Rehab Center Sees Shortage of Patients
By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
March 13, 2004
The Crestwood Healing Center, which opened in October after months of neighborhood protests, is struggling to fill its beds.
The facility, an unlocked treatment center for mentally ill adults, is operating at about a quarter of its 80-bed capacity. The shortage raises questions about whether the screening standards put in place to alleviate neighbors' fears make few patients eligible for treatment there.
Crestwood Behavioral Health Inc., the private firm that runs the center in the Poets' Corner neighborhood, had planned to be fully operational by June. But that target date is clouded by the struggle to find suitable and qualified residents to receive treatment there.
The first of three distinct treatment programs, called a Mental Health Rehabilitation Center, has already opened. But 16 of its 40 beds remain empty.
The other two programs, a 24-bed Adult Residential Facility and a 16-bed Residential Treatment Facility, are supposed to open after the first one is staffed.
Larry Kamer, a spokesman for Crestwood, said the firm has had frank discussions with county health officials about how to resolve the problem. He called it a "contractual issue," but declined to go into details.
Contra Costa County, which contracts with Crestwood, refers carefully screened mentally ill adults to the large facility at 550 Patterson Blvd.
The individuals are screened for violence, alcohol or drug abuse and other issues that may prohibit them from receiving care in Pleasant Hill.
Mental health advocates had warned that the restrictions are illegal and discriminatory, but neighbors had pushed for safeguards.
The controversial center, operated out of a former convalescent home, is the first of its kind in the county that provides long-term treatment options for the mentally ill.
The purpose of the facility, which stoked a yearlong public debate about whether it could be run safely in a residential setting, is to teach patients the critical skills of independent living.
Its need has never been questioned. In Contra Costa, there are only 28 other county beds for the mentally ill; long-term residential care.
Even so, neighbors protested when the first three patients moved into the Crestwood Healing Center on Oct. 10.
Mental health advocates worry about the prospect of Crestwood becoming frustrated by losing money on their Pleasant Hill facility and shutting it down, leaving scores of mentally ill adults without treatment.
"The county, so far, has failed," said Karen Cohen, a member of National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Contra Costa. "They have really gone back on their word. Something is not right."
County health officials had pushed Pleasant Hill to approve a use permit allowing Crestwood to open the center, saying they were dealing with a critical and costly shortage of beds for the mentally ill.
Contra Costa spends nearly $6 million a year sending up to 100 patients a day to contract treatment facilities in other counties. The Crestwood Healing Center was supposed to help catch and treat a fraction of these patients in their own area.
Victor Montoya, the county's mental health program chief, and Donna Wigand, director of mental health services, did not return calls for comment Friday.
Kamer, the Crestwood spokesman, said he did not consider the empty beds a crisis situation that would threaten to close the facility.
"In the world of mental health, we use the word crisis with a very specific meaning," he said. "We have some contractual issues with the county. We're confident that we can work it out."
Contra Costa Newspapers
March 13, 2004
The Crestwood Healing Center, which opened in October after months of neighborhood protests, is struggling to fill its beds.
The facility, an unlocked treatment center for mentally ill adults, is operating at about a quarter of its 80-bed capacity. The shortage raises questions about whether the screening standards put in place to alleviate neighbors' fears make few patients eligible for treatment there.
Crestwood Behavioral Health Inc., the private firm that runs the center in the Poets' Corner neighborhood, had planned to be fully operational by June. But that target date is clouded by the struggle to find suitable and qualified residents to receive treatment there.
The first of three distinct treatment programs, called a Mental Health Rehabilitation Center, has already opened. But 16 of its 40 beds remain empty.
The other two programs, a 24-bed Adult Residential Facility and a 16-bed Residential Treatment Facility, are supposed to open after the first one is staffed.
Larry Kamer, a spokesman for Crestwood, said the firm has had frank discussions with county health officials about how to resolve the problem. He called it a "contractual issue," but declined to go into details.
Contra Costa County, which contracts with Crestwood, refers carefully screened mentally ill adults to the large facility at 550 Patterson Blvd.
The individuals are screened for violence, alcohol or drug abuse and other issues that may prohibit them from receiving care in Pleasant Hill.
Mental health advocates had warned that the restrictions are illegal and discriminatory, but neighbors had pushed for safeguards.
The controversial center, operated out of a former convalescent home, is the first of its kind in the county that provides long-term treatment options for the mentally ill.
The purpose of the facility, which stoked a yearlong public debate about whether it could be run safely in a residential setting, is to teach patients the critical skills of independent living.
Its need has never been questioned. In Contra Costa, there are only 28 other county beds for the mentally ill; long-term residential care.
Even so, neighbors protested when the first three patients moved into the Crestwood Healing Center on Oct. 10.
Mental health advocates worry about the prospect of Crestwood becoming frustrated by losing money on their Pleasant Hill facility and shutting it down, leaving scores of mentally ill adults without treatment.
"The county, so far, has failed," said Karen Cohen, a member of National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Contra Costa. "They have really gone back on their word. Something is not right."
County health officials had pushed Pleasant Hill to approve a use permit allowing Crestwood to open the center, saying they were dealing with a critical and costly shortage of beds for the mentally ill.
Contra Costa spends nearly $6 million a year sending up to 100 patients a day to contract treatment facilities in other counties. The Crestwood Healing Center was supposed to help catch and treat a fraction of these patients in their own area.
Victor Montoya, the county's mental health program chief, and Donna Wigand, director of mental health services, did not return calls for comment Friday.
Kamer, the Crestwood spokesman, said he did not consider the empty beds a crisis situation that would threaten to close the facility.
"In the world of mental health, we use the word crisis with a very specific meaning," he said. "We have some contractual issues with the county. We're confident that we can work it out."
posted by Corey at 9:45 PM
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