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Mental Health Facility Not In Plans

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: February 15, 2009

WESLEY CHAPEL - There won't be a mental health center built in the Seven Oaks community, according to what developer Craig Weber told Pasco County commissioners last week.

BayCare Health System's plans for the land it owns in Seven Oaks, near Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, call for medical offices and other services that would support a recently approved hospital across the highway on Wiregrass Ranch, Weber said.

"That's their plan," he said.

BayCare sought state approval to build a hospital on its portion of Seven Oaks but lost out to a joint project put together by Orlando-based Adventist Health System and Tampa's University Community Health.

Windmere-based Ten Broeck has received state approval for a secure, 40-bed mental health facility that would serve patients detained under the state's Baker Act, which allows for the temporary hospitalization of people with mental disorders deemed a threat to themselves or others, and the Marchman Act, which deals with people impaired because of drug or alcohol abuse.

The for-profit company has targeted two Wesley Chapel ZIP codes - 33543 and 33544 - and the Bruce B. Downs corridor as likely areas for building its facility, which would serve eastern Pasco and part of northern Hillsborough County.

Ten Broeck's filings with the state's Agency for Health Care Administration include letters of support from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and police chiefs in Zephyrhills and Dade City.

People detained for mental health or substance abuse issues in east Pasco now must go to New Port Richey for evaluation.

In response to county commissioners' questions last week, Weber said that BayCare owns all the hospital-related land and permits in Seven Oaks and has no plans to offer any of them to Ten Broeck.

BayCare spokeswoman Amy Lovett confirmed that later.

"We have no plans with Ten Broeck," Lovett said.

As for the medical complex, Lovett said that remains in the planning stages.

"We're trying to determine the needs of the community," Lovett said.

The complex could offer outpatient medical care and other services not requiring a state hospital certificate, she said.
Seven Oaks residents, who have vigorously opposed the Ten Broeck proposal, said they remain concerned about its plans for their area.

"We wouldn't particularly dispute what Craig stated because the BayCare lots within Seven Oaks are not the same lots in Seven Oaks that Ten Broeck listed in their application," Seven Oaks resident Carl Meyer said.

Meyer and other residents say Ten Broeck would be better off - and meet the needs of east Pasco's police agencies - if it looked for a site farther east and north. They've suggested sites along Curley Road and elsewhere in east Pasco.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.

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