DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — Around 100 residents, mental health experts and hospital and political leaders from Dayton to Columbus braved the wintery roads Friday to appeal the state's decision to close Twin Valley Behavioral Health Care Center in June.

But the audience they wanted most didn't show.

Officials from Gov. Ted Strickland's office and the Ohio Department of Mental Health cancelled their scheduled appearance at the Dayton Cultural and RTA Center, 40 S. Edwin C. Moses Blvd., because of road conditions, meeting organizers said.

"The frustrating point is the community has a lot of questions as to how they came to these decisions, decisions that should have been discussed before the closure was announced," said Bryan Bucklew, president of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association.

Still, the meeting went on for 90 minutes with a consistent theme: Closing the Dayton area's only long-term psychiatric facility and sending its patients to Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo is a bad idea.

Speakers said it will devastate mental health patients and their families and lead to even more overcrowding in local emergency rooms and mental health wards. It will cost county government and police a bundle in time and money to transport patients in the criminal justice system here to hospitals in other cities. And it could potentially decimate psychiatry programs at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Medical Center.

"If Twin Valley closes, it's going be a disaster," said Dr. Jerome J. Schulte Jr., medical director of psychiatry at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Strickland, a Democrat, announced on Jan. 31 the state's plan to close Twin Valley on Wayne Avenue as part of $733 million in cuts to meet projected shortfalls in the state's $52.3 billion two-year budget.

In a phone interview, Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said the decision was a "deeply difficult" one for the governor, a former prison psychologist, but he has an obligation to balance the budget.

State mental health department director Sandy Stephenson is expected to meet with local leaders on the issue as early as next week, spokeswoman Amy Cooper said.

State Rep. John White, R-Kettering, said Strickland's decision presents a "key opportunity" for the Dayton delegation of lawmakers, which includes House Speaker Jon Husted, to use its influence.

"I'm wondering why the governor threw this stink bomb out there," White said after the meeting. "I'm disturbed that this decision was not based on fact. We have a lot of political clout in Columbus and we need to use it. We need to use it now."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7408 or agottschlich@DaytonDailyNews.com.