Ted Strickland has given the Dayton region four months to figure out what to do with local patients suffering the most dangerous kinds of mental illness. Many of the cases are "forensic" in nature, which means they involve court-ordered detention and treatment of psychiatric patients charged with crimes or who pose a danger to themselves and others.

Why the urgent scramble? Because on Jan. 31, Gov. Strickland announced that Dayton's only long-term psychiatric facility — Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare on Wayne Avenue — will close by the end of June. The closing is part of $733 million in cuts the governor ordered to meet projected shortfalls in the state's $52.3 billion biennial budget.

Local public officials weren't consulted. Neither were local hospital and other health care leaders. A group of stakeholders recently met to discuss what, if anything, might be done about the governor's plan.

They have decided to "fight it tooth and nail," according to Bryan Bucklew, head of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association.

The plan appears to be ill-conceived, poorly planned, and a potential disaster for the Dayton region.

To save a few bucks, the state may deeply and permanently undermine the region's ability to respond to the kinds of mental illness that most profoundly affect public safety. People with severe psychiatric problems who get caught up in Montgomery County's criminal-justice system would be sent to a hospital in Cincinnati. Greene County courts, police and public-health agencies, meanwhile, would have to look to a Columbus facility. Miami County (and other counties to the north) would have to send patients to a facility in Toledo.

All of this puts an immense burden on the local hospitals and police who are required to respond quickly to emergency referrals for detention and treatment. Inevitably, it would compromise all local health care providers' ability to monitor and maintain treatment of local patients moving in and out of three distant hospitals.

Indeed, families of psychiatric patients may become more reluctant to seek what proves to be crucial treatment because of the travel involved.

The consequences to this community's long-term capacity to cope with dangerous psychiatric disorders could be even more profound.

Dayton is the only metropolitan area in state without a major public health care facility or hospital operated as part of Ohio's university system. Twin Valley, operated as a partnership between the local and state government and Wright State University's medical school, provides relief in a crucial area of indigent care.

Twin Valley anchors local medical students' psychiatric training. It serves as a clinical training ground for allied health care professionals — providing the latest and best thinking on how to cope with the toughest psychiatric cases. The closing could have consequences to the medical school's accreditation, and generally degrade the scope and quality of medical care in this community.

A public meeting on the governor's order has been organized for this Friday, Feb. 22, at 10 a.m. at the Dayton Cultural & RTA Transit Center, 40 S. Edwin C. Moses Blvd. A full complement of county commissioners, administrators, agency heads, senior hospital officials, local court and law enforcement and business leaders, as well as many members of the regional legislative delegation, should be on hand.

Gov. Strickland and his top mental-health officials have been invited. Maybe they have a convincing explanation for their plan. But they haven't yet offered it to this community — and must begin the conversation without delay.

How to go

What: Public meeting about the planned closure of Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare

When: 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 22

Where: Dayton Cultural & RTA Transit Center, 40 S. Edwin C. Moses Blvd.