Mental Health Center Fuels Worry : Reseda: A petition drive opposes a treatment facility’s plans to move next to a church and elementary school.

At first, the news caused barely a ripple of concern: A public facility in Van Nuys that treats the mentally ill planned to relocate next door to a private elementary school and church in Reseda.

But now, with site preparations under way, the impending move of the state-funded, county-managed Crisis Management Center--to be revamped and renamed the West Valley Mental Health Center--has set off riptides of controversy.

To hear many people involved at St. Catherine of Siena School and Church tell it, the aim of their protest is to say, in effect, “There goes the neighborhood.” Students’ parents and parishioners have gathered 1,000 signatures from community members on a petition opposing the facility.

Principal Don Dyer said he worries that when classes reopen after summer recess, an anticipated 340 pupils--from kindergarten through the eighth grade--will be at risk.

“Our children will walk right past the front door of that facility when they arrive each day,” he said. “There’s really nothing that would keep people who are disoriented, depressed and dangerous from congregating in our parking lot, which also serves as our playground.”

His concerns are shared by the church’s pastor, Father Sean Flanagan, who spearheaded the petition drive. When the director of the crisis center spoke “to our parents about three weeks ago, an alarm went up--and he was far from reassuring,” Flanagan said. “He said, ‘We’ll put up a fence between you and our facility.’ We asked him, ‘Why do we need a fence?’ And he said, ‘For your protection.’ We said, ‘Protection from what?’ ”

For their part, Los Angeles County officials--who already have approved the move--and mental health services advocates insist that the facility poses no danger to the community. They say it is not a drug rehabilitation center and will provide outpatient counseling and treatment, crisis intervention and orientation classes aimed at enabling patients to return to society’s mainstream.

“Let’s face it, people are going to do worse without treatment than with treatment,” said Dr. Areta Crowell, county mental health director.

Dr. Ron Klein, the center’s director for the past eight years, said the facility is badly needed in the West Valley. His will be the first of six such county-run centers to serve residents west of Sepulveda Boulevard.

“Unfortunately, there are misconceptions about the services we provide,” Klein said. “Contrary to what I’ve been hearing, we do not dispense medication and we don’t bus people from other areas into our center.”

Klein added that the center’s security guards are hired to “protect our own staff and people who attend our clinics.” But Flanagan said the guards’ presence is, in itself, unsettling.

As for the need of a fence to protect the church and school, Klein said he merely proposed installing a “canvas tarp, similar to those on fences of tennis courts, to make everybody feel more comfortable.”

A mental health advocate agrees with Klein’s view that many opponents of the center are ill-informed.

“It’s too bad that many people have become panicky because of misinformation,” said Judy Cooperberg, an official with the San Fernando Valley office of the National Mental Health Assn. “On top of that, this panic stems from the stigma attached to mental illness and from a bad case of ‘NIMBYism.’ ” The term means “not in my back yard.”

The controversy will be addressed at a public forum at 7 tonight at the Reseda Woman’s Club, 7901 Lindley Ave.

One issue expected to come up during the forum is whether a city zoning ordinance prohibits treatment facilities from operating near schools.

County Supervisor Ed Edelman and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus said they will send representatives to the public forum.

“Crisis centers are good things--we need them,” Edelman said. “However, we also have to be sensitive to all persons concerned--to those who are served by them and those who won’t be served by them.”

Picus also said the facility is needed but expressed concern about Crisis Management Center’s prospective location.

“It’s important that the county abide by our zoning regulations,” she said, “and I’d like to help the facility find a better location.”