Mental health unit to expand
Samaritan Center project to cost $2.86 million

By Meghana Keshavan • Free Press Business Writer • July 7, 2008

A new psychiatric facility will open in Detroit in January, transferring 55 beds from the psychiatric wing of the now-closed St. John's Riverview Hospital.
 
The expansion of Detroit's Samaritan Center's third floor will cost $2.86 million.

"When it was announced that Riverview was closing last year, one of my biggest concerns was that Detroit would lose important mental health services and losing any more would be devastating," said the Rev. Patrick Gahagen, chair of the Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength Healthcare Taskforce.

The new facility, called the Samaritan Behavioral Center, will offer mental health care for the severely ill, admitting those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and other acute conditions. The center will be operated by the board of Madison Community Hospital, which also oversees the Warren-based Behavioral Center of Michigan, a 42-bed facility.

The center is currently recruiting staff and will employ psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, physicians' assistants, social workers, activity therapists and psychologists. There also will be an internist on hand to deal with general medical issues.

"We'll offer services to any patient in need," said Robert Clemente, a tax attorney and Madison Community Hospital board member.

Clemente said the center will treat Medicare, Medicaid and indigent patients, a population that the organizers of the Samaritan Center are already familiar with.

"There's a great, unmet need in that area of Detroit for psychiatric services; so strategically, the Samaritan Center's a great location to provide services," said Loren Brown, executive director of the Samaritan Center. "In the city, there are not a lot of organizations providing psychiatric services because the payer mix may not be attractive."

Clemente said, however, that they "will not admit patients that have a higher level of need from medical perspective." Patients with considerable health issues will be directed to hospitals with medical and surgical facilities.

Wayne State University psychiatrist and assistant professor Dr. Alireza Amirsadri finds this worrisome. He said that psychiatric patients would do best in a medical hospital setting.

"We lost 55 psychiatric care beds last year in Detroit Riverview Hospital, a well-established general hospital," Amirsadri said. "We have not been able to replace those beds, and the very medically ill stay in emergency rooms and crisis hospitals because other hospitals -- freestanding hospitals -- don't want them, because they are complicated."

"If untreated, the mentally ill end up homeless, or in the justice system -- so any service that's adding beds will help," said Mark Reinstein, president and CEO of the Mental Health Association in Michigan.

The Samaritan Center is located on 5555 Conner St. in Detroit. For information, call 313-579-4100.

Contact MEGHANA KESHAVAN at mkeshavan@freepress.com.

Refrence: Detroit Free Press