MiddletownJournal.com

There's no question that the closing of the Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare campus 16 months ago has left the Miami Valley without a local facility for its most critically ill mental health patients.

There's heated debate, however, about what to do about it.

A disagreement about Morningstar — a proposed step-down mental-health facility — has heightened tensions between the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association (GDAHA) and the Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board (ADAMHS).

GDAHA officials e-mailed a letter Friday to ADAMHS' executive director Joe Szoke stating that Montgomery County hospitals cannot support the proposed Morningstar project because it would add more beds for more stable patients, adding "capacity to the one area where hospitals already have additional and underutilized excess."

The real need, they wrote, is for more critical care. "From our perspective, our community's major issue is dealing with the high-intensive, high-acuity patients in our short-term acute care hospitals — facilities that are not designed to handle these patients for extended periods of time," stated the letter. It was signed by Roy Chew, GDAHA chair and president of Kettering Medical Center, and Mary Boosalis, GDAHA vice chair and president and CEO of Miami Valley Hospital.

For his part, Szoke fears the opposition will squelch a project that already has been approved for start-up funding from the Ohio Department of Mental Health. "It would be a state-of-the-art facility at no cost to Montgomery County," Szoke said. That's important, he added, because the Summit Behavioral Healthcare in Cincinnati — a state psychiatric hospital where the most severely ill patients are now being sent — has an average stay of 58 days compared with 18 at Twin Valley. "That means they're taking care of a lot fewer patients for more money," he said. "Losing the Morningstar project would be a big loss to the community, especially with an underfunded system in which Montgomery County ADAMHS alone received $7 million in funding cuts this year, about 30 percent of our budget."

GDAHA president Bryan Bucklew said Montgomery County needs "a centralized point of entry for the mental health care delivery system instead of using emergency rooms as a point of entry." He said neighboring counties such as Greene and Shelby have more collaborative relationships with their ADAMHS boards. "It's a question of leadership," Bucklew said, pointing fingers at Szoke.

For his part, Szoke hopes "to avoid any kind of polarization. This can't be 'us and them,' " he said, "when we're both trying to serve the same ends."

GDAHA's letter proposed a community meeting with representatives from the hospitals, ADAMHS, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and the Montgomery County Human Service Levy. "We strongly believe that a concerted effort needs to be made to improve the mental and behavioral health delivery system quickly and in a collaborative manner," the letter stated.

Szoke said he's more than willing to take part: "If they're sincere in wanting to collaborate in finding solutions for our community, we're all for that. But there is no simple solution."

Noted Bucklew, "We can't continue with the status quo. We need to approach the issue with the same passion as if our own family members were suffering from this illness."

For many, sadly, they don't have to imagine it. Simple solution or not, they need to know someone is working to solve the problem.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty@Dayton

DailyNews.com.