State officials announced yesterday that they plan to close Mayview State Hospital, Allegheny County's last remaining state hospital for people with mental illnesses, by the end of next year.

		Listen in Estelle Richman, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, and Joan Erney, deputy secretary for the Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Service, discuss plans to close Mayview State Hospital. Ms. Richman explains how the closing will proceed. Ms. Erney describes who is in state hospitals. Ms. Richman, then Ms. Erney, discuss how they plan to work with patients' families.

The facility in South Fayette has served the Pittsburgh area for more than a century.

More than 200 patients are at Mayview, and the vast majority likely will move to homes in the community, with supervision or other support as needed, officials said. Living options could include group homes, public housing or living with family members. Patients who need more supervised care could be sent to Torrance State Hospital in Westmoreland County.

More than 500 employees at Mayview will be offered job opportunities at other state-operated facilities or with new or existing community programs.

Officials said many Mayview patients have schizophrenia or other mental illnesses that can be stabilized with treatment and supervision. Some also have substance abuse problems or other health conditions. About half the patients have been at the hospital more than two years.

Rumors have swirled that the state might shut down Mayview, and downsizing has been under way at the 335-acre campus for months. A year ago, 30 patients were released from the hospital and total beds were reduced from about 285 to 255. About 30 more patients were discharged, and beds closed, by the end of June.

Officials had said that the downsizing would not affect a forensic unit that provides evaluation and treatment for people in the criminal justice system. But they now say that forensic services at Mayview also will be discontinued.

Currently, more than 200 patients are served at forensic units at Mayview, Norristown and Warren state hospitals. The state plans to seek proposals from private companies to provide forensic services at two sites, the Norristown and Torrance hospitals.

Authorities cited a number of reasons for singling out Mayview for closing among the state's eight hospitals.

The region offers alternative employment for Mayview staff, officials said, noting that there are other state facilities in the area. And it has other hospitals that can provide extended acute mental health care.

The five counties served by Mayview -- Allegheny, Beaver, Greene, Lawrence and Washington -- also have plans under way to move patients into the community and to provide them with housing.

Patricia Valentine, deputy director of Allegheny County's Office of Behavioral Health, noted that a five-year plan is under way to make at least 220 affordable housing units available to people leaving state hospitals or in need of that level of care. In many cases, units would be subsidized until residents could obtain funding through Section 8.

With additional funds that will become available through the closing, the community can meet the needs of the remaining patients leaving Mayview, she said, and reach out to others who need community mental health services.

Harriet Baum, executive director of NAMI Southwestern Pensylvania, an advocacy group for people with mental illnesses and their families, said those services are improving in the five-county area.

"We're going to be monitoring it, believe me," she said of the closure. "But I think it has the potential to be a good thing for many people."

Others have questioned the area's readiness for shutting down Mayview and moving more patients into the community.

In a recent letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dr. Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, a Beaver County psychiatrist, spoke of "huge outpatient psychiatric service deficits, inadequate crisis emergency room services, long waiting lists for supported housing and provider shortages in virtually every county west of Harrisburg."

She reiterated those concerns yesterday, saying the state needs to invest more resources in community mental health treatment.

Another letter from Dr. Barry Fisher, a local psychiatrist and past president of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society, said some former patients have ended up homeless or incarcerated.

More than ever, patients are spending months in acute units of community hospitals because of a lack of appropriate options for extended care, he said.

Dr. Fisher echoed those concerns yesterday on behalf of the society's executive council. He said the society wanted the state to support an independent study of potential problems associated with recent state hospital closures. Instead, he said the state plans to fund a somewhat different study that examines the types of mental health care beds needed in those communities.

Joan Erney, deputy secretary for the state Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, acknowledged the state's psychiatrists have had concerns about the state's efforts to downsize state facilities and provide community care.

Department of Public Welfare Secretary Estelle Richman said adequate resources will be provided to help former Mayview patients, and others in need, to live successfully in the community.

Officials said the state budget includes $18.9 million to support the discharge of 200 patients from state hospitals, including 150 from Mayview, during the first year of the closure process.

State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, said yesterday that he's introducing a bill to earmark all revenue from the sale of a state mental health facility "to create a mental health services trust fund,'' which would be overseen by the Department of Public Welfare.

"I am not saying that putting these patients back into the community is wrong. It's probably the right thing to do,'' Mr. Frankel said. "But the resources to successfully integrate people into the community are scarce, and that's a problem.''

He said the sale of a large state institution such as Mayview would provide "a source of funding that doesn't involve raising taxes or fees that we could use to solve that problem.''

Legislators whose districts include or are near Mayview were concerned and upset yesterday.

Rep. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg, said a number of Mayview employees are his constituents. He said the closing wasn't a total surprise because it's been rumored for several years, but whenever he would ask the welfare department about it, he was told the institution would stay open.

Sen. John Pippy, R-Moon, whose district includes Mayview, also said he wants more information. "I have a lot of concerns for both the patients, their families and the employees."

Just what will happen to the hospital property remains unclear. Officials said the state Department of General Services will work to determine its future use.

Pennsylvania's effort to downsize its mental hospitals is driven in part by court decisions directing that people with mental illnesses be served, when possible, in community settings.

Since the mid-1990s, the number of patients at the state's hospitals has dropped from more than 4,900 to less than 2,000.

More than 27,000 people with mental illnesses were in the state's hospitals in 1969. But the population dropped sharply in succeeding years as the state closed one hospital after another, including Dixmont and Woodville state hospitals in Allegheny County.

A daylong public hearing on the closure will be held at the Crowne Plaza Pittsburgh South in Bethel Park on Sept. 10 starting at 9 a.m. Those seeking to comment are asked to register by contacting Dorothy Owens at 412-257-6200 or dowens@state.pa.us.