Hospital work to resume

Future of forensic unit debated at public forum; construction legally required, but official says expanded services will relocate

NORRISTOWN » Municipal hall was packed to capacity Wednesday night as stakeholders from every side of the debate over the future of Norristown State Hospital gathered to voice their opinions to public officials.

The meeting was spurred by the recent stoppage of construction to an expansion of Building 10, which was to house additional forensic unit beds in accordance with the settlement of an ACLU lawsuit seeking remedies for people in jail awaiting competency evaluations.

Construction on the facility was halted after local officials successfully John Napper, president of the Norristown local of the Pennsylvania State Correctional Officers Association, addresses the audience at a community meeting at Norristown Municipal Hall to discuss the future of Norristown State Hospital Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017.

lobbied the governor’s office to intervene, citing lack of community input into the decision to build on the Norristown portion of the grounds and the concerns of first responders who would be responsible for attending to any public safety issues that could arise there.

Teresa Miller, acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, apologized for the state’s oversight in not reaching out to local officials and community members before construction began, but allowed that there are limited options going forward in the immediate future because of the constraints of the settlement and its legal ramifications if the work is not completed.

Miller said the state would be legally obligated to continue with the expansion after further deliberation, but provided assurances that there would be a relocation of expanded forensic unit services as of 2022.

The nearly two-hour meeting began with remarks by Lynn Kovich, deputy secretary of the DHS Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, who broke down the demographics, logistics and configuration of the hospital’s campus in terms of where consumers originate around the state, where they are housed and treated on campus and the number of beds available.

Kovich’s presentation was followed by remarks by Julien Gaudion, deputy secretary for property and asset management for the Pennsylvania Department of General Services, who highlighted the transformation of former Harrisburg State Hospital — a facility similar to NSH — after its closure in 2006.

Many of the people who stepped to the podium in the public comment portion of the meeting were former mental health consumers or health or social service providers who pleaded their case to continue with construction at Building 10 in order to provide much needed — and mandated — services to those in need of mental health treatment who would otherwise languish in jail.

“We can’t just put people on the street,” said Mimi Shapiro in comments representing the views of several speakers who implored policymakers to prioritize the people at stake over the properties involved.

“At what cost?” asked John Napper, president of the Norristown local of the Pennsylvania State Correctional Officers Association.

“As we meet here tonight, many clients are sitting in prison awaiting their turn for a bed at Norristown State Hospital. Many of these clients are severely mentally ill and are in need of our services,” he continued.

Napper went on to explain the degraded condition in which many clients arrive at the forensic unit at Building 51, and how the services provided there are integral to restoring their mental and physical health and how they are “linked back to family members and their personal affairs are attended to.”

Napper said the hospital provides much needed services to community, helps reintegrate those treated to become productive members of society and generates revenue through vendors and from employees who spend their dollars in and around Norristown and often, like him, move into the municipality to be closer to work.

He said the hospital represents “care, compassion and second

chances” to many clients and asked again, “At what cost are you willing to turn your back on the people who have no voice?”

On the flipside of that coin were a number of Norristown area residents and public officials who argued that the state’s neglect in informing them about the construction typified a pattern of disrespect to the community when it comes to the establishment of services in their own backyard and that the people of Norristown and the surrounding communities deserve primary consideration as they struggle to revitalize after decades of being left behind in an otherwise affluent county.

“If we were not a relatively poor minority community, this project would not have moved forward without public involvement,” said John Milligan, president of the Greater Norristown NAACP, who characterized the meeting as a “teachable moment.”

Milligan’s displeasure with the process paled in comparison to that of former Norristown council President Bill Caldwell, who said the process was “shameful” and proposed that NHS should be decommissioned so that Norristown could move on with long overdue economic development.

Others in favor of constricting the state hospital’s footprint pointed out that local unions and minority contractors were not involved in the construction process, furthering the disconnect with community.

“I think it was good for the community to be heard about their understandable concerns about how we wound up here,” said state Rep. Matt Bradford, D-70,who stressed that the commonwealth’s commitment to shutting down the additional unit by 2022 should be “iron-clad.”

“The state showed a real willingness to kind of make amends for mistakes that have been made most recently on Building 10, but before that, over decades of disrepair, and really start turning that dialogue around,” Bradford said. “There are social services that need to be provided and our community has needs, but also our community can’t be the sole source of all those services in one very concentrated area.”

Norristown council President Sonya Sanders expressed appreciation for the perspectives of former patients at NSH who shared their stories at the meeting and said “ultimately, everyone’s looking to come to a happy medium where we all feel that we can accomplish what Norristown wants, and what past and present patients want.”

“I’m going to continue the push for redevelopment,” she said. “Also, I do have a stance in regards to social services being dumped into Norristown, and I also am still feeling a little disappointed in the lack of communication.

“The state has apologized and although we accept their apology, we’re looking to build and foster our relationship going forward and to continue to have these meetings to keep everyone engaged in the process.”

Concessions to various counterpoints by those on both sides of the issue were reflected in the spirit of compromise Miller expressed as the meeting drew to a close.

“I think the engagement was great and I was glad to hear so many perspectives,” she said, adding that more talks with local officials and community members lie ahead.

“Building 10 is temporary and I’m just concerned if we’re not able to get back in there we’re going to be facing this lawsuit and that’s not going to be pretty for any of us.

“So if we can get back in that building I think we can continue a dialogue, again, with that firm commitment that we’re going to be out sometime in 2022, we can begin to figure out what is the long term solution.

“I don’t necessarily think these are competing interests. I think we can make sure we’re doing right by the people in the criminal justice system who need access to mental health treatment and at the same time do a much better job of being partners in this community.”