News Summary

Gov. Ted Strickland refuses to even consider the possibility that his decision to close Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare is a mistake.

He's preferred not to hear from local leaders about how closing the region's only public psychiatric facility appears to be pure folly — as a matter of mental health policy, public safety and budgetary planning.

He's standing by his decision even though Ohio Department of Mental Health Director Sandra Stephenson concedes that the decision to close Twin Valley did not take into consideration any analysis of costs or consequences to local law enforcement, county mental heath agencies and private hospitals.

And there was no consideration of the fact that Twin Valley is the region's principal training ground for medical residents and allied health care and social workers.

Thirty days have passed since the decision was announced, and still there have been no substantiative meetings with local leaders, though on Friday, the mental health department proposed a discussion for Tuesday, March 4.

This belated overture follows a letter to the governor jointly signed by the presidents of the Montgomery County Commission, Miami Valley Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, Grandview Hospital, the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, the Dayton Development Coalition and Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin.

What gives? Two possibilities come to mind.

One is that the administration is playing the Dayton region as weak, and that senior administration officials believe that all they need to do is put on their game face and people here will fold.

Another explanation could be that the governor and his team, until now, haven't really been tested. Now people and problems are coming at them from all sides, and money is running short. Maybe, in the scramble, they're reasoning that they have to act unilaterally.

They may be telling themselves that they don't have time to consult with leaders of local communities about their decisions — even decisions that will have a permanent, profound affect on community life.

But Gov. Strickland needs to be held to what he said little more than a month ago in his State of the State speech: "We can't substitute a short-term fix for a long-term benefit."

The clock is ticking as state officials work toward a June 30 closing. The Dayton region must get the governor's attention before decisions can't be undone.

Respectful, but urgent, calls have gotten advocates of Twin Valley nowhere.

Local leaders have to dial up their contacts and their advocacy efforts. Gov. Strickland and his staff have to understand that Dayton's support for Twin Valley isn't just a reflexive response by a community that is oblivious to the hard decisions his administration faces. That's not true.

Closing Twin Valley — with no input from Dayton — is cavalier, reckless and insulting. Gov. Strickland is letting his staff people make important decisions without the information they need to make wise choices.

That's no way to treat a community or — especially — the vulnerable people who count on the services the state has, heretofore, said were essential for patients and their families and protective of public safety.