The new psychiatric hospital will house 320 adults and adolescents, and is projected to be substantially completed in March 2012. At a “topping off” ceremony last week to celebrate the completion of the hospital's structural steel frame, Gov. Patrick himself touted the new hospital as demonstating the state's philosophy that “we look after each other,” according to The Telegram & Gazette.
Not only that, but the governor said he was looking at how to find the money to renovate other Department of Mental Health hospitals in Taunton, Tewksbury, and Boston. Great. But why, governor, are you building and renovating facilities for DMH clients, while at the same time closing the facilities of Department of Developmental Services clients?
In its Community First initiative, which was rolled out in 2008, the administration's first major goal is listed as: “Helping individuals (with disabilities) transition from institutional care” to “community settings.” In its related Community Services Expansion and Facilities Restructuring Plan, DDS states:
The decision to move forward with placing individuals (currently) in state facilities into the community, where appropriate, has many compelling philosophical, policy and legal bases.
How exactly does building a new $300 million institution and renovating others accomplish the goal of moving people out of institutions? It costs money to move people into community settings. If the administration is serious about Community First, why is it acting so inconsistently?
I called Health and Human Services Secretary JudyAnn Bigby this morning to ask these questions, and left a message. As soon as I hear back, I'll report on what she says.
I would quite like to hear the answer, myself. Thanks for asking it.
State Hospitals are places where people in mental health crisis go to get better and then return to their community settings. They are not intended to be long term residential placements. The State Hospitals typically serve individuals who are poor and don’t have private insurance or individuals who have used all their “bed days” at private mental hospitals.
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p>In the adult DMH world clients who live in what many think of as group homes are really living in what DMH thinks of as “treatment facilities”. They are not the client’s homes the way they are in the DDS world. The idea is that DMH clients have the capacity to be in recovery from mental illness and that they will be able to live in less restrictive settings.
I am familiar with the Tewksbury facility. It is a “chronic care” facility as well as a psychiatric facility. There are people who reside there and are cared for there who will never re-enter the community. They have both mental and physical problems.
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p>From what I’ve read, it would seem some of this new hospital would provide permanent housing, treatment and care for at least a portion of the 320 (its capacity).
Not all people with mental illness “get better.” Some of them live in facilities because they need centralized service delivery – ie access to psychiatric care, 24 hour nursing and monitoring. Some of those people in Tewksbury have lived there for decades….much like Fernald residents. What a conundrum, huh?
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p>Evidently, the Governor has no problem discriminating against a small minority of people with DD, who also need centralized service delivery and yet, are so incapacitated that they can’t vote.
I’ll certainly ask them whether the 320 beds in this psychiatric facility are all considered short-term placements. As Ssurette and Justice4All note, however, other DMH facilities do provide long-term care for persons with mental illness.
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p>But whatever the situation is with the Worcester hospital, I still am left with the question as to how we can afford it. It is still a major institution whether the beds are long-term or not. The price is roughly $1 million per bed. Why isn’t the administration building group homes for these people if it is indeed serious about Community First?
Funny how these things work out.
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p>The state ends up spending $302M on something they originally wanted to close (they have no problem coming up with those $$$) but refuse to consider any kind of compromise or seek a solution to accommodate the aging residents of the facilities for the mentally retarded they are closing. There is plenty of room for reasonable compromise and they don’t cost $302M.
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p>I don’t deny the urgent need for this new facility in Worcester–quite the contrary. Both this hospital and the developmental centers are urgently needed yet they can only find solutions and $$$ when there is political influence (Lt Gov) involved.
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p>I read the Telegram article linked to the post. I wonder why the general contractor of the “largest non-highway project in the history of the state” is not a Massachusetts company. The article also touts several large Mass projects this same company has completed or are in progress. I wonder why that is–are there no Mass general contractors that are up to the task?
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p>I was reading this article while eating my supper and immediately lost my appetite when I reached the paragraph containing the Governors statement….”we look after each other caring for people who are shunted aside by society.” What an incredible phony. Presents himself as a humanitarian, with a straight face, while a 98 year old resident of Fernald, who has lived there since 1919, is being forced to leave the only home he has ever known. He can find no solution to allow this individual to live out the rest of his life happily in the only home he has ever known. Why not?
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p>Let us know if you ever get an answer.