RELEASE: November 20, 2003

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New Greystone Project Moves Forward

Keeping a promise to mental health advocates, Gov. James E. McGreevey announced today that the state has settled on final plans for Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital to be replaced by a more compact hospital that can accommodate up to 460 patients.

The final design – being developed by project architects The Vitetta Group – will feature a 400-bed hospital that is entirely self-contained, integrating administrative offices and the patients’ residential, treatment and program areas under a single roof. Ten cottages on the current Greystone campus will be maintained as part of the hospital, providing another 60 beds for patients who need less intensive treatment and security.

In response to input that has been received from the mental health community, the plan provides 50 beds more than proposed by the architects when three design options were presented to the Greystone Board of Trustees in August.

Human Services Commissioner Gwendolyn L. Harris said the beds were added in response to public comments on the plan, to ensure that Greystone can handle any unforeseen increases in patient census. The building also will be designed to allow a future 50-bed expansion, if needed.

“This plan gives us a flexible, compact and efficient hospital that will serve our clients well for many decades,” said Gov. McGreevey. “We are keeping the promises we made to people with mental illness. Despite dire economic times, we must care for the most vulnerable among us.”

“That we are proceeding on this project despite the state’s financial condition is a testament to this administration’s commitment to serving people with mental illnesses,” added Commissioner Harris.

Final architectural plans for the new hospital are not yet finished, but preliminary estimates for the total cost range from $155 million to $170 million.

The Greystone project is a three-way partnership between the Department of Human Services, the New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority (HCFFA), which will arrange the financing, and the state Economic Development Authority, which is providing construction design and management services.

Last week, the HCFFA board approved the issuance of up to $25 million in bonds to complete the final design, demolish a former dormitory building, and reconstruct a public road to avoid the site of the new hospital.

Greystone, which first opened in 1876, currently houses about 550 patients in several building spread across a sprawling campus. The Department decided to replace Greystone because the inefficient layout and the aging buildings raised operating costs and made it difficult to properly treat and supervise patients.

The proposed new hospital is expected to accommodate fewer patients as additional community services are expanded statewide over the next two years as a result of the Redirection II plan.

Redirection II is a multi-year effort to increase community-based treatment and residential programs for patients who are capable for returning to their communities and to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations of people with mental illness who live in the community.

Despite the state’s fiscal crisis, Governor McGreevey’s budget this year included a $10 million funding increase for Redirection II.

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