AUGUSTA (AP) – With a new, $33 million state psychiatric hospital due to open within months, a judge has placed the existing state hospital in receivership because of a failure to improve conditions for patients.

But opening the 92-bed Riverview Psychiatric Center on a lot adjacent to the 163-year-old Augusta Mental Health Institute will not free the state from a court decree demanding improvements, a lawyer representing patients said Monday.

“This is not tied in my mind to the new hospital,” said Helen Bailey, an attorney with the Disability Rights Center who has represented AMHI patients since their class action suit was filed in 1989.

But Bailey said she sees other reasons to be hopeful that the state will achieve compliance with a 1990 consent decree that settled the patients’ suit.

“What gives me some optimism is that the judge means business, the court master means business, and I think the Legislature certainly wants it resolved,” said Bailey. “That gives me more hope than the new hospital.”

Last Wednesday, Superior Court Chief Justice Nancy Mills ordered that a receiver be appointed to operate AMHI, saying it became clear that the state will not achieve substantial compliance with the consent decree in the near future.

The receiver, who has not yet been appointed, is authorized to oversee a wide range of executive functions at the hospital and will report to a court-appointed master, Bailey said.

Former Chief Justice Daniel Wathen was appointed master earlier this month.

In her nine-page order last week, Mills also authorized the appointment of a second receiver to operate Maine’s community-based mental health system, also to achieve compliance with the 1990 consent decree. But the judge put off the receiver’s appointment for six months.

The court’s action drew the attention of the chairmen of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, which issued a statement saying they are “deeply concerned” about Mills’ order.

The committee had already scheduled a briefing on AMHI at a meeting this Wednesday.

“Now that takes on new urgency,” said Rep. Thomas Kane, D-Saco and House chairman of the committee. “We expect to hear from the attorney general’s office, the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services and the administration.”

A statement issued by Kane and the Senate chairman of the committee, Democrat Michael Brennan of Portland, said the Legislature has made adequate funding for mental health services a priority. It also quoted from Mills’ order in May that said, “This is not a failure of funding … This is a failure of management.”

Bailey noted that the court has already found the state to be in compliance with standards in the consent decree addressing their living environment, such as temperature control and air quality in the old AMHI building.

“So, presumably, when they move into the new building, they will not fall out of compliance,” Bailey said.

But the state was found to be out of compliance on issues such as staffing ratios, treatment and integration into the community, she said.

The opening date for the new Riverview facility, which has already been pushed from August to September, now may be delayed until Jan. 10 because of construction delays, according to state officials.

While Riverview’s completion date is now set for Nov. 1, it will take until Jan. 10 to train the staff, test systems in the facility and make other preparations for the move, said Marya Faust, project manager for Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services.

AP-ES-09-15-03 1615EDT