greystone park psychiatric hospital

Improvements planned at troubled psychiatric hospital

By Maria Newman

April 5, 2000 - New York Times

 

Responding to recent reports of poor conditions and mistreatment of patients at a state psychiatric hospital in northern New Jersey, state officials have announced a plan to improve the complex, including closing two of the most troubled and dilapidated buildings and replacing them with a new one.

During budget hearings on Monday and Tuesday, the commissioner of the state's Department of Human Services, Michelle K. Guhl, told legislators that her department had both long-term and short-term plans to improve the hospital, Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany.

The hospital, which houses many patients with criminal backgrounds, has been cited as a health and security risk in the last few years. Last year, more than 40 patients escaped, and a state monitoring committee reported last week that the hospital was dirty and understaffed.

Ms. Guhl told legislators that her department would immediately hire 41 more employees for the center, relocate 165 patients within a year to ease overcrowding and understaffing, and make $4 million in repairs to existing buildings.

''It is clear that the Greystone facility continues to have significant structural and design deficiencies,'' Ms. Guhl said. ''Moreover, the patient population has failed to decrease as expected, straining staffing resources and limiting programming options.''

The hospital, on 750 acres of parklike grounds, houses about 600 patients, most of them seriously ill. Some of them have no criminal record, but many do, including some who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity, some with pending criminal charges who are being screened for mental illness and a few others who have been ruled incompetent to stand trial.

The state monitoring committee, formed after a 1977 lawsuit led to a court order to improve conditions at the hospital, reported last week that during its three unannounced visits over the last few months, patients were sleeping on floors, had no access to toilet paper or soap and were assaulting and injuring one another.

''Idle patients are living in a physical and psychological environment that, at best, strains the meaning of 'humane,' '' the report said. ''Patient rights to privacy and safety are not ensured.''

The monitoring team, which reported its findings to Judge Reginald V. Stanton of Superior Court in Morris County, found one staff member trying to care for about 40 patients, and said that patients were often left with little to do in day rooms without reading material, lamps or games.

The team also found that in one situation, 44 patients were sharing four toilets because others were not working.

The hospital, whose first buildings were built in 1876, has faced dilapidation and other problems in the last few years as more patients with criminal backgrounds have been committed.

In the mid-1990's, the hospital was put under special supervision after reports emerged that female patients had been sexually assaulted by staff members, that criminal patients had escaped and that a patient had committed suicide while staff members slept.

Last month, the hospital suspended a nurse and eight other staff members for their involvement in assaulting and illegally restraining a patient, state officials said.

Last fall, a patient became pregnant while at the hospital, and Morris County prosecutors are investigating whether she was raped by another patient. In October, Erik Cruz, a convicted rapist, escaped, but he turned himself in a few days later.

Commissioner Guhl told the legislators that the new building, which is expected to cost $50 million to $80 million, would replace the Abell and Central Avenue buildings, which the patient advocate group that brought the 1977 lawsuit had cited as substandard and unsanitary. While the new building is under construction, two large temporary buildings will be brought in to create additional space for patient education and rehabilitation, she said. In the meantime, the department plans to spend $800,000 to build new bathrooms at Abell.

After the budget hearings on Monday, seven Democrats and Republicans on the budget panel sent a letter to Gov. Christine Todd Whitman endorsing the commissioner's plans.

Ms. Guhl assured them that the changes would bring overdue improvements.

''I am confident that both the short- and long-term census reduction plans, as well as the physical plant, staffing and programming improvements, will lead to a better therapeutic environment for our Greystone patients,'' Ms. Guhl told the legislators. ''You have my commitment to that end.''

 

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