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Charter school campus eyed for downtown mental health center

Record Searchlight - 9/28/2016

Sept. 28--Hill Country Health & Wellness Center wants to open a mental resource center downtown across the street from the shuttered Redding Inn.

The facility would provide better care for those battling mental illness and reduce the use of hospital emergency rooms, Hill Country Health CEO Lynn Dorroh said.

It would be staffed by licensed mental health professionals and case managers, and the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness also would be housed there. The hours would be 2 to 11 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekends and holidays.

Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency has contracted with Hill Country Health to operate the mental health center. The county anticipates $1.34 million per fiscal year through June 30, 2019. The money is coming from the Mental Health Services Act, California Department of Social Services and Mental Health Realignment.

Both Hill Country Health and Northern Valley Catholic Social Services applied for the right to run the center.

The Gold Street building under consideration currently is home to Shasta Charter Academy. The school will relocate to a new campus off Park Marina Drive later this fall. Dorroh said her nonprofit would lease the building from the charter school.

However, Dorroh emphasized that it's not a done deal. Plans still need city approval and the school's board of directors has not OK'd the lease.

Dorroh and Ben Claassen, director of Shasta Charter Academy, hosted a neighborhood meeting Monday to address questions about the project. Residents and neighboring business owners attended.

Dorroh and Claasen tried to reassure their neighbors that the center is not a homeless center or shelter, and also addressed concerns about loitering and the potential for criminal activity, problems neighbors say have diminished since the Redding Inn closed last spring.

"What we emphasized last night is this project is not targeting homeless people. This project is targeting people with urgent mental health needs," Dorroh said Tuesday.

Some are not convinced. Nikki Sondh has owned Gold Street Liquors, just west of the charter school, since 2000. She wants to see change come to downtown Redding and is encouraged that Riverfront Playhouse plans to open a new theater in the neighborhood.

Sondh, who attended Monday's meeting, is emphatic that Shasta County needs a mental health resource center. But she is just as adamant that it doesn't belong at the school site and believes the facility will become a de-facto homeless shelter that attracts individuals with mental health needs.

"Smack dab in the middle of downtown Redding?" Sondh said Tuesday afternoon inside her store. "I thought we were changing the vibe of downtown."

Richard Christoph lives at Sonoma and Waldon streets and is a Wildwood Park Neighborhood Watch captain. He was at Monday's meeting and came away feeling better about the project.

"I went quite frankly with some resistance and came out of the meeting being mildly supportive," he said. "My view is it will probably be a net positive. ... We are going to have someplace lit and staffed until 11 at night. I think that would be a great thing."

Christoph also credited Dorroh and Claassen for holding the presentation.

"You didn't need to do that, in terms of having a meeting like this, but they want to be good neighbors," Christoph said.

Based in Round Mountain, Hill Country Health within the last year opened a satellite medical clinic on Lake Boulevard and North Point Drive in Redding.

Opening a mental health center will complement that facility and provide a more holistic approach to health care, Dorroh said.

"So we have this inclination to integrate mental health and behavioral health services into primary care," she said. "We really believe that is the right solution for a person with serious mental illness."

Stacey Christensen, who manages Ellis Art & Engineering Supplies across the street from the former Redding Inn, also was at Monday's neighborhood meeting.

"I don't know," Christensen said Tuesday. "In one aspect it would be nice to have somebody here. But another aspect is I have concerns what could happen."

But Christensen has an open mind.

"I understand they want to help mental health," she said. "I just need more information."

Claassen of Shasta Charter Academy did not return a phone message seeking comment.

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