To the editor:

I am one of the many neighbors who are challenging McLean’s right to locate a treatment center on Bypass Road. Carol Kochmann’s overwrought defense of McLean Hospital’s attempt to establish a psychiatric treatment facility in a residentially zoned neighborhood completely misses the point of the community’s objections and concerns (“Feeling ‘shame’ for Lincoln,” Lincoln Squirrel, July 2, 2016).

No one in the Bypass Road neighborhood disagrees with the fact that McLean is a preeminent medical institution, with the resources and expertise necessary to treat adolescent males afflicted with borderline personality disorder. Nor does anyone dispute that McLean was instrumental in helping a member of Ms. Kochmann’s family overcome crippling anxiety and depression.

What I object to is the fact that our town’s zoning bylaw prohibits the placement of psychiatric treatment facilities in residentially zoned areas and McLean is attempting to circumvent these bylaws by mischaracterizing the nature of its facility. Notwithstanding Ms. Kochmann’s barbed critique of our motivations, I see nothing shameful in reminding the town’s boards and employees of their legal obligation to administer Lincoln’s zoning bylaw fairly and with due regard for the people who live here.

My disagreement with McLean is not about the good work that they do, but rather the rules and laws that determine where they can do it. Our zoning bylaw strictly limits the types of uses and structures that can be located in a residential district. The state statute known as the Dover Amendment allows nonprofit educational institutions an exemption from local zoning bylaws if, and only if, the proposed use is “educationally significant” and education is “the primary or dominant purpose for which the land or structures are to be used.” McLean is proposing to place in the middle of an established residential neighborhood a locked psychiatric ward where adolescent males will be administered intensive “dialectical behavior therapy” as well as “psycho-pharmaceutical treatment.”

Again, without questioning the laudable nature of this activity, the primary purpose of this use is clearly medical treatment, not education, and therefore not eligible under Lincoln’s bylaws to be sited in our residential neighborhood. If this same facility were located at McLean’s Belmont campus. there would be no question but that this use were medical or therapeutic, not educational. It is only when McLean wants to locate its new facility in a residential neighborhood that it engages in semantic fiction and characterizes the purpose of its treatment facility as primarily educational.

Finally, while Ms. Kochmann’s opinions appear to be squarely based on her daughter’s positive experience at McLean, she fails to realize that what is being proposed for the Bypass Road neighborhood is a fundamentally different program than what benefitted her daughter. McLean acknowledges that this is the first time they will attempt to treat adolescent males suffering from borderline personality disorders (BPD) in a residential setting. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, BPD is “characterized by impulsive and reckless behavior” with “high rates of co-occurring disorders including self-harm, suicidal behaviors and completed suicides.”

The facility will be fully locked, “for our safety” we are told, and no patient will be allowed outside without supervision. It is plain to see why such a program requires the security of an on-campus setting and is wholly inappropriate in a residential neighborhood. Under these circumstances, my concerns about McLean’s treatment facility are neither irrational nor selfish, and I would hope that Lincolnites like Ms. Kochmann would make an effort to understand the nature and complexities of the neighborhood’s opposition before pronouncing otherwise.

Sincerely,

Jay S. Gregory
46 Bypass Rd.

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Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Editor’s note: The Lincoln Squirrel is on vacation and was not able to attend the June 28 meeting Kochmann refers to. Coverage will resume on July 11. 

To the editor,

The night of June 28 at the Planning Board meeting marked the second time this year I felt overwhelmed with shame for a body of Lincoln citizens. McLean Hospital has proposed the use of 16-22 Bypass Rd. to educate and treat a handful of adolescent males who suffer from depression and anxiety.

Fear was the primary sentiment expressed by residents, an emotion that is no stranger to anyone who listens to the news. Yet, whatever amount of fear citizens feel, multiply that by some unimaginable amount and you’ll have a hint of the fear these young men live with day in and day out.

I thanked McLean on behalf of my daughter who suffered from crippling anxiety and depression. She was so terrified she could barely leave her room and was unable to attend school for two years. After trying everything else, we investigated our only remaining option, a full immersion treatment program. After 90 days she came home remarkably changed.  She had learned the causes of her affliction and methods to deal with it. She had made new friends with whom she was exceptionally close. She attended school this past year every day and achieved excellent grades. She communicates, has made more new friends, and has great insight into herself. She still struggles every day, but she now has tools to help her cope.

After the meeting, I asked my daughter about violence in the Program she attended. She seemed puzzled but eloquently described how the kids relied on and supported each other through their difficult journeys. They became aware of their own and others triggers and learned to avoid them. If they left each other, it was to cry.  Many of her peers had been abused so the last thing they would do was abuse anyone else. One person who got really angry, punched a pillow. This does not seem like the description of a population to be feared.

It’s all too easy to paint mental illness with a broad brush and cry out “not in my neighborhood.” There are huge differences between psychoses and depression and anxiety. Do these citizens of Lincoln really think that McLean would take on the liability of placing such a facility here if they thought its residents might pose a serious danger to the neighbors?

At least two of the people at the meeting knew my daughter quite well before she became ill. I hope that they and the others will read this, face their fears, and use the funds they’re spending on legal counsel to educate themselves and/or to contribute to institutions like McLean. They are trying to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, in this case by working with a tiny subset of youngsters suffering from a specific mental illness that renders them unable to function.

One of the reasons why I moved here was because I was under the impression that, in a pinch, Lincolnites do the right thing. If that doesn’t happen in this instance, the town is changing in ways that I don’t embrace.  That makes me truly sad.

In case you’re wondering when the first time was that I was ashamed this year, it was at the Special Town Meeting where the vote was to withdraw from the Minuteman school district. But that commentary is for another day.

Sincerely,

Carol Kochmann
9 Brooks Hill Rd.

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Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.