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The Center Square [By Kim Jarrett] –
State and local leaders will consider a new site for a psychiatric hospital that serves 52 counties in east Tennessee.
Gov. Bill Lee said an ongoing archeological review found that 73% of the state-owned site in Chattanooga is a “multi-component archaeological site containing buried layers of historic and precontact materials, occupation surfaces, and features.”
The survey found no human remains or burials, but the site could contain some, according to the review. New South Associates conducted the study using minimally invasive techniques, according to Christi Branscom, commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of General Services.
The Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute was founded in 1961, and this was the first archeological review, according to Lee.
“Through this process, we have learned what we needed to know to make this important decision,” said Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain. “Improved and increased mental health services are still a critical and urgent need for our community and our state. Now we must focus our efforts on how and where to best meet those needs going forward.”
The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services will adapt its plans, as it promised when appearing before the State Building Commission in 2023, said Commissioner Marie Williams.
“We know that publicly funded psychiatric beds are an essential emergency mental health safety net for our neighbors who have the greatest needs and little or no ability to pay for treatment,” Williams said. “Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute will continue to provide these essential services to its 52-county coverage area while we work diligently to determine next steps. Until that determination is made, we will continue to operate the beds at MBMHI to provide high-quality care to the patients we serve.”
Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp said he is supporting the state’s efforts to find a new location for the hospital.
“This decision is in many ways the culmination of decades of determined advocacy by countless local leaders, including my father, that we honor the extraordinary history of Moccasin Bend,” Wamp said in a statement.
