It was standing room only in the city council chambers, which was filled with residents and business owners looking to oppose two mental health centers in the city. Margaret Roarty | Times Leader WILKES-BARRE — After a marathon meeting Wednesday, the city’s Zoning Hearing Board gave approval to the Family Services Association of NEPA to establish a state licensed mental health crisis and stabilization center at 240 S. Main St. The organization also sought a special exception to establish the same kind of facility at The Citizens’ Voice building at 75 N. Washington St., but was denied.
The decision to deny the special exception for the 75 N. Washington St. property was made following a short executive session, where board solicitor Michael Rogers said the board discussed the requirements for accepting or denying special exceptions and variances.
The executive session was proceeded by nearly an hour and a half of testimony from representatives of the Family Services Association of NEPA as well as residents and those who work in the community, all of whom opposed the approval of both locations for the proposed mental health facility.
It was standing room only Wednesday in the council chambers at city hall, mostly filled with parents and educators from Cheder Menachem, the private Jewish school that now occupies the former Coughlin High School, directly across the street from The Citizen’s Voice Building.
Those who testified against the crisis center at that location did so out of fear that it would negatively impact the community and because they felt it would pose a threat to the children at the school.
According to Family Services Association CEO Sean Gerow, the organization will start work immediately to get the facility at 240 S. Main St. up and operating within the first couple months of 2025.
The facility will operate 24/7 and will have security on staff at all times as well.
Gerow said the crisis center will be “relatively speaking, pretty small” and can accommodate between 16 to 20 people at a time.
The association was awarded $4.035 million in Managed Care Reinvestment Funds to create the crisis center in Wilkes-Barre.
According to previous Times Leader reporting, the funds were awarded through the nonprofit Northeast Behavioral Health Care Consortium, which manages multi-county mental health and drug treatment funding for low-income residents on medical assistance and applies savings to new in-demand services.
The Family Services Association of NEPA was established in 1985 and operates in 18 counties in NEPA, including Wilkes-Barre, providing a wide range of counseling and support and intervention services.
The organization is best known for its 24-hour help line, which provides crisis services, as well as information and referrals.
The crisis center, which is based off a national model, will allow people seeking help for their mental health to speak with a peer specialist or a therapist and will be discharged with a plan to address their needs.
Gerow explained that most people are discharged and stabilized within 23 hours, but people will be able to stay up to 72 hours.
Staff who work for the helpline will contact patients for a follow-up, Gerow said.
The CEO stressed that the crisis center is not a medical facility, nor is it a detox center or a homeless shelter.
Patients who need a higher level of care will be referred to other local facilities that can better meet their needs, such as Wyoming Valley Behavioral Health.
Gerow stated that, currently, there are about 500 crisis centers operating in about 44 different states and are a better alternative for people seeking mental health care than the emergency room, which he said are “overcrowded” and cannot provide the care people need.
Objections from residents, workers in the community
At least one business owner opposed the establishment of the crisis center on 240 S. Main St., Mary Vezendy, owner of Studio 570, located at 252 South Main St.
“As a resident and business owner in Luzerne County, I’m strongly against having this facility in this section of Wilkes-Barrewhere would be a major safety concern to current businesses and residents as well, would deter future businesses and residents from the area,” she said.
She also indicated that the crisis center would add to the “criminal activity, drug use in the area and nuisances that we must deal with periodically and we do.”
Vezendy also requested that, if approval was granted, an impact analyze would be done to assess the supposed effects the crisis center would have on property values and crime statistics.
Educators at the private Jewish school across the street from The Citizens’ Voice building raised similar concerns about that location.
Steven Gordon, a psychiatrist who is also chairman of the board for the school, said that, in his experience, people expressing crisis are “not their normal selves.”
“We have kids on the street, even though the entrance is gonna be in the back, there’s a flow of people coming in and it’s a vulnerable population,” he said.
And if they walk outside and someone’s depressed or, or whatever they’re dealing with, and they see 20, 30 children, God forbid, we don’t wanna talk about what could happen.
Motti Hershkop said that while he believed he believed the crisis center was a “wonderful thing” that helps people, he objected to where the center would be located.
“It takes one second to, God forbid, turn from a regular day to children, little children, being run down or attacked or whatever,” he said.
When asked by attorney Mark McNelis what he had to say about the assumption that “violent criminals” would be going to the mental health center, Gerow pushed back against it.
“It’s the fight against the stigma for people who need behavioral health services, instead of going to places where they don’t get the help. Again, this is just a program that provides that needed help in a stigma free environment. That’s really what we’re looking to do. It’s just unfortunate. It’s just something that we continue to fight when it comes to behavioral health services,” he said.
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