YOUNGSTOWN — At the end of a 40-minute hearing Tuesday, Caleb West, 42, hugged a staff member when he learned he would be transferred from Heartland Behavioral Healthcare to Horizon House, a community-based facility in Youngstown.

He was pleased because after more than seven years mostly spent at the state mental hospital in Mansfield, he will be back in the community again.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito found West, of Youngstown, not competent to stand trial in 2017 because of mental health issues. Since then, West has been receiving treatment at Heartland and assessments every two years to determine the least restrictive place for him that takes into account public safety and treatment goals.

Horizon House is part of COMPASS Family and Community Services, a non-profit that provides services such as residential treatment and permanent supportive housing, according to its website.

Horizon House is a residential facility that provides “treatment and ongoing stabilization for persons experiencing or recovering from severe and persistent mental illness,” the website states.

“This less restrictive setting provides diagnostic assessments, individual counseling, substance use counseling, group therapy, medication evaluation and monitoring by psychiatric physicians and nurses, case management, residential/life skill services and structured therapeutic recreational activities,” the site states.

STABBING

West was charged with felonious assault for allegedly stabbing his brother at the home on Western Boulevard where West lived in 2016. West said he thought he was stabbing an intruder before learning it was his brother, according to news reports at the time.

Dr. Zev Goldberg, unit psychologist at Heartland, and others recommended to Judge D’Apolito in recent months that West be transferred to a less restrictive type of treatment in the community. And after a lengthy discussion during a hearing with Goldberg and Jamye Cruse, Mahoning County forensic monitor for the Forensic Psychiatric Center of Northeast Ohio in Austintown, D’Apolito agreed.

The judge quizzed Goldberg, who shared a video hookup from Heartland with West, about incidents in recent years that worked against a less restrictive placement for West. But Goldberg said he believes there is a good plan now in place that involves West “moving on to residential treatment, which would involve ongoing supervision and monitoring.”

Goldberg said that last June, he recommended that West continue to be committed at Heartland “because we felt he needed more experience on Level 5, which is independent movement within the community.”

Since last June, West has had visits in the community. Since that time, Heartland staff have been able to “assess his ability to cope with that,” Goldberg said. Heartland staff have also “worked with people in the community to “develop a plan that ensures the safety of the community,” Goldberg said.

Two of West’s uncles, James Stringer and Ray West, attended the hearing Tuesday and stated their support for West coming back to Youngstown and pledged to be involved in his care.

“We will be able to continue to get him help if he needs it,” Stringer said. “We are confident that with our help, prodding along and encouragement, we can keep him on the straight and narrow.”

Goldberg and Cruse mentioned that D’Apolito’s jurisdiction over West’s criminal case will end this November because West can only be committed to a mental hospital for up to eight years for his offense, a second-degree felony. West needs to be released after that, they said.

“After the court’s jurisdiction is terminated, I would assume (West) would have to be committed to (Heartland) to stay beyond that. I’m optimistic that’s not going to be necessary, that the family will work with (Horizon House) to find an appropriate, permanent residence,” Goldberg said.

After that discussion, D’Apolito said transferring West to Horizon House “really gives (West) the best chance of transitioning back into the community in the time frame we have left.” He said West can go to Horizon House “under the care and supervision of a lock-down, transitioning to a non-lock-down facility under a doctor’s care.”

Goldberg agreed with the judge’s statement, saying West has some of the services he has now because of him being under the supervision of the judge. “After the court’s jurisdiction lapses,” many of the services “won’t be there. He would no longer have a forensic monitor who makes sure he adheres to the plan,” Goldberg said.