Representatives for a potential residential mental health treatment facility expected to open in McCleary this fall faced tough questions and a skeptical crowd last week.

The McCleary City Council moved its regular council meeting on March 22 to the McCleary Community Center in expectation that a large crowd would turn out to hear a presentation by the representatives. Some 70 people attended.

The facility would be at the former site of the Mark Reed Hospital in McCleary. Summit Pacific Medical Center is leasing the building to Great Rivers Behavior Health Organization (a five-county agency that handles mental health funding allocations), and Telecare Corporation has been hired by the BHO to provide services.

Patients would be those who are mentally ill or disabled and who present a danger to themselves or others due to a mental illness. Those patients would be admitted involuntarily and treated at the facility, which is in a residential area.

With the project on the horizon, the city council has been discussing zoning changes. Mark Reed Hospital is in a residential zone, grandfathered into the zone as a non-conforming use building. The council had drafted ordinances to change their definitions of hospitals and to change how long a building can be vacant before it loses its non-conforming use allowance.

Addressing the council during the meeting on behalf of the project were Todd Broderius, chief integration officer of Greats Rivers, Linda Reese and Cameron Coltharp of Telecare, and Summit Pacific Medical Center CEO Renee Jensen.

Also speaking in support of the project were Grays Harbor County Sheriff Rick Scott and Hoquiam Police Department Chief Jeff Myers.

A need

Sheriff Scott noted the need for such a facility throughout the county. He referenced studies showing the county has a substantial disparity in access to inpatient psychiatric and freestanding evaluation and treatment (E&T) beds.

One study from June 2015 through January 2016 tracked the frequency of incidents where individuals are not detained as a result of insufficient inpatient psychiatric bed availability. During that study, statewide there were 204 no-bed events. Of those, 75 were reported by Grays Harbor. While Grays Harbor County has 1.1 percent of the state’s population, it counts for 36 percent of the incidents in which individuals are not detained as a result of there being no bed.

Scott said that percent of incidents is now lower in Grays Harbor County, but he still noted the need.

“From a community standpoint, a facility like this benefits everyone,” Scott said. “We need some mental health facilities. The Western State Hospital facility is not adequate — it’s not even close to adequate to meeting the needs we have for our communities.”

Chief Myers said he would be “in full support” of the project, even if it were destined for Hoquiam.

In the past, Hoquiam grappled with a similar issue when Evergreen Treatment Services eyed opening a facility there, Myers said.

“We went through similar consternation several years ago with the introduction of the Evergreen Treatment Services methadone clinic — for lack of a better term — and a lot of citizens were concerned about it,” Myers said. “We went through the same process you’re going through now, and we embraced the facts instead of the rhetoric, and we have dealt with it.”

Scolding

Both Scott and Myers noted that the patients often times are victims themselves, and they discussed the burden placed on law enforcement to deal with the patients when no beds are available.

Myers took it a step further, admonishing society’s duplicitous reaction to the mentally ill.

“I find it abhorrent that we as a society are perfectly fine with locking people like that up in jail, but we’re so scared and concerned about providing a mental health facility and medical treatment for those same people,” Myers said. “Those people have rights; those people also have families; those people also are somebody’s sons and daughters and parents. I know it’s a challenge. I’m here with the sheriff because I’m trying to express the need.”

Myers also noted that a recent stabbing could be tied to the necessity of a facility to serve Grays Harbor County.

“In November of last year, we investigated a murder which was involving a subject that had been detained multiple times, and she had just gotten out of jail for stabbing another roommate, and this time — continuing to suffer from mental illness and nontreatment — finally stabbed another roommate and killed them,” Myers said. “I can’t tell you what did happen with treatment because we didn’t have it, but I can tell you what did happen when we didn’t, and it didn’t turn out well.”

Like the other representatives, Summit Pacific CEO Renee Jensen said she supports the project and she offered a stern response to critics of the facility.

“We were fortunate to receive this grant to be able to do this for your community. You have the opportunity tonight to embrace this, and to help, and to not turn your backs,” Jensen said. “You can really make a difference. I beg you, please, do not turn your backs or your shoulders on this and say it’s somebody else’s problem.”

McCleary Councilman Ben Blankenship noted that he felt like the county was shifting the countywide problem onto the city.

“The burden that we’re going to have on our local law enforcement here …” Blankenship said.

“You already have the burden right now,” Jensen said, interrupting him. “It’s part of your community. This will help relieve that.”

Facility

Though councilmen Blankenship and Dustin Richey asked several questions critical of the project, the presentation was meant to serve as an opportunity for additional facts to be presented about the facility so the council and the public can have a more informed opinion.

The facility could house as many as 16 patients at any given time, but Telecare’s representatives said 13 or 14 was more typical.

Jensen had noted that the Satsop Business Park had been eyed as a possible location, but the former Mark Reed Hospital building was the most financially viable solution. A $2 million grant received from the state Department of Commerce covers the costs of remodeling the former hospital into a residential treatment facility, but it would not cover the costs of a new building or other remodeling options.

Further, Telecare’s Cameron Coltharp said the company aims to house their operations in residential areas.

“We very much want this to be residential in nature. There are bedrooms and common areas,” Coltharp said. “We want it to feel like a home that is secured, but we want to get away from that institutional feel.”

And though the facility will have security features — secure windows and doors as well as a fenced-in outdoor area — the facility will not have security guards.

As for the question of “placing a burden” on the city of McCleary, Telecare’s Linda Reese said she didn’t anticipate a burden at all.

“This is not a detention center. Even if they’ve been picked up by law enforcement, these are not hardened criminals who have been detained due to their criminal nature,” Reese said. “They may well have substance use co-occurring. … I think it’s a gross mischaracterization to say that they all have long criminal records. I would say that’s not true. These are people who have long records of mental illness. … The people we serve are much more likely to have been victims of a crime than to have been a perpetrator of a crime.”

Telecare has 94 similar sites in eight states. Despite Blankenship’s fears, Telecare representatives noted no calls to local police at their other facilities for significant issues. At times, they call the police for patients to file reports about treatment by law enforcement or facility staff, Telecare’s representatives said.

Patients are transported back to their home communities after treatment. Richey had a Telecare representative verify that there was no law saying the company had to provide that transportation, however the representatives said it was their policy and practice.

Throughout the course of the discussion, the council and the public learned that Telecare facilities have a re-admission rate of 14-15 percent, meaning that percentage of patients are returned to the facility within 30 days of being treated and released.

Summit Pacific Medical Center is leasing the building to the BHO for 25 years at a cost of $275 per year.

Input

Residents who spoke during the public comment portion immediately following the presentation seemed unpersuaded by the positive characterization of the potential facility.

Resident Laura Vaughan who lives near the future home of the facility referred to the presentation as “lipstick on a pig.”

“My kids share a backyard with this facility — what guarantee is there? Nobody has given a single guarantee, so what guarantee is there for my kids’ safety?” Vaughan asked. “Our city bill is essentially the same as our house bill — we pay a lot of money to live here because we love our community… we love our neighbors, and now we don’t feel safe?”

Vaughan urged the council to pass ordinances to impede the facility from operating in McCleary.

While the facility could bring 30 full-time jobs to the city, resident Kathy Elofson questioned the impact that would have to the residents of the city noting her belief that people from out of town would be hired into those positions.

“Nobody wants to hire people from McCleary — look at that new clinic (Summit Pacific’s McCleary clinic opened in Spring 2016), how many people do you recognize from McCleary that work there?” Elofson asked the council. “You go to the school — how many people do you recognize?”

Residents Gary Adkins and Fred Ortquist also stated their opposition to the treatment facility, with Ortquist noting specific concerns with the sewer system along the street where the facility would be located.

Inaction

In the end, the council did not approve any changes to definitions or city code relating to the facility.

Councilman Blankenship moved to approve revised and added definitions as well as a reduction in the number of years a building can be vacant before it loses its non-conforming use allowance.

“I think we should move forward. We’ve spent a good deal of time already on this,” Blankenship said. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to table it again.”

Councilman Richey seconded.

During roll call, Blankenship and Richey were the only council members supportive of the motion, with councilwomen Pam Ator and Brenda Orffer and Councilman Larry Peterson voting against the changes.

After the meeting, Ator said she voted against the changes because she wanted “the definitions to be better defined.”

Orffer said she’s not willing to shut out those facilities altogether.

“It’s not paired with a zoning ordinance, and I’m not comfortable adopting definitions that would basically say that we don’t allow this sort of facility in our town,” Orffer said. “It’s a protected class. Mental illness is a real problem in our county and our area. … I would be in support of adopting definitions when we have a zone where a residential treatment facility would be allowed.”

Peterson declined to comment on his vote.

Mayor Brent Schiller said “I want to commend you guys on the questions you asked tonight.”

“I know we’re going to go through some more troubles,” Schiller said. “This is going to be very emotional … I have no standing either way on this. I’d like to hear more myself and actually look into the company a little more to see their facts. I think that is our diligent job as a city to do that.”