Michigan program for troubled girls is closing. Officials fear more will follow
Attorney Mike Jaafar (furthest left) and Dearborn Heights Police Chief Ahmed Haidar (center left) stand with women who were once under the purview of Vista Maria in their youth. The women will be part of a lawsuit Jaafar plans to file, accusing the residential treatment program of neglect and abuse. Photo credit: Jordyn Hermani/Bridge Michigan.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan (bridgemi.com), a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from Bridge Michigan, sign up for a free Bridge Michigan newsletter here (https://bit.ly/BridgeMichiganNewsletter).”
by Jordyn Hermani (Bridge Michigan)
What had been one of Michigan’s largest treatment programs for troubled girls is slated to close, with facility officials blaming overzealous state regulations but a handful of former residents alleging mistreatment.
The planned December closure of Vista Maria’s Dearborn Heights program marks another loss for critical services in a state with shrinking rehabilitative options for at-risk youth, according to advocates. Vista Maria itself will remain open, however, and continue to offer other services, including foster care and independent living.
And the facility’s CEO warns it could be a harbinger of things to come for similar programs across Michigan.
“I don’t pretend that I have the answers, but we have a systemic crash that’s happening,” Vista Maria CEO Kathy Regan told Bridge Michigan.
Needs of the troubled youth sent to the facility were becoming too great, Regan said. And she contends state regulations have limited its ability to seclude or restrain residents who pose threats to themselves or staff.
Those rules are handcuffing organizations like Vista Maria that treat residents with major psychological or behavioral issues, Regan said.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services crafted the regulations after a 16-year-old boy died in 2021 after he was restrained by employees at Lakeside Academy, a now-defunct residential treatment program in Kalamazoo.
At the time, the department pointed to the boy’s death as proof the state needed to “improve our policies and practices so that a tragedy like this never happens again.”
With Vista Maria closing its treatment program, multiple Michigan lawmakers say they want to revisit those seclusion and restraint regulations, or overhaul state oversight, to ensure other facilities don’t follow suit. But they have also questioned if there’s enough will given the hyperpartisan political environment.
“We are going to be in really big trouble if we don’t make a change here shortly,” said state Rep. John Roth, R-Interlochen. “I worry very much.”
Dire straits for decades-old program
Vista Maria is one of 99 “child caring institutions” in Michigan, a mixture of public and private facilities that provide court-ordered treatment to more than 460 people as of 2023.
Not all provide the same level of services, and most are centered in metropolitan areas. Just 16 are located north of Mount Pleasant. Many counties have none at all.
Access has already been shrinking: In December 2020, the state had roughly 1,200 youths in residential treatment beds throughout Michigan. By May 2025, there were only 423 beds in total.
Founded in 1883 as a safe haven for women and girls, Vista Maria opened a residential treatment program on its Dearborn Heights campus in 1976.
At one point, the program served as many as 150 girls in metro Detroit. Now, there’s just 10. The state stopped referring girls to Vista Maria in June as the organization worked to train staff and repair “unbelievable destruction” caused by residents within the facility, Regan said.
Roughly $500,000 in repairs later, Vista Maria started taking children again in August. But it stopped again in September after “it became apparent nothing was changing,” Regan said, referencing the significant needs of the children that Vista Maria just couldn’t meet.
It didn’t help that, on top of it all, Vista Maria’s insurer told Regan it would be dropping the organization by the end of 2025 due to the number of workers’ compensation claims filed over injuries on the job, she said.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story, including why it stopped referring girls to Vista Maria.
Records show the state cited Vista Maria for multiple licensing violations this fall stemming from complaints earlier in the year, including May, when a young resident said staff had held her “wrists so tight when performing a restraint that her fingernails would dig into her skin.”
Some youth residents said they’d only witnessed staff restrain peers when “necessary,” however.
Other violations included a staff member punching back at a youth resident who had hit first, using inappropriate language around girls at the facility and disrepair that caused an unsafe living environment.
The state required Vista Maria to submit corrective action plans but did not recommend revoking its license, according to records.
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