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Meehl House cleared to open
Published July 14, 2009
BRAZORIA — The rooms are empty and the house is quiet for now, but Debra and Mark Meehl hope things will change at their Brazoria home soon.
After winning a three-year legal battle against their neighbors, the couple plans to open the doors to their bipolar after-treatment facility in September.
“I’m pretty excited,” said Mark Meehl, who has bipolar disorder. “We have a program that works. We just need to get people in the house.”
LEGAL TROUBLES
The Meehls are getting ready to open the facility after a deadline passed for the neighbors to appeal a reversal from the Texas 14th Court of Appeals. The appeals court in April issued a reversal of a 2006 injunction barring the couple from keeping bipolar patients in their home.
The injunction violated the Meehls’ right to open a community home, according to the federal Community Homes Act, cited in the appellate majority opinion.
“We feel relieved,” Debra Meehl said. “This was a precedent for eliminating mental illness by deed restrictions.”
The couple built the 3,800-square-foot Meehl House, located in the Carlton Acres subdivision outside Brazoria, in 2006. But not long after the home was finished, neighbors living in the subdivision filed a lawsuit hoping to bar the home from providing after-treatment care.
The neighbors felt deed restrictions allowed only single-family housing to be built in the Carlton Acres subdivision, their attorney Keith Vaughan said. Brazoria County District Judge Pat Sebesta agreed and signed an injunction in 2006.
A deadline for the neighbors to appeal the appellate reversal passed and the Meehls now can open their doors, Vaughan said.
“They decided not to pursue any further appeals,” he said.
Vaughan delivered oral arguments to the appellate court for the neighbors though he became Houston’s senior assistant attorney in December. Since he no longer represents the neighbors, Vaughan said he could not comment further.
Several neighbors listed in the original lawsuit declined to comment or did not return messages seeking comment.
COPING WITH STRESS
Bipolar disorder is a condition that causes an individual to have radical mood swings that can last from weeks to months.
The Meehl House was designed to take in four people at a time who have received treatment for bipolar disorder, Debra Meehl said. Once at the Meehl House, clients will receive Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, which is a type of cognitive behavior therapy that helps bipolar patients reconcile their emotions with logical thinking.
The patients will learn everyday skills to learn how to keep their emotions in check and not act out, Mark Meehl said.
He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder six years ago Wednesday and he received DBT treatment.
“It makes a huge difference,” he said. “We would not be where we’re at without the DBT. You have to learn skills that will help you step back from a potentially stressful situation.”
The Meehl House is a private facility that will offer after-treatment care only, the Meehls said. The home will not accept violent or sex offenders nor will they have patients who are actively psychotic, Debra Meehl said.
Aside from the DBT, patients also can participate in arts, horticulture, nutrition and counseling programs available at the home, Debra Meehl said.
“They can transition back into the community,” she said. “That’s what we all want.”
A SECOND HOME
While the Meehl House fought to open its doors for bipolar patients, the Meehls did start offering DBT counseling in Lake Jackson in 2007.
The couple hired Lucinda Johnstone, who has bipolar disorder, to help start giving DBT sessions in Lake Jackson. While offering therapy in Lake Jackson, Johnstone also opened up the Venn House in Lake Jackson, which offers the same services the Meehl House will when it opens, Debra Meehl said.
Johnstone has said she feels called to counsel bipolar patients since she is bipolar herself. She owns and operates the Venn House.
Johnstone said Meehl House clients likely will move into the less restrictive Venn House when they are ready. The Venn House does not have on-site supervision like the Meehl House will, but patients still will be monitored, Johnstone said.
“There’s not a day goes by that I don’t make contact with the Venn House clients,” she said.
Clients undergoing the DBT process at the Venn House also are expected to take more responsibility, Debra Meehl said.
“They either have to work, volunteer or go to school 20 hours a week,” she said.
The Meehl and Venn houses will share resources and clients likely will shuffle to and from both facilities for various therapy sessions or training, Johnstone said.
The Meehl House is ready to start accepting clients, but the Meehls want to wait after their long legal battle.
“We’d kind of like to take a breath,” Debra Meehl said.
The couple has sent e-mails to those who work in with the mentally ill, trying to spread the word about the opening.
“You have no idea who out there needs help,” Debra Meehl said.
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