See Fairbanks Daily Newsminer Article** Fairbanks client relocation angers mental health advocates Posted: Friday, November 22, 2013 12:00 am Jeff Richardson/jrichardson@newsminer | 11 comments FAIRBANKS — A newly built fence could force the partial closure of a downtown facility for the mentally ill next week, resulting in the abrupt relocation of as many as a dozen clients to Anchorage. Downtown Care, the only licensed assisted-living facility in Fairbanks for people with mental illness, has been ordered to reduce its client load after a neighbor’s new fence eliminated escape routes from many of its windows this summer. After receiving two extensions from the fire marshal, Monday is the deadline to relocate them from the Second Avenue facility. As many as 12 clients will need to be moved to Anchorage because there’s nowhere in Fairbanks for them to go, according to Jeanette Grasto, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Fairbanks. About a half-dozen clients will be allowed to remain on site. Grasto said it’s a brutal move for a vulnerable population. “If they wanted to live in Anchorage, they’d live in Anchorage,” she said. “Their friends and family and guardians — their support system is all here.” Grasto outlined her concerns in a Nov. 20 letter to the Alaska Division of Behavioral Health, declaring that the “mental health system in Fairbanks is broken.” The letter, which was signed by officials from 17 local social service and health-care organizations, said it is “extremely unacceptable” that inadequate facilities in Fairbanks are resulting in a sudden relocation. It’s the latest in a series of recent struggles for mentally ill Fairbanks residents. Fairbanks Community Behavioral Health Center, the nonprofit organization that previously oversaw many local mental-health programs, folded in September amid financial troubles. It’s subsequent bankruptcy — and the restructuring process that followed — has upended many of the services that were once offered in the Interior. The state considered two FCBHC-owned facilities as short-term housing solutions but wasn’t able to overcome the legal and building-code problems that emerged. Randall Burns, the emergency services program specialist for the Alaska Division of Behavioral Health, said the agency wasn’t able to finalize a deal to use FCBHC’s Evergreen facility as a stop-gap solution. A second FCBHC facility, the Denardo Center, was eliminated because it has an inadequate fire sprinkler system, Burns said. “There were just too many pieces that had to fall into place,” Burns said. Burns said the city has provided two extensions for Downtown Care but warned that its most recent one would be the last. Grasto said she was still hopeful another deal could be negotiated that would allow clients to remain in Fairbanks through the holidays. Les Westling, the owner of Downtown Care, said he tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with a neighboring property owner this summer to build his fence farther from his building. He said the new fence is located 6 inches from an exterior wall, which blocks exits through egress windows on that side of the building. “It’s his right,” Westling said. “It just happens to wipe out my business.” Grasto said the result will be another blow to mentally ill people in the Interior. She said a sudden move to an unfamiliar community during the holidays wouldn’t be considered for any other vulnerable population. “If we picked any other group of people who had to go to Anchorage, there’d be a huge hue and cry,” she said. Contact staff writer Jeff Richardson at 459-7518. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMbusiness.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 09:19:54 +0000
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