Officials from the Vermont Department of Mental Health say that a new psychiatric facility in Middlesex is primed for patients; it is now waiting for the go-ahead from the state Division of Licensing and Protection to open its doors.
“Right now, we’re ready,” said Debra Olivetti, the facility’s director. “I’m very excited to have residents move in because we have so much to offer. There’s not another facility like this in the state.”
The secure residential facility is meant to be a transitional home for psychiatric patients who don’t need acute care, yet aren’t quite ready to return to everyday life on their own, due to legal issues or treatment needs.
The roughly $2 million facility is part of the state’s regional mental health system, which was created after Tropical Storm Irene destroyed the state’s 54-bed psychiatric hospital in Waterbury. Since then, state officials have scrambled to find open beds to treat psychiatric patients, and they say the central Vermont facility is necessary to better meet patient demand.
The Middlesex facility is part of $43 million in hospital replacement projects, including a $1.9 million eight-bed acute care unit in Morrisville, $10 million for 20 acute care beds at the Rutland Regional Medical Center and Brattleboro Retreat, and a $28.5 million psychiatric hospital slated to open in May 2014 in Berlin. Both the Morrisville and Middlesex facilities are temporary.
Mental health officials have maintained for much of the past year that the Middlesex facility would be open for three years. Acting Commissioner of Mental Health Frank Reed says that the department wants to make a secure residential facility a permanent fixture of the state’s psychiatric system.
“It’s a piece of the treatment spectrum,” he said. “You have inpatient care; you have crisis beds; you have intensive residential recovery. This is meeting an area for folks who otherwise might stay unnecessarily in a hospital or a higher level of care. It gives them options.”
Such a facility also frees up acute care beds for more severely ill patients — beds that are in high demand with the closing of the Vermont State Hospital.
The seven-bed Middlesex home will cost the state roughly $3 million annually to operate. It will employ 32 full-time staffers, who will provide services around the clock.
The structure is built from two 32-by-88-foot modular metal units that were connected in a “T” formation. Its white aluminum exterior is a stark contrast from the pastel paints and warm wood floors, furniture and doors inside the building.
The home is situated on a piece of state property next to the Middlesex State Police barracks. It features two dining rooms, two lounge areas, hardwood furniture made by Vermont inmates, an activity room that will host a treadmill and an elliptical trainer, and a relaxation room. The home also has two outdoor areas: one that Olivetti said would become a meditation garden and another that is set to host a half-court basketball court and gazebo.
The facility and the outdoor areas are surrounded by a fence that is almost 14 feet tall with black mesh screens, which make it difficult to see through. A 200-foot-long, 8-foot-tall wood fence separates the property from the state’s southern neighbors, Brian Hannon and his family.
As part of a settlement with the Hannons, the state agreed to construct the fences, plant a barrier of trees and bushes, and pay the family $5,000. In exchange, the Hannons released their rights to intervene on matters related to the facility’s permits, licenses and permissions to build and operate the facility. For more about the dispute, read here.
Reed said that the state has all of the necessary permits lined up and Olivetti hopes the facility will receive its license in the next week or two, so that she and her staff can begin accepting patients.
“Most of these folks, if not all, have endured a lot of trauma in their lives, and I want this to be a place where they can come and start to settle and address that trauma and have our staff address the trauma,” she said. “I want this to feel like a safe place for them, both emotionally and physically safe, and bring some joy to their lives.”