Heritage of Flight Cruise-In
Homecomings of the past
Team Xtreme in Kettering
Rally calls for fiscal fixes, not closure of Twin Valley
Psychiatric facility may shut down by June 30
Monday, February 18, 2008
DAYTON — The Dayton state mental hospital on Wayne Avenue has a 153-year history, but news of its closing for budget reasons came Jan. 31 without warning or discussion with community leaders.
"It reminded me of a corporate firing where you have 20 minutes to put your stuff in a box and leave," said Dr. Brien Dyer, a psychiatrist with Crisis Care, a local psychiatric referral agency.
jonathan Chae, a third year medical student at Wright State and Ashley Walker, a fourth year student at Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine, who both did their rotation at Twin Valley State Hospital, at rally to keep the hospital open at Courthouse Square in downtown Dayton.About 100 supporters of Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare, the former Dayton Mental Health Center, rallied at Courthouse Square downtown on Sunday, Feb. 17, to protest Gov. Ted Strickland's plans to close Dayton's only long-term psychiatric facility by June 30 as part of a plan to cut more than $733 million from the state budget.
They passed petitions and urged citizens to contact Strickland's office in a bid to head off the closing.
Dyer said it's the first time in Ohio history that a state mental hospital has been closed solely for budget reasons. The 110 patients from 14 counties are to be transferred to hospitals in Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. Some of the 200 employees will be given options to transfer or retire early, but there could be layoffs.
"Policy makers need to bend over backwards to protect these vulnerable people," Dyer said of Twin Valley's patients. He said state officials should balance the budget by cutting programs "for people who can defend themselves."
The rally was sponsored by Future Physicians for Equal Access and Community Empowerment, including Wright State University medical students who train at Twin Valley under a 16-year-old partnership between WSU and the state. They decried the end of the arrangement, which helped the students and the patients and has been a big recruiting tool for the WSU psychiatry program.
Speakers said the closing will place hardships on visiting family, further strain emergency rooms and add transportation costs to area police and sheriff's offices.
Linda Troutman of the local Alliance for the Mentally Ill chapter, said the closing is coming as Montgomery County has taken steps, such as the creation of a mental health court, to improve care.
"There is no other disease in the United States that causes more stigma than mental illness," she said. "There's no known cause, there's no known cure, but there is treatment — and treatment works. Twin Valley is a huge part of that."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2264 or
tbeyerlein@DaytonDailyNews.com.
