Disputed Mental Health Facility Opens Its Doors
Posted by Daniel Antolin on Aug 31, 2011 - 12:58:58 AM
PACIFIC PALISADES/BEL
AIR—On Tuesday August 30, the Pacific Palisades-based Bridges to Recovery, a residential program that
treats individuals suffering from psychiatric disorders, opened a new facility at 777 Sarbonne Road in Bel Air after being certified by the California Department of Social Services despite local opposition.
"We are very proud to have met the stringent requirements mandated by
the State to receive one of the highest levels of certification and
licensure available for the Bridges to Recovery Bel Air residential
facility," stated Bridges to Recovery Medical Director Michael Brodsky in a press release.
Bridge to Recovery filed an application for a state license for the Bel Air facility in January. Since
2003, two other state licenses have been approved for such facilities in Santa
Monica and Pacific Palisades.
Residence at 777 Sarbonne Road. Photo courtesy of 777sarbonneroad.com
Bridges to Recovery Clinical Director, Trevor Small, stated "Our three
residences enable us to place clients with other individuals who are
working through similar issues, helping to provide a sense of validation
and understanding that can be valuable in the healing process."
Certification means the new facility will be able to open its doors to treat individuals "who are seeking
in-depth psychotherapy and an alternative to a hospital environment for
their care," its website shows. This treatment usually lasts four to 12 weeks.
Entailed
with certification will be regulation and unannounced inspections by
the state's social services department and the California Department of
Mental Health.
In addition to the state's stringent requirements, Bridges to Recovery also had to contend with local opposition before receiving certification. Councilmember Paul Koretz, representative for Bel Air as part of Los
Angeles' Fifth District, and a number of his constituents took issue with the opening of the mental health
facility because they worried it would endanger their hillside neighborhood.
Koretz included in a letter to the state's social services department that the opening of such a facility would
result in "an inappropriate increase" of mentally unstable individuals
in the neighborhood. Thus, "making it impossible for neighboring
residents to maintain peaceful enjoyment of their property and homes," his letter shows.
Elaborating on this part of the letter, Shawn Bayliss, planning deputy
for Koretz's office, told Canyon News that any business that sets up
shop in a residential area can disrupt the peaceful enjoyment of its
neighbors because of the addition of noise, increase in traffic and
other disruptions associated with its everyday activities.
Koretz also included in his letter, "It is my understanding that the
facility accepts only mentally ill patients who may leave the facility
at any point."
Dr. John Sharp conducting a therapy session. Photo courtesy of Bridges to Recovery website.
Though it is a
voluntary program, Bridges to Recovery Administrator Frederik Schulin
told Canyon News that residents have never wandered around outside of
its other facilities or been an inconvenience to neighbors in those
areas.
"Our residents are not a threat to their surroundings and not mandated
by the court to follow our treatment. Our program is designed to
provide exclusive care and as long as residents are in our care we will
do everything in our power to avoid any residents to leave the property
without staff assistance," Schulin said.
Further stated in Koretz's letter is that the facility has
the potential to put the immediate neighborhood and its six patients in
danger because it will be located in an area to which emergency and
police vehicles have limited access.
For the aforementioned reasons, Koretz requested in his letter to John
Wagner, director of the state's social services department, that
Bridges to Recovery be denied a license to open a new facility at the
Bel Air single-family residence. This ultimately did not happen.
Koretz's office had not provided a comment on the opening of the mental health facilty to Canyon News during press time.
777 Sarbonne Road. Photo by Mike Dalsing.
Local residents also voiced concern about vehicle accessibility to and from
the mental healthy facility at a May 18 Bel-Air Association Land Use
Committee meeting.
At the time, they worried that the narrow, twisting Chalon and Stradella roads that
lead up the Sarbonne Road cul-de-sac would be rendered single lanes with
blind curves because of the 15 staff members' vehicles that would come,
go and presumably be parked on these streets on a daily basis.
Another concern residents had is that if
the 15 staff members do not park in the streets, they will have to park
bumper-to-bumper in the home's narrow driveway, making it problematic
for them to use their vehicles to evacuate the area in the event of an
earthquake, wildfire or mudslide.
However,
staff members will also have the option of parking in the home's six
covered and uncovered parking spots or in the attached garage, according
to property data from Bank of America's Real Estate Center.
Schulin assures that staff members will leave their vehicles in a private parking area.
Michael Weston, spokesperson for the Department of Social Services,
told Canyon News that these facilities are required to have an
evacuation plan in order for them to obtain a license.
Such mental health facilities are also required to practice putting
that evacuation plan to the test every six months by performing drills,
Weston said.
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