The Summit County ADM Board is breaking ground on a 16-bed mental health facility in Sagamore Hills

Residents in several counties who need additional help with their mental health recovery will receive this help in the near future.

Ground was broken Thursday for a $9.9 million residential facility. Dr. Fred Frese, located at the state-owned Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare on Sagamore Road in Sagamore Hills. A partnership between the Summit County ADM Board and the state, this facility is designed to meet the need for additional mental health resources for clients transitioning from a psychiatric hospital back into the community.

According to the Summit ADM (Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health) Council, the average stay at the 16-bed Frese facility is expected to be 60 to 90 days.

“The facility will provide an additional level of care for mentally ill individuals leaving acute care in a psychiatric hospital who may need additional time to successfully integrate into the community based on their own, self-set and clinically supported goals,” said Amy Woodland , communications manager ADM Management Board.

Keith Stahl, director of operations and residential services at Community Support Services, said a lower-status facility like this one would provide a continuum of care with a rehabilitation mission.

“The hospital was designed to treat acute illnesses,” Stahl said. However, he added that the treatment may take some time to be effective. “It takes some time for the medicine to stabilize. A tapering center can provide this time to heal and receive counseling to face the challenges that brought them to this point in the first place, in a safe place. “

The facility will serve people living in Summit, Portage, Geauga, Cuyahoga, Lake and Lorain counties, said Aimee Wade, executive director of the Summit ADM board, and will target civilian mental health patients, not forensic patients. — those who committed a crime and were consequently committed.

Woodland says the center will cost about $9.9 million to build. ADM County received $2 million from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services through America’s Rescue Plan Act funds.

“The balance came from our local fees,” Woodland said. She added that the facility should be completed in October 2025 and will cater to both men and women aged 18 and over.

Sagamore Hills Residential Center will provide an alternative to ER visits

Luke Russell, executive director of NAMI Ohio, said during the groundbreaking ceremony that the Frese Center will meet needs and help reduce the barrier to finding housing. The center offers the opportunity to offer rehabilitation and out-of-hospital care, and is a better alternative to visits to the emergency room, homelessness and even prison, which happens too often.

“There’s just nowhere to go,” Russell said.

According to the Summit ADM Board, the county has seen a reduction in the number of psychiatric hospital beds over the past two years.

But that’s starting to change in Ohio, Russell said. The Adam and Amanda Center in Athens County opened in 2018. In Toledo, a groundbreaking was held for another facility called Dani’s Place, named for a woman who died in 2019. She took her own life after a long battle with mental illness.

LeeAnne Cornyn, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said the Frese Center will be the first of its kind in Summit County, but there are thirty other facilities in various stages of planning in Ohio.

“We want Ohio to be the heart of hope,” Cornyn said. “We want the state to be a place for mental health care and healing.”

Cornyn said there is a huge need for this type of facility.

“I get calls all the time from families of loved ones who are about to be released from the hospital and feel they are not ready to go home yet,” she said. “Families are not ready for them to come home.

Who was Hudson resident Fred Frese III?

According to Summit ADM, the facility was named in honor of Dr. Fred Frese III, a Hudson resident who was a world-renowned advocate for people with serious mental illness. Frese himself was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1968, according to the Board of Directors of Summit ADM, who died in 2018 at the age of 77. Over the course of a decade, he underwent 10 forced institutionalizations. However, in 1980, Frese, who had a doctorate in psychology, was appointed director of psychology at the largest psychiatric hospital in Ohio.

“Dr. Frese and his wife are local heroes,” Russell said. “He tried to educate people about mental illness. Frese spent his life in the hospital because there was no such facility. There is no one more appropriate, more appropriate to name a facility that will help people.”

Frederick Joseph Frese IV, Frese’s son, said the groundbreaking for the facility took place on his father’s 84th birthday.

“The gift he gave is the confidence that there is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to mental illness,” said Frese, who said he has had mental health issues himself. “There is even dignity in overcoming these obstacles and continuing to live a fulfilling life through perseverance.”

Anyone who would like additional information about the Frese Residential Step-Down Center or may need resources or support regarding mental health and/or substance use disorders should contact the Summit ADM Board of Directors at the following address:

• Call 330-762-3500.

• Send an email to [email protected].

• Visit admboard.org.

Additional resources include:

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 9-8-8.

• Emergency text line: text 4HOPE to 741741.

• Mental Health Crisis: 330-434-9144.

• Akron Children’s Hospital Psychiatric Admission Response Center, 330-543-7472 or 866-443-7472.

• Addiction hotline: 330-940-1133.

Reporter April Helms can be reached at [email protected]

This article originally appeared on the Akron Beacon Journal: Summit ADM is working to open a temporary mental health facility