Adventist Behavioral Health said it will close its residential treatment facilities and school in Crownsville later this year, moving the teen-agers it serves to locations in Rockville and in Cambridge on the Eastern Shore.

The nonprofit, part of Rockville-based Adventist HealthCare, said demand is waning for residential psychiatric and behavioral treatment in favor of outpatient care. It intends to increase such community-based offerings as it consolidates residential options.

Kevin Young, president of Adventist Behavioral Health, said the 30-bed residential treatment center and 18-bed group home would be phased out over the next several months as patients are moved one by one, rather than en masse. Adventist's school on the Anne Arundel County campus, now serving 27 students, will also be closed as part of the consolidation.

Young said some of the approximately 80 employees would be able to transfer to other jobs in the Adventist system while others would be laid off, but he added that it wasn't yet clear how many job cuts are looming. Adventist is holding job fairs to help workers land positions with other employers.

He said it was important to him that both employees and patients are taken care of through the change.

"We're going to do this the right way," Young said.

jhopkins@baltsun.com

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