrated behaviors that have made it impossible for them to be served in a less intensive environment. These include physical aggression, self-injury, property destruction, sexualized behaviors, elopement, extreme disruption, significant psychological impairment (such as depression, psychosis or PTSD symptomology), property destruction or lack of safety awareness. We have found that by providing consistent multidisciplinary intervention, involving a combination of empirically based methods from the fields of applied behavior analysis and psychotherapy we can serve these youth with high intensity intervention in community-based treatment settings (thus avoiding some of the iatrogenic effects of institutional treatment). The treatment teams are often indecipherable from those found in residential treatment facilities: we employ therapists, case managers, nurses, physicians, speech and occupational therapists, allied therapists, instructional assistants and direct support professionals, etc. These staff positions are funded through a combination of the residential and educational fees. Upon Mr. Stieg’s retirement, the board transitioned leadership to Jim Gaynor in 2003. By that time the organization had perhaps expanded beyond the capacity of its corporate infrastructure, and it was financially threatened by extraordinary worker’s compensation expense, and other staffing costs. Mr. Gaynor consolidated Grafton into its current footprint in the Northern Shenandoah Valley and Richmond, and sparked a period of intense innovation around the use of physical restraint and seclusion within our facilities. This ultimately led to the elimination of the use of restraint in our therapeutic community living programs, and saved the organizations millions of dollars in turnover and worker’s compensation expenses. Ultimately this success resulted in the creation of Ukeru™, Grafton’s training and consultation division, now serving hundreds of programs nation-wide and in Canada. Grafton merged with Graydon Manor in Leesburg in 2010, and consolidated its operations into the existing psychiatric residential center in Berryville. Also in 2010 Grafton partnered with the City of Winchester to operate the Early Intervention program for children age 0-3 born with special needs and their families. In 2017 we received a contract to operate the Loudoun Youth Shelter program and Group Home program. These public-private partnerships have each resulted in improved outcomes for those served, and increased financial viability and sustainability. Thought leadership has also been a consistent part of Grafton’s history. In the early 80s Grafton completed the first statewide study of autism in Virginia – this report was lauded at the time as being one of the best in the nation. Grafton’s success in restraint reduction activities has brought national and international attention. In February 2008, Grafton won the Negley President’s award for excellence in risk management practices. The Grafton model of crisis intervention has also been presented at international conferences such as the 10th annual International Research and Institute of Learning Disability conference in Dublin, Ireland, a conference sponsored by the Office of the Senior Practitioner and National Disability Service in Victoria, Australia, as well as IASSID conferences in Singapore and Japan. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recognized Grafton’s clinical best practices in restraint and seclusion in an issue brief entitled, “Promoting Alternatives to the Use of Seclusion and Restraint”, in March of 2010. (http://store.samhsa.gov/shin/content/SMA11-4632/SMA11-4632.pdf) Grafton was a finalist in the 2011 First Annual Virginia Healthcare Innovator’s Award for best practices in trauma-informed treatment and care. Grafton also received the 2013 National Council Impact Award. Since 2015 Grafton has developed and refined an approach designed to provide decision-support to professionals, payers and other key stakeholders in behavior healthcare systems. This patented process, called “Goal Mastery”, was developed into an application named “Reboot” that is now a core thought product in a leading information technology firm. The approach has been refined in recent years into a comprehensive treatment planning system, called the “Foundation of Care™”, that is rooted in a trauma-informed approach as well as empirically based practices. On any given day, Grafton provides residential services to well over 240 individuals with special needs. Similarly we provide therapeutic educational services to over 260 students during each school day. In total last fiscal year, Grafton served 1,169 clients through all of our services and programs, including 615 infants and toddlers, 464 children, and 90 adults.