By Parker Leavitt | The Arizona Republic
Elementary-school parents crammed Gilbert Town Hall on Thursday to protest plans to build a mental- and behavioral-health hospital just a few hundred feet from where their children have recess.
Springstone, a Kentucky-based hospital operator, hopes to open Gilbert’s first behavioral-health institution by fall 2014, but concerned neighbors and parents from Pioneer Elementary School are mobilizing against the company.
The $14 million, 72-bed Saguaro Springs hospital proposed for a site near Greenfield and Baseline roads would offer mental and addiction-recovery help for adult patients who live temporarily at the facility.
Inpatient treatment would cover general behavioral-health disorders, with the most common being anxiety and depression, Springstone Chief Development Officer Dan Beuerlein said.
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