Taylor Manor

Taylor Manor Hospital will offer intensive inpatient treatment services to children 9 to 12 years old as part of a reorganization of its adolescent treatment program.In response to a growing number of younger patients with severe emotional problems, the Ellicott City psychiatric hospital will halve the size of its 40-bed adolescent unit and open an 18-bed unit for preadolescents Jan. 15."I think there are more severe problems that are occurring with a larger number of younger patients than we have seen in previous years," said Dr.John DeFrate, a staff psychiatrist at Taylor Manor who will head up the unit.

Taylor Manor Hospital, a private psychiatric hospital in Ellicott City, lost money in its most recent fiscal year, its fourth straight annual loss, despite a slight increase in admissions.But Howard County General Hospital posted a net profit increase of $465,900 in its most recent fiscal year, according to an annual report issued yesterday by the state's Health Services Cost Review Commission, which regulates hospital charges throughout Maryland.According to the report, Taylor Manor posted a net loss of $694,400 for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 1992, even though it admitted 38 more patients that year for a total of 900.The reason for the loss: shorter, less-profitable stays in the hospital at a time when Taylor Manor's operating costs increased slightly, said Dr. Bruce Taylor, the hospital's director.

Taylor Manor Hospital in Ellicott City today is to show off what it says is the county's first intensive day program for teen-agers with depression and other mental disorders, at an open house from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.Begun in November, the psychiatric partial-hospitalization program is designed for teens who need intensive therapy but not full hospitalization, or those in need of a transition from hospitalization to outpatient care.It is aimed at youngsters ages 12 through 17 with emotional or behavioral problems such as anxiety, depression and family conflict.

While a new, larger Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center is under construction, Howard County's primary homeless shelter will move to a two-story cottage on the grounds of the former Taylor Manor Hospital in Ellicott City. Andrea Ingram, director of Grassroots, a private nonprofit agency, said the move likely will occur about Oct. 20, a week after the groundbreaking for the new, expanded shelter next to Atholton High School. Demolition of the current building should begin in November, and the new 55-bed building should be completed in a year.

An Ellicott City home for troubled youths has canceled plans to relocate near Mount Airy, bringing relief to western Howard County residents who opposed the move while forcing the home's director to renew his search for a new site.Richard Bienvenue, director of Our House Youth Home, yesterday halted plans to take the 5-year-old program to a 55-acre farm after receiving a negative report by the county Department of Planning and Zoning."This is just really sad for our kids," said Bienvenue, who has been seeking a new site for two years.

The husband of a woman who died in 1989 after taking an overdose of an anti-depressant filed suit yesterday against the Crofton psychiatrist who prescribed the drug.The suit, filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, claims that Dr. Clifford L. Culp Jr. was negligent in his treatment of Susan Hope Baker, a mother of two who died Oct. 15, 1989, at Kimbrough Army Community Hospital at Fort Meade.Kevin Baker, Mrs. Baker's husband, is asking for unspecified "compensatory damages" from the doctor.

A state health official said there were "serious questions" about a Pennsylvania firm's proposal to operate a program for violent juvenile sex offenders at Taylor Manor Health System in Ellicott City.The statement came at a meeting in Ellicott City yesterday between state health regulators and about a dozen state and Howard County officials concerned about safety issues raised by area residents."We have very serious questions about the proposal before us," said James Stanton, executive director of the Maryland Health Resources Planning Commission.

A sometimes bitter dispute erupted as the Howard County Council considered 45 new amendments last night to a complex 114-page zoning bill, before approving the long-debated measure. By a 3 to 2 vote along party lines with Democrats prevailing, the council voted to create a new zone to encourage more senior housing, to require larger landing and takeoff zones for helicopters and to restrict the storage of propane and explosives, along with a laundry list of smaller zoning law revisions.

The former drug peddler plucked away jagged shards of glass from the broken window, his sawdust-covered fingers probing the warped wooden frame.For the last three months, this 17-year-old, who once ran on Baltimore's streets, has been surrounded by trees in Ellicott City, working on this decaying cottage, learning carpentry as amember of a program called Our House."

After trouble in school and trouble with the law, Daniel Levy's life was beginning to look up. His grades were improving. His parents were hopeful.It all ended early Monday morning on a rural two-lane road in the southern section of Howard County, when the Columbia youth and two teen-age friends crashed into a utility pole. All three were pronounced dead within hours."We're devastated," said Michael Hall of Highland, whose 14-year-old daughter, Angela Marie, died in the crash. She "was at the wrong place at the wrong time."