The house at 22 Bypass Rd. where McLean Hospital hopes to house clients age 15-21. The house on the adjacent 16 Bypass Road can be seen at far left.
By Alice Waugh
Bypass Road residents, including a member of the town’s Board of Health, are furious about a proposal by McLean Hospital to open a residential facility for teens and young adults in their neighborhood, saying they were given no opportunity to comment before Lincoln’s town counsel issued an opinion saying that the facility was exempt from the town’s zoning regulations.
Senior officials from McLean Hospital, a Belmont-based psychiatric hospital, met with Director of Planning and Land Use Jennifer Burney and Building Inspector Daniel Walsh in mid-April to present the proposal for properties the hospital purchased at 16-22 Bypass Rd. The 6,700-square-foot house at 22 Bypass Road would be used to house up to 12 clients age 15-21 “who are participating in a program designed to enhance the development of their life skills through educational and therapeutic training,” according to a follow-up letter to the Lincoln officials.
In the April 22 letter, McLean attorney Diane Tillotson made the case that McLean was entitled to an exemption from zoning restrictions as provided under state law for educational and religious organizations. The Bypass Road facility would be a “transitional living program providing psychoeducational support for young adults struggling with mood disorders, anxiety and depression” with a “curriculum integrating behavioral and cognitive skill building experiences,” she wrote.
Town counsel Joel Bard wrote in a May 2 letter to Burney that be believed the McLean proposal met the standard for a use exemption under Lincoln’s zoning by-law under Chapter 40A of state statutes, also known as the Dover Amendment. But about a dozen Bypass Road families vehemently disagree and have formed a group to fight the proposal by various means, including possibly filing a lawsuit.
“We feel blindsided,” said Dr. Steven Kanner, a primary care physician and Lincoln Board of Health member whose property abuts the Bypass Road site. “This is a life-changing event that could affect the safety of our children and grandchildren and our property values, and we were not even alerted? What kind of town are we living in? The arrogance [of town officials] not thinking we needed to know is astounding.”
The lack of specific information about the nature of the facility’s clients is worrisome, said Kanner, who was chief of medical care for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health during the Dukakis administration.
“I’m certainly not against mental health, but this is something where we don’t know who these people are,” Kanner said. “Are they male or female? How do we know they’re not dangerous? These are disturbed adolescents who have been highly depressed and may have been violent.” If one of them escaped, he added, “there’s nothing to stop them from being in someone else’s yard within 90 seconds.”
The neighborhood group is arguing that the facility is medical and not educational and thus does not qualify for a zoning exemption. “No one has explored why this qualifies as educational… this is medical treatment,” Kanner said. “Are they getting any education? I doubt it.”
On behalf of the neighborhood group, Kanner has been speaking with attorneys. “It appears the only way we can get a hearing we should have been accorded by right is to sue,” he said.
Also at issue is whether the current septic system is adequate for the proposed use, because local septic regulations must be followed even for educational and religious institutions. Burney noted on a town web page about the project that the Board of Health and the Water Department will be consulted about septic and water issues.
McLean Hospital already operates the Lincoln Residence, a transitional residence for adults in Lincoln at 5 Old Cambridge Turnpike. In addition, the Lexington-based Edinburg Center operates is a home for developmentally disabled adults at 15 Bypass Road across from where McLean hopes to locate.
In the April 22 letter, McLean officials said they would hold a neighborhood meeting in mid-June with an anticipated opening date in September 2016.
I am surprised to read that a doctor in our town, a former chief of medical care at DMH would not only have these thoughts but would see it fit to have such comments published in our local Squirrel. People living with mental health challenges are stigmatized enough without this kind of message being delivered by such a highly educated professional in the field. There are many families here in Lincoln dealing with mental illness on a daily basis, is it any wonder they do not speak openly about their challenges? Sadly this is a large yet hidden segment of our population many are still inclined to look down on.
The issue is not whether mentally ill people need treatment. Of course they do. I spent several years of my professional career intensively devoted to helping achieve excellent health care, including in community settings, for mentally and physically disabled people.
Rather, the question at issue, which Ms. Antia completely ignored, is how what appears to be a residential psychiatric treatment facility for disturbed late adolescents (most likely males, since no gender has been mentioned) can be placed in a zoned residential community without going through public hearings for a zoning variance, where all the merits, opportunities and risks could be weighed.
To avoid zoning hearings, McLean claims an educational exemption from zoning review under Chapter 40A . But the plan as outlined by McLean sounds just like a psychiatric residential treatment center which is a medical facility not accorded special zoning treatment under Chap. 40A and therefore should not be allowed into a residential area without zoning hearings. Again, that is the issue at hand, not whether psychiatric patients need medical treatment.
So far the planning board initial hearing and the town counsel letter rendered explicit or tacit approval of an educational exemption under Chap. 40A without even knowing the gender of the patients, nor any substantive details of the McLean treatment program which, by the way, is stated to have a full-time medical director on site. Primarily educational? No safety issues for close-by children without evaluating the details of the patient population? If you were the neighbor with young children would you really be satisfied with the process so far?
For many years our family lived across the street from a man with severe untreated mental health issues. Our children were quite young at that time. Sadly, a few years ago he killed himself. Would that he had been in a home where he was getting treatment, perhaps the outcome would have been different and he would now be a contributing member of society.
Everywhere we go there are people with mental health issues, some treated, some not. Wouldn’t it be better if everyone was getting the help they need. There are instances everyday of people with and without mental health issues committing outrageous acts. My understanding is the young men that will be housed in this facility are not considered a danger to others, only, perhaps, to themselves.
– “Although studies suggest a link between mental illnesses and violence, the contribution of people with mental illnesses to overall rates of violence is small, and further, the magnitude of the relationship is greatly exaggerated in the minds of the general population (Institute of Medicine, 2006).”
– “…the vast majority of people who are violent do not suffer from mental illnesses (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).”
– “The absolute risk of violence among the mentally ill as a group is very small. . . only a small proportion of the violence in our society can be attributed to persons who are mentally ill (Mulvey, 1994).”
My question in return is, is what is your concern? What empirical evidence from your work with the mentally ill leads you to believe you or others are at risk of being harmed?