Summit County ADM Board to open mental health center
Facility named after late Hudson resident Dr. Fred Frese
by Emily Canning-Dean
The Summit County Alcohol Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board is hopeful that a new 16-bed mental health facility will be up and running in Sagamore Hills by early next year.
“Our worst-case scenario is for the project to be finished in February 2026,” said Aimee Wade, executive director of the Summit County ADM Board. “But we are hoping our construction team can mitigate some of that time loss and we will be able to open earlier.”
Ground broke on the $9.9 million facility, which is the result of a partnership between the Summit County ADM Board and the state, back in October. The Dr. Fred Frese Residential Center will be located on the grounds of the former Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare facility on Sagamore Road.
The facility will service male and female clients 18 and older who are transitioning from psychiatric hospital care, but need additional treatment before returning to the community. While clients are treated for acute issues while hospitalized, the purpose of this new facility is to offer counseling and other services to address challenges clients are facing. The average stay is expected to be between 60 and 90 days.
“We are targeting clients who are exiting psychiatric hospitalization and were civilly committed patients who were not involved with any type of criminal activity,” Wade said. “This is an opportunity to step down and still have access to some clinical support and tools they need before reintegrating into the community.”
Wade said that Community Support Services, one of the larger mental health providers in Summit County, will be operating the facility.
“This agency has a long history of working with this population,” she said.
Wade said the need for these types of step-down facilities is not unique to Summit County and added that there are similar types of facilities throughout the state.
“We modeled our facility after Dani’s Place in Lucas County,” she said. “We have found that our state hospitals are running at almost capacity and more forensic clients leaves less space and opportunities at those hospitals for clients who are not criminal-justice involved.”
The center will be partially funded with $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars, while the balance will be funded through local levy dollars. The facility will be available to residents of Summit, Portage, Geauga, Cuyahoga, Lake and Lorain counties.
Dr. Fred Frese
Wade said the facility will be named after Hudson resident Dr. Fred Frese III, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and served as a renowned advocate for individuals suffering from mental illnesses.
“Dr. Frese was a renowned advocate worldwide,” Wade said. “He worked very persistently to advocate for those with mental illnesses. Many of these types of facilities around the state are named after individuals who experienced tragedies due to mental health, but Dr. Frese passed away in 2018 under natural conditions, so naming the facility after him gave us the opportunity to focus on the hope considering everything he advocated for and prevailed through.”
Frese had delivered more than 2,000 presentations locally, nationally and internationally in a career that stretched more than 40 years, according to his obituary. He taught psychiatry at Northeast Ohio Medical University; served as a clinical assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University; served as a coordinator of the Summit County Recovery Project and previously worked as director of Psychology at Western Reserve Psychiatric Hospital, it said.
Wade said she thinks the location on Sagamore Road is a prime location for this new facility.
“It’s a nice spot of land that offers nice views of the park,” she said. “We have designed the facility to have a lot of windows to give our clients views of the park. Being around nature does wonders for mental health. We think the space is a good fit and we look forward to being a good neighbor in the community.”
Sagamore Hills Trustee Paul Schweikert said he doesn’t think the facility will bring a large amount of tax revenue to the community, but added that he thinks it will still be an asset. “In the past, people who were suffering with a bad bout of depression didn’t have anywhere to go,” he said. “But this place will be a place they can go where there will be professionals who can help them and give them the right tools to deal with things. I don’t see any negative to it.”