DETROIT – Detroit East Health Services is closing it's doors at the end of the month to patients after helping the community with mental health and substance abuse problems for more than 40 years.
The center is located at Mack and Mt. Elliott on Detroit's east side and will close on October 31. According to the trout Wayne Mental Health Authority, it serves about 800 consumers, or patients.
Jennifer Greer has been using their services for two years.
"I was in a rut. There were so many things that I was going through that I couldn't deal with. It's [Detroit East Health Services] a comfort zone and a second home," said Greer.
Greer has received a lot of help from the center with housing and jobs among other things.
"They helped me with a peace of mind, clothing, food even so much as going out of their pockets to give me bus fair to go back and forth to work, who do you know does that, you know what I'm saying," said Greer.
Dwayne Anderson has also used the facility for a number of years and now that the service will be closing by the end of the month, he doesn't know what to do.
"We have nowhere to go. To me, it's going to make a major meltdown in this community," he said.
An employee who did not want to be identified also believes there will be problems once it closes.
"It's gonna be a lot of problems for the businesses. It's gonna be a lot of problems for the residents and for what, for corruption, for personal gain," the individual said.
The reason why Detroit East Health Services has not been addressed, however they did release a statement.
CareLink, the organization which contracts Detroit East Health Services, released a statement regarding the closure:
"Detroit East Health Services continues to serve and treat our consumers on a daily basis. The consumers and the employees at Detroit East are indeed most important to the stabilization and continuous growth in this community. We value the longstanding relationship we have with the community and we respect the importance of the services that our consumers have come to expect from us. As we look to wind down our clinical operations over the next thirty days, we are extremely excited too and are actively working with the Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority on an orderly transition that serves the best interests of the consumers. We recognize that the consumers have a choice in determining where they receive future services.
We look forward to providing more expanded opportunities and even greater services to consumers in this community. To that end, Detroit East will be hosting a Health/Resources Fair next week. We have already received confirmation that at least six behavioral health service providers will be present for the event. We are pleased to welcome the appropriate agencies to Detroit East for such resource/heath sharing. This is an important initiative that will allow current DEHS consumers to make informed choices about where to go for continued services.
Detroit East is exploring opportunities to serve other unmet needs within our community in the future, focusing on workforce development and job training. This promises to be an even brighter future for those in this area, which is often under-served and overlooked in both programs and services."
"CareLink has been working closely with the Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority and Detroit East to assure a seamless transition of care for all affected consumers. Our primary concern is that everyone served by Detroit East has the opportunity to choose a new provider that will meet their particular needs. We will be very active over the next 30 days providing resources to support consumers."
CareLink along with the Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority will provide fairs starting next week at Detroit East Health Services for consumers to find other resources in the area.
The fairs will be held on Tuesday, October 11th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. A number of providers including Adult Well Being, Northwest Guidance Center, New Center Community Mental Health, DCI/North Central, Detroit Central City, and Team Wellness Center will be there.