Excerpt from the Dayton Business Journal
Wright State University plans to update the Ellis Human Development Institute — a counseling and mental health services facility at the eastern edge of the Wolf Creek neighborhood — to better serve its clients and trainees. The institute provides low-cost behavioral health services to the west Dayton corridor and helps individuals throughout Southwest Ohio.
The proposed $1.4 million project involves renovating the restrooms, reception desk, front door, signage and parking lot to ensure better accessibility and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance. Other aspects of the project involve deferred maintenance, such as upgrading or replacing the HVAC system, repairing the roof and masonry and resealing the windows, according to project documents.
“The need to ensure that our building continues to be accessible is particularly crucial at this time in our history,” said Dr. La Pearl Logan Winfrey, outgoing dean of the School of Professional Psychology (SOPP) at WSU. “According to national figures, 20% of adults and 17% of youth will experience some form of mental illness (this year) … and rates are rising across the board, particularly for groups like veterans.”
To ensure the proposal moves forward, Wright State requested $440,000 in financial support this year through the Dayton Regional Priority Development and Advocacy Committee (PDAC) — an arm of the Dayton Development Coalition (DDC) that establishes regional priorities for funding public projects.
If awarded, those funds will go toward construction and capital expenses.
The project could be crucial to those who rely on the institute’s services in west Dayton — a region that has long been subject to health disparities.
“In recent years, we’ve lost access to mental health services in that area — both with the closing of Day-Mont and obviously with the closing of Good Samaritan Hospital,” Winfrey said. “Thus, accessibility for agencies like the Ellis Institute are even more important to the continued provision of quality behavioral health care and preparation of an innovative health service psychology workforce.”
