Vive Adolescent Care Cited for Repeated Violation That Was Found in 2023 Death of Teen

January 29, 2025

On July 6, 2023, investigators from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Licensing and Certification (DHHS) conducted an inspection of Vive Adolescent Care, a for-profit psychiatric residential treatment facility in St. George, Utah. The inspection was triggered by the unexpected death of a teenage patient under mysterious circumstances.

DHHS’ inspection uncovered that staff falsified records to show they had conducted line-of-sight monitoring of the patient every 15 minutes. Video evidence showed that the patient went unchecked by Vive staff for nearly two hours. Further, DHHS found that there was not sufficient supervision to ensure a safe and secure living environment.[1]

DHHS fined Vive $1,000 “for actual harm when a client did not receive monitoring every 15 minutes, per facility policy. The client passed away.” DHHS halted admissions to Vive and placed the facility on a conditional license for four months.[2]

Despite this, DHHS cited Vive twice in 2024 for the same or similar violations. Yet the facility remains open. 

Arianna Duenez’s admission to Vive

Sixteen-year-old Arianna Duenez was admitted to Vive on May 19, 2023 and died there in her sleep on July 2, 2023. Duenez was a very troubled child with an unstable early life and a series of subsequent residential treatment facility placements initiated by her school district.

None of these placements succeeded in improving Duenez’s condition. On the contrary, she became dependent on drugs and hospitalization and became increasingly suicidal.

Prior to her admission to Vive, Duenez was a patient of Falcon Ridge Ranch in Virgin, Utah for nearly a year. She had been reportedly stable there until the last two weeks, when she began engaging in self-harm and made an apparent suicide attempt. Falcon Ridge subsequently informed Duenez’s family and her school district that the facility was recommending she be moved to another facility because she required a higher level of care than Falcon Ridge Ranch could provide.

This is ironic, considering how Falcon Ridge promotes itself on its website: 

·         “…dedicated to healing families with daughters…who struggle with mental, emotional, and behavioral issues, usually stemming from trauma.”

·         “…your daughter will receive the best, continuous support and supervision twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”

·         “Falcon Ridge Ranch accepts young women who exhibit emotional and/or behavioral problems that prevent them from functioning at their fullest potential in their home or community.”

·         “We Will Help Every Step Of The Way.”

Falcon Ridge is owned by Rite of Passage, a for-profit residential treatment facility chain. It was previously owned by Sequel Youth & Family Services, another for-profit chain infamous for putting profit over patient care and safety.

Arianna’s death at Vive

Duenez’s school district had her placed at Vive, where she was ordered to be monitored every 15 minutes due to what had occurred while at Falcon Ridge.

Though she had struggled with a previous narcotic addiction, by the time she was admitted to Vive, Duenez had been sober for seven months. However, she continued to express a craving for illicit substances prior to her pending discharge from Vive, which was to occur later in July 2023.[3]

Five days prior to Duenez's death, a Vive nurse practitioner prescribed her Suboxone—a drug indicated for opioid addiction and withdrawal. She became chronically nauseous coincident with the introduction of this drug and was unable to hold down any food or drink. She ate very little or nothing at all some days, her energy level declining day by day. She was very withdrawn and quiet the entire week leading up to her passing. She vomited repeatedly in the hours prior to her death.

Duenez died in her sleep sometime during the evening of July 1 or the morning of July 2, 2023. St. George Police determined Arianna had been dead for somewhere between 4 1/2 and 10 hours before Vive staff noticed.[4]

Vive repeatedly fails to properly monitor patients

On January 17, 2024, DHHS found Vive to have committed the same violation. DHHS’ inspection found the facility to be “out of compliance…by failing to provide supervision with line-of-sight check-ins no less frequently than every 15 minutes. During the investigation inspection, interviews and provider documentation verified that a client was left unsupervised in their bedroom for approximately 2 hours.” DHHS fine Vive $200.[5]

A little more than a year after Arianna’s passing, DHHS again cited Vive for a similar violation: “not conducting line-of-sight checks every 15-minutes on clients. During the investigation inspection, provider documentation was reviewed that recorded multiple periods of time throughout the nights of 06/07/2024 and 06/08/2024 when line-of-sight checks exceeded 35 minutes. This is a repeat citation.” DHHS fined Vive $200.[6]