A hopeful sign in Riverhead - Long Island (NY) Newsday

Opinion:

It was once a hotel with a bar favored by lawyers, judges and reporters. Then it was a dingy adult home for about 120 residents with psychiatric disabilities. Now, it is Concern Riverhead, a much-improved home for 50 residents, more like an assisted living facility than a typical adult home. And it's a hopeful sign for the future of this fragile population.

The state's policy of "deinstitutionalization," at its height three decades ago, did not work. Patients did leave large hospitals and move into the community, but the dollars to give them adequate care did not follow them. So they ended up in grubby adult homes or single-occupancy hotels. Many ended up in prison. That's "transinstitutionalization."

In recent years, due to inadequate state reimbursement, adult homes have been closing, creating a care gap. The good news is that a Medford-based nonprofit, Concern for Independent Living, is working to create studio apartment-style living spaces - with the necessary services - for 50 people each in three locations: West Sayville opened last year; East Patchogue is about seven months from completion and Riverhead has been open for three months.

Yesterday was a ritual grand opening for what used to be the Hotel Henry Perkins in Riverhead. Town, state and county officials gathered to celebrate. Two state agencies, the Office of Mental Health and the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, played key roles. So did the county's Division of Community Mental Hygiene Services and Department of Social Services, and the town itself.

Now, in a space where politicians once gathered for adult beverages and tale-telling, public-private cooperation has produced a better paradigm for the care of the mentally ill. It's a brighter new chapter in a long, sad story.
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