FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Teresa Ruiz

April 25, 2005 973-621-4404

Anthony Puglisi

973-621-2542

ESSEX COUNTY EXECUTIVE DIVINCENZO ANNOUNCES START OF

CONSTRUCTION FOR NEW, STATE-OF-THE-ART HOSPITAL CENTER

Project Moves from Concept Idea to Groundbreaking in Less than One Year

Cedar Grove, NJ – Almost 25 years ago, family members of patients at the Essex County Hospital Center started lobbying to have the century-old hospital complex replaced with a new facility. In just the last 12 months, Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr.’s administration has chosen an architect, designed the new hospital center and hired a general contractor.

Another important step forward was made on Monday, April 25th, when DiVincenzo presided over a groundbreaking ceremony for the modern hospital building on Grove Avenue in Cedar Grove, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2006.

“In less than 12 months, our plan to build a new Hospital Center has evolved from being just a concept to being fully designed. The site has been cleared and prepared, and a contractor has been hired and the first shovel put into the ground,” DiVincenzo said. “My administration is committed to building a modern Hospital Center that will provide a safe and respectable environment for Essex County’s most vulnerable residents and an efficient workplace for the Hospital Center Staff,” he noted.

The new hospital will be located at 204 Grove Avenue in Cedar Grove, adjacent to the Essex County College Police Academy. The property formerly was home to the State-run JINS (Juveniles in Need of Supervision) program.

“Today represents a new opportunity to give our most vulnerable citizens and their families the help they need and the care they deserve,” Acting Governor Richard J. Codey said. “With this groundbreaking, Essex County is taking an important step forward to improve access to care, provide better community-based services and offer better quality care for those who live with mental illness. I would like to commend County Executive DiVincenzo for his leadership, and for making the new Hospital Center a reality,” he added.

The four-story Hospital Center will replace the current facility, which opened in 1897, and will accommodate 180 patients. (The current population at the Hospital Center is 164 patients.) The residential rooms will be clustered in small groups so patients will never be far from hospital supervision staff. There will be a cafeteria, chapel, computer lab, library and hair care center for patients and additional rooms will be available for therapy and programs. Patients will be able to get fresh air and exercise on about three acres of open space on the hospital grounds. The Hospital Center also will have space for administration offices and exam areas.

“The vision and leadership of our County Executive have moved this process along and enabled us to make this significant step forward,” said Lucia Guarini, Director of the Hospital Center. “This is a historic day for Essex County. A new facility has been needed for decades and today we have taken a giant step closer to providing our patients with a better quality of life and our staff with modern working conditions,” she added.

“We have fought for 25 years to have the hospital remain on these grounds. Some thought this day would never come,” said Regina Palo, a member of the National Association for the Mentally Ill. “Thanks to County Executive DiVincenzo, our mentally ill will be treated in a facility that is finally being brought into the 21st century,” she added. Last year after the architect had been hired, DiVincenzo announced the library in the new Hospital Center will be named after Regina Palo in recognition for her decades of advocacy for the mentally ill in Essex County.

“Today is the realization of a dream that individuals with mental illness can be treated and cared for with respect and dignity,” said Bob Davison, Executive Director of the Essex County Mental Health Association. “We are fortunate in New Jersey to have Governor Codey fulfilling our obligation on the State level to help those less fortunate and Joe DiVincenzo fulfilling our obligation on the County level,” he added.

After a comprehensive review and interview process conducted by the Essex County Department of Health and Rehabilitation, Department of Public Works and Administrator’s Office, Cannon Design of New York City was awarded a $2.788 million contract in May 2004 to design the state-of-the-art facility. Cannon Design is one of the largest health care design firms in North America and specializes in designing mental health facilities. Prismatic Development Corporation of Fairfield submitted the lowest bid among seven construction firms and recently was awarded a $58.3 million contract to build the new facility. The project is being funded by an $87 million bond ordinance approved by the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders in March. (The balance of the bond will refinance existing Hospital Center notes.)

“Our primary concern always has been the well-being of our patients, and making sure they receive the best medical attention possible. Director Guarini and Medical Director Natarajan Elangovan have done a great job raising the morale of our staff, and implementing positive and progressive medical treatments to benefit our patients, and I commend our staff for providing our patients with the highest quality of care despite having to work in the obsolete conditions at our 19th century hospital,” DiVincenzo said. “Our staff works hard to improve the quality of life for our patients using 21st century treatments. It is time we delivered those services in a 21st century building,” he noted.

An in-house Interdisciplinary Committee for Treatment Program Planning was charged with the development, implementation and continuous monitoring of a master treatment milieu and individual treatment schedules for all patients. Additional employees were recruited, including a medical director, therapeutic and rehabilitation director, social services administrator, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and hospital attendants.

The Essex County Hospital Center also reorganized its plan of care for patients. This would ensure patient outcomes were improved and increase the accountability of staff. A matrix model was instituted which blends treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation in various proportions depending on the level of acuity of the illness and the capability of the individual. A team of individual treatment providers made of psychiatrists, general practice doctors, psychologists and social workers are assigned to a patient upon admission to the hospital. This team continues to work with the patient throughout their hospital stay to promote continuity of care, appropriate patient outcomes, and discharges to less-restrictive community settings.

History of the Hospital Center

The previous administration was pursuing a plan in the mid-1990s to relocate the Hospital Center from its current site on Fairview Avenue in Cedar Grove to the former campus of United Hospital in Newark. DiVincenzo had created the ad-hoc Hospital Center Relocation Oversight Committee to review the plan. When DiVincenzo learned there was insufficient space at the former Newark hospital, he halted the process. The County is considering several options for the United Hospital building – leasing the space to a third party, selling it outright or turning the hospital building into office space to consolidate County offices in one location.

The site on Grove Avenue in Cedar Grove will be the fourth different location for the Hospital Center. The facility was founded in 1872 as a more economical way to care for the mentally ill in Essex County instead of sending patients to the New Jersey State Asylum in Morris Plains (now called Greystone). The first hospital, known as the Essex County Lunacy Asylum, was established on Camden Street in Newark. In 1884, patients from Camden Street were relocated to larger facilities built on County-owned land on South Orange Avenue in Newark.

The Grove Avenue and South Orange Avenue facilities quickly filled to capacity soon after they opened. Dr. Livingston Hinckley, one of the hospital’s superintendents, petitioned for a larger, more rural site with enough space for expansion and ancillary activities, such as farming, workshops, etc. The Essex County Committee on Public Buildings purchased 325 acres of land in Cedar Grove in 1895 and opened the new facility in 1897. Described as the parcel “just beyond the brook (the Peckman River),” the hospital became known as Overbrook until 1970. The hospital, with the adjoining Jail Annex, became a self-contained community operating its own vegetable, pig, dairy, poultry and cattle farm, butcher shop, laundry, greenhouse, tailor and print shop. When it opened, the hospital had a population of 244, which were housed in a two-story brick building. At the height of its expansion, the complex had as many as 70 buildings and 3,200 patients.

Because of advancements in medicine and treatment, and an aggressive program to have patients return to the mainstream community, the population at the Hospital Center currently averages 164 patients.

The Grove Street site where the current Hospital Center is located is part of the Hilltop property, which was sold to developers to fill a budget gap in 1995.

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