Dr. John A. Johnson, a psychiatrist and president-chief executive of newly created Amamata LLC of New Albany, said he plans to offer a full range of inpatient services at the site at 2611 Wayne Ave., including youth, adult and geriatric, as well as services for those dealing with both substance abuse and mental illness.
The facility would employ about 150 people, Johnson said. “I want to focus on areas where there is need, and be part of the solution that the community needs,” he said.
Johnson said Thursday, Feb. 18, he has lined up $6 million for improvements to the facility by the time it opens.
State Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, said he expects the sale will win legislative approval. “We want this to go,” he said.
Mental health community open to Amamata's help
Amamata's offer bested that of Oglethorpe Inc., a state Department of Mental Health spokeswoman said Thursday, Feb. 18.
Tampa, Fla.-based Oglethorpe bought the former state psychiatric hospital in Cambridge in 2008.
Representatives of local mental health service providers said they hadn’t yet talked with Johnson, a psychiatrist with more than 25 years of experience in public, private and university mental health care systems.
But they expressed willingness to work with Amamata if it will address community needs in coordination with existing mental health service providers.
“If they’re willing to provide these services to the population without regard to their ability to pay … we’d be extremely interested in working with them,” said Bryan Bucklew of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association.
Bucklew said four hospitals — Miami Valley and Good Samaritan hospitals, and Kettering and Grandview medical centers — provide psychiatric services within the service area of the Alcohol Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board for Montgomery County. He noted, on average, the length of stay at those hospitals has doubled since Twin Valley closed.
Joseph Szoke, executive director of the ADAMHS board, said it’s imperative that Amamata learn the local mental-health services landscape. “We have some major problems in the behavioral health field,” he said. “One more head to help us solve this problem will be welcome.”
Dr. Jerald Kay, professor and chair of the psychiatry department at Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine, said there’s a need in the Dayton region for child and adolescent services, plus services for those with eating disorders and those with coexisting substance abuse and mental health issues. A unit that serves populations with both developmental disabilities and mental health issues also is needed, he said, noting that would complement a strength of Wright State’s psychiatry program.
Bucklew and Szoke said the $1.7 million from Twin Valley’s proposed sale should be returned to the Dayton community. A state Department of Mental Health spokeswoman said any sale proceeds left over after paying any bond debt on the properties would go into the Ohio Mental Health Trust fund by law. The department’s director has discretion in how the money is spent, she said.
Dayton Public Schools is building the new Belmont High School on the Twin Valley campus. John Carr, the district’s chief construction officer, said reopening a mental hospital on the campus isn’t a concern; the district planned to build on the campus long before the state planned to close Twin Valley.
“It does not affect us at all,” Carr said, noting there’s a “substantial” distance between the school site and the hospital, plus a street, parking lot, landscaping and other buffers.
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