Aired July 9, 2007

Plans are underway to build a new State Mental Health Hospital in Northeast Ohio. Architects have been hired, blueprints are being drafted, all without a specific location. Local mental health advocates say the hospital should stay in Cleveland, near the majority of its patients. But that's meeting some resistance. Meanwhile, at least one Cleveland suburb is jumping at the chance to get the hundreds of construction and professional jobs that would come with the project. More from ideastream Health Reporter, Lisa Ann Pinkerton.

The hallways at Northeast Ohio's Mental Health Hospital are dim and gray. The emergency entrance looks about as friendly as a police station. Paul Guggenheim, the man charged with running the Northcoast facility for the state, says the cold vibes this room are indicative of the whole building.

Paul Guggenheim: Notice how broken up it is. There's no easy flow. It doesn't flow like a good emergency area where patients are comforted or where there's a calming area.

Guggenheim says Northcoast is completely inadequate for its purpose. Built as a tuberculoses hospital in 1922 it's rooms are small and group therapy areas are sparse.

Outside, patients have a small fenced in area available to them. Most of it's asphalt, the only shade is under a gazebo or a tent and its in the shadow of MetroHealth Center's helicopter pad. Guggenheim says its about as calming as a migraine.

Paul Guggenheim: We get the exhaust, we get the beating of the blades, the noise... if we're in group therapy we have to stop group therapy, if we're in training we have to stop training for 5 to 7 to 10 minutes for it to take off or for it to turn off all its engines and stop the routers.

These are just a few of the reasons why the state has set aside around $3 million for the design phase of a new state-of-the-art mental health hospital. There's no money yet for construction and the hospital's largest client, the Cuyahoga Country Community Mental Health Board, will choose the site. The state has green space it owns in Warrensville and it's proposed that as the new site of Northcoast. That's nearly 20 miles southeast of downtown Cleveland. Since 80 percent of the hospital's patients are from the city, that's not a good choice, according to the Board's outgoing chairwoman, Bonnie Chaplin.

Bonnie Chaplin: I think in the long run its a wash if not an enormous gain for the state to do economic development in the city and do to a facility where the people are, where people can come and work and it needs to be in the city of Cleveland.

The site the board wants is at East 79th and Quincy. It's a little over 25 acres of tall brush and asphalt, speckled with old oil drums. This blighted property could take $3 million to clean up but Chaplin thinks its worth it. One public meeting has been held and Chaplin the plan was well received by nearby residents. But the City Councilwoman for that area, Ward Five's Phyllis Cleveland, says she's not interested.

Phyllis Cleveland: It would be great to have the hospital located within the city itself. But the site that they were looking at, the community has other plans and other ideas that we've been looking at.

The parcel on Quincy has been vacant for 30 years. But Councilwoman Cleveland says she'd like to save it for commercial development rather than a state institution. Ward 5 is Mayor Frank Jackson's old council ward, but he's reluctant to interfere. His Chief of Staff, Ken Silliman says, the battle to keep the state hospital's 200 thousand dollars of income tax revenue isn't a fight he's willing to make.

Ken Silliman: This position is simply him respecting that a council member generally knows what works well in their ward and what doesn't.

Meanwhile, the city of East Cleveland is jumping on what some see as a missed opportunity for Cleveland.

On a lonely street, where every building is boarded up, East Cleveland Council President Gary Norton says this inner ring suburb is a treasure trove for large scale development.

Gary Norton: There are contiguous blocks available for development that people want to see redeveloped. So we've already got the will, we've already got the need, now what we need is the facility.

The Cuyahoga Community Mental Health Board's Chair Bonnie Chaplin says she's disappointed that Mayor Jackson isn't fighting to keep 200 healthcare jobs in Cleveland. Unless something changes, Chaplin says the board may settle for East Cleveland. At least it would be closer than Warrensville, for most of the patients who would use it.

Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.