Walden Behavioral Will Bring Costs As Well As Revenue

Walden Behavioral Care:  Costs to the Town of Framingham

At each of Walden Behavioral Care’s meetings to discuss its proposal for the Marist property, Walden CEO Dr. Stuart Koman has stressed the approximately $200,000 per year in property taxes that Walden would bring to the town. Framingham is certainly in need of additional tax revenue, but the additional revenue does not come without costs.

Many have pointed out that the value of homes near the facility will lose value, and the resulting decrease in property taxes will offset the increase in tax revenue from Walden. Another, less discussed cost due to Walden Behavioral Care will be additional emergency calls to Framingham Fire and Police forces.

Emergency Calls

When questions about safety were raised at public meetings, Walden representatives have assured us that patients are “typically” non-violent and that any violence is directed at themselves. If Walden patients are not a danger to neighbors, why will there be emergency calls to fire and police?

Articles written by Walden staff  explain the reason for the calls. Eating disorder patients also suffer from co-occurrence conditions, according to Dr. Koman. “Co-morbidities are common. Many patients with eating disorders also suffer from post-traumatic-stress disorder or depression. Some have obsessive-compulsive disorders or practice self-harming behavior, such as cutting or burning themselves. A dual diagnosis of chemical dependency or alcohol abuse is also common,” he writes in  A “Continuum of Care” Approach To Eating Disorders.[1]

Consider these findings published in “Eating Disorders Review” March/April 2012[2] by Melissa Freizinger, PhD,  Director of the Intensive Care Outpatient Department at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham and her colleague, Caroline Balz, LMHC, a mental health counselor at the same facility:

“The statistics are sobering: Suicide mortality rates among patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are much higher than rates among the general population. AN has the highest suicide rate of all psychiatric disorders.”

“Suicide rates among women with comorbid alcohol use disorders are 57 times greater than the expected rates among healthy women… Suicidal AN patients also frequently turn to extremely lethal measures to attempt to take their lives, including burning, hanging, and jumping in front of trains,” write Freizinger and Balz.

In addition to self-harming incidents, eating disorder patients have an increased occurrence of heart attacks and other side effects, reports the Cleveland Center for Eating Disorders.[3]

So why will a suicide attempt and a heart attack result in an emergency call? Remember, if granted a special permit, Walden Behavioral Care plans to move its Waltham Hub to Framingham and set up an 80-bed hospital on the Marist property.

However, Walden is not a full-service hospital. It doesn’t have an emergency room or emergency medical staff who can respond to and/or treat these emergencies such as cardiac incidents and self-inflicted injuries. Any attempted suicide or other medical incident will result in a 911 call which will bring a fire truck from the Framingham Fire Department and an ambulance down Pleasant Street. The patient would then be rushed to Metrowest Medical Center. 

Estimated Number of Emergency Calls

How often will these events occur?  As a point of comparison, let’s examine Walden’s facility in Waltham, which is located at 9 Hope Avenue in the former Waltham Hospital facility. Walden’s Alcott Center consists of 22 beds for inpatient eating disorders and its Thoreau Center consists of 23 beds for inpatient psychiatric patients. Walden Place consists of two apartments at 60 Hope Avenue, each with four beds for a total of 53 beds in Waltham.

Waltham’s police logs[4] for January through June, 2013 show  a total of 38 calls to Walden facilities during just a six-month period:  33 to 9 Hope and 5 to Walden Place apartments. That breaks down to an average of approximately six to seven per month or an average of 76 calls per year.

The Waltham Fire Department has been called to Walden facilities 41 times over a two-year period or roughly 20 times per year. Adding police and fire calls means that Waltham public services answered roughly 96 from calls from Walden in a year.

Walden has 53 beds in Waltham, but it proposes 80 beds in Framingham. More beds will mean more calls. To make a rough estimate of the number of calls, compare it with the higher number of beds in Framingham:

Beds in Framingham / beds in Waltham x calls in Waltham = estimated calls in Framingham

80/53 x 96 = 144.9 or approximately 145 calls per year.

It’s difficult to put a dollar cost on each additional police or fire call, but each call will add to the burden on these departments and result in wear and tear on equipment and staff.

Ambulances will also be require for medical emergencies. Ambulance runs will be billed to the patient’s insurance, but calls to Walden will tie up one of Framingham’s only three ambulances.

Second, we must consider the costs in time. Obviously, Walden will need to meet with fire, police, and school officials to develop and implement a proper safety and security plan.

Reduced Value of Surrounding Homes

The cost of reduced revenue due to the loss of value of surrounding homes will be more significant loss to the town. The Framingham ZBA or Planning Board must conduct a more detailed impact study of expense to the town before Walden’s proposal can be considered.

The study must include an analysis of  how property values have decreased in the past for homes  near the many existing human service facilities in Framingham. The results can then be extrapolated to estimate the decrease in values and taxes that would result if Walden’s proposal is accepted. The reduced tax revenue from neighboring homes must then be compared to the increase from Walden Behavioral.

The Framingham ZBA hearing on Walden’s request for a special permit is scheduled for July 9th at 7:00 p.m. at the Memorial Building. Please attend and voice your views.

[1] http://www.waldenbehavioralcare.com/pdfs/ContinuumOfCare.pdf  Stuart Koman, Ph.D. President and CEO, Walden Behavioral Care

[2] http://www.eatingdisordersreview.com/nl/nl_edr_23_2_4.html Working with Patients at Risk of Suicide, Eating Disorders Review,  March/April 2012 Volume 23, Number 2

[3] http://www.eatingdisorderscleveland.org/blog/bid/34424/Medical-Complications-of-Eating-Disorders-Cardiac-Complications

[4] http://www.city.waltham.ma.us/police-department/pages/police-blotter-arrest-log At 9 Hope only incidents identified as Walden Behavioral, Alcott, or Thoreau were counted. At 60 Hope, only incidents identified as apartment 121, the location of Walden’s Walden Place were counted.