Health

DHS Knew Of Behavioral Services' Plan To Shut Down For Over A Year, Rivera-O'Reilly Says

It took a lawsuit to force the Government of the Virgin Islands, through the Department of Human Services, to pay its debt to the Virgin Islands Behavioral Services (V.I.B.S.). And while D.H.S. is now searching for alternatives to house the at-risk youth that V.I.B.S. has serviced with its multiple behavioral facilities in the territory, D.H.S. was notified of V.I.B.S.'s impending closure over a year ago. That's according to Senator Nereida Rivera-O'Reilly, who wrote to Governor Kenneth Mapp on Monday to bring to his attention the plethora of inefficiencies threatening the department, and have already caused D.H.S. to lose hundreds of thousands of federal dollars. The Consortium has been covering court developments relative to V.I.B.S.'s planned closure. In court on Friday, D.H.S. Commissioner Felicia Blyden told this publication that D.H.S. would this week pay in full the amount owed to V.I.B.S., which is estimated to be $4.8 million, according to Mrs. Rivera-O&apo...