Future of Mass. Mental Health Center hangs in balance

Employees, patients and residents are concerned over center's planned move

Dennis Jackson is worried about what the future might hold. For the past eight years, Jackson, 43, has received his outpatient psychiatric care at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, in the heart of the Longwood Medical Area.

Now he's worried about what will happen when the building is vacated and padlocked, forcing its outpatient clinical care and transitional housing programs for homeless patients to temporarily move into two vacant floors at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, which is three miles away in Jamaica Plain.

The Massachusetts Mental Health Center has served the mental health needs of Bostonians since 1912. It not only offers outpatient care, clinical treatment and transitional housing for homeless patients, but is also renowned for its residency and research programs partnered with Harvard Medical School.

"I'm used to coming to this ugly old thing," Jackson said, pointing up to what most people refer to as "the 1912 building" behind him. "I don't think we should move."

The center is moving, though, in an effort to save $1.3 million for the state each year.

The decision has caused a wave of concern throughout the community. Most immediately, some patients are worried about their care. Employees of the center fear they might lose their jobs. And nearby residents worry that state plans to redevelop the three-acre site will only add to the pressure on traffic and rents inthe area.

The center, which is located on 74 Fenwood Road, will be vacated on June 30, according to Donna Rheaume, a Department of Mental Health spokeswoman.

Until then, the department intends to renovate the two floors at the Shattuck Hospital in preparation for the psychiatric programs that Mass. Mental provides.

Rheaume said the state will save $1.3 million a year by moving Mass. Mental while the total costs for the necessary renovations to the vacant floors at the Shattuck Hospital will total $330,000.

Dr. James Beck, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Mass. Mental and a Harvard Medical School professor, said the move will pose no problems for his programs But he acknowledges that he is somewhat worried about his patients."There's no question; this place has been here over 90 years and it will be a loss for patients who've gotten their care here for so long," he said.

Dr. Beck also mentioned that residency programs will have to be rescheduled and new transportation services will have to be organized as well in order to shuttle medical students performing their residencies at Mass. Mental to the Shattuck Hospital.

"To be honest," he said by telephone, "it's better to close the building and save $1.3 million rather than [the state] cutting $1.3 million in services."

Although Rheaume said there will be no reductions in direct care staff, some dietary personnel at Mass. Mental and power plant operators from the Boston Longwood Medical Area Energy Plant or MATEP, which provides electricity for the majority of the hospitals in the area, will be laid off.

But Mass.Mental employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they fear for their jobs and worry about what the move means for the future treatment of their patients, especially because Mass. Mental is renowned for its commitment to care of patients regardless of their financial circumstances.

"First they said we'd move for three years, now they're saying five," said one nurse while standing in a supply closet, "It's like the Globe article said: 'we can't help but think that it'll be permanent and it makes us worried about our future.'"

Although most workers at MATEP, pictured here, say they've heard nothing of layoffs, Donna Rheaume, a Department of Mental Health spokeswoman says some power plant operators will be laid off.

These suspicions carry a lot of weight in the minds of most employees and patients at the center. Many mentioned the similarities between the current plans to move and former Gov. Bill Weld's efforts to close the center in 1994 and privatize mental health care in Massachusetts. Rheaume said she could not comment on past efforts to close the center.

Dennis Jackson echoed these concerns.

"I'm really worried," he said while smoking a cigarette outside of the center's back entrance, "They keep trying to close it down for silly excuses."

Jackson, who aspires to attend Harvard Medical School for a degree in psychiatry despite his chronic psychiatric problems, said he is accustomed to his treatment at the center and is unsure of how it will change as a result of the move.

Rheaume insisted that patients and workers have no reason to worry.

"This is really a cost-saving measure," she said. "The plan that we have now will save money, which is especially important in this fiscal emergency."

According to the Division of Capital Asset Management, the plan is to issue a request for proposals from private developers wishing to purchase and renovate the three-acre complex to include both residential and commercial spaces.

"We want to structure it to be open-ended," said Kevin Flanagan, a Division of Capital Asset Management spokesman, "and we'll work with the community on that."

But many residents of Mission Hill, the neighborhood that directly abuts the Longwood Medical Area, contend that if the past is anything to judge by, that may not be the case.

Alison Pultinas, a member of the Friends of Historic Mission Hill who attended all of the community advisory committee meetings concerning the site, said that DCAM must approach the development in a very public way, and that "there can't be any underhand[ed] deals."

Pultinas referred to the fact that officials from the Department of Mental Health and DCAM never mentioned plans to move Mass. Mental, or to privately develop the site, even up to the day the move was announced publicly.

Pultinas and other Mission Hill residents attended a meeting on March 12 and said "it was a shock" hearing officials announce plans to move the center only 5 minutes after the meeting adjourned.

Other community leaders said the last thing residents of Mission Hill want is further development within the Longwood Medical Area.

"I don't believe that creating a denser site will aid the people that [Mass. Mental] serves or the Mission Hill neighborhood," said Harrison Lee, president of the Community Alliance of Mission Hill.

Lee also said that he and other community members are staunchly opposed to allowing private developers to purchase and revamp the site.

Mass. Mental has been under pressure to revamp its only handicap ramp since 1994 because its steep climb can only be mastered by a strong individual, according to Dr. James Buck, chair of the Department of Psychiatry.

Maggie Cohn, director of Mission Hill Main Streets and a member of the Friends of Historic Mission Hill, expressed similar concerns in a letter dated March 16, 2003 written to the Deputy Commissioner of DCAM, Peter Norstrand.

"Density in the [Longwood Medical Area] is of great concern to the community, overwhelming local infrastructure," she wrote, "yet all five massing concepts put forward [by DCAM] are quite dense, incorporating from 160,000 to 240,000 square feet of lab space and/or from 67 to 452 units of housing."

Cohn went on to write that a project of such size and density will put further stress on surrounding roads and add to existing traffic congestion. She insisted in the letter that "any new project should be of a manageable scale for the area, considering the interests of residents, impact on the Riverway, and the capacity of our streets."

Mass. Mental has been under pressure from the federal government since 1994 to make its main, circa-1912 building more handicapped accessible, according to Dr. Beck. He mentioned that the one wooden ramp at the rear of the building only provides access for the few who can master its steep climb.

In addition, both Rheaume and Dr. Beck cited major infrastructure problems in the main building as well as heating and plumbing problems. The three other buildings in the complex, which include a gym, natatorium and more office space, have been vacant for years.

Currently, the target date for reconstruction of the Mass.Mental is 2004, according to Rheaume. Although she said no buildings in the complex will be torn down, the 1912-building will be partly demolished.

MARTHA BARTLE