Decatur residents want mental health patients to stay, not drop in

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A one-of-a-kind mental health center in Decatur is drawing the ire of surrounding residents, but in an unusual way.

It's not that neighbors of the Peer Support and Wellness Center on Sycamore Drive don’t want the facility in their Decatur Heights community.

Rather, they want the center to eliminate the day program – which allows clients to drop in as needed, with little regulation. They prefer the center become fully residential.

“We could embrace them and make them part of the neighborhood if they lived here, not just stayed here for up to a week,” said Grace Ann Young, a retired mental health worker who is among those who have complained to the city.

A joint project between the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network and the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the center opened in 2008 as an alternative to traditional mental health treatment.

The center, perched at the end of a long driveway less than three blocks from the Avondale MARTA station, is the first and only facility of its kind in Georgia.

Instead of licensed mental health workers, it offers peer counseling during daily activities and respite beds for up to seven days. Clients voluntarily seek to be admitted when in crisis, as an alternative to hospitalization, said Sharon Jenkins Tucker, executive director of the consumer network.

Jenkins Tucker noted that some nearby residents supported the facility at a recent community meeting, since it works to link its clients to each other and the community.

“We’re delighted to have this innovative center in Decatur, offering 24-7 peer support from trained personnel,” she said. “We feel we are very good neighbors.”

So far, city officials have determined the center does meet local zoning rules that allow it to be in the neighborhood.

But the city also asked the network for documentation showing that its services were for residents of the center, which can handle up to 25 people at a time, and not for the dozen daily drop-in clients.

City zoning does not allow for walk-in services in any residential area, according to a city report.

This week, the network submitted files confirming the state had authorized the facility and explaining why the drop-in component is critical to the mission, said City Manager Peggy Merriss.

She has not yet reviewed the documents but will make recommendations for city action once a review is complete.

“We will review it and proceed from there,” Merriss said.

There is no timetable for when the city will issue its next report. No meetings, including neighborhood sessions, have been planned.

Some residents have pledged to keep fighting, saying the current operation resembles a crisis center. A more residential treatment facility would fit better with the neighborhood, and the neighbors, residents said.

“This is not over,” said Soren Christiansen, who has lived in the neighborhood for eight years. “It won’t be until we can get to know them once they’re living there for a while. We want to walk by and say hi and know our neighbors.”