County health officials are considering space at the former Brooklyn Medical Center to offer behavioral health services starting in 2025.
Last year, the ADAMHS Board of Directors received a $6.8 million grant from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to open a new center to expand behavioral health crisis care in Cuyahoga County.
Members of the Cuyahoga County Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Commission met with MetroHealth System officials in mid-December and announced that they would be purchasing an empty space on the first floor of MetroHealth Old Brooklyn Medical Center. visited.
Dr. Olusegun Ishmael, chief operating officer and president of the hospital division, said MetroHealth intends to open the new center in mid-2025, but the emergency psychiatry division could be launched sooner.
In the meantime, St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center has agreed to continue emergency psychiatric services, said Scott Osiecki, CEO of the ADAMHS board of directors.
New crisis center will have a 'living room' for patients
Osiecki said the behavioral health crisis center will have three phases and will open as soon as patients are ready. The health crisis center will have emergency psychiatric services with 15 beds, a crisis stabilization unit with 15 beds, and a living room.
The living room model is a new concept for crisis centers where people can talk informally with behavioral health professionals and others with real-world experience. The Old Brooklyn facility's living room provides a place for mentally ill patients who may be experiencing a crisis to rest and recuperate, and where they can contact resources and doctors if they need prescription refills. I will provide a.
The living room setting allows mental health crises to be addressed early and avoids the need for psychiatric hospitalization.
“We're trying to get them the care they need as quickly as possible to avoid the downstream effects of not having access to care,” said Jim, MetroHealth's senior vice president of facilities, construction and campus transformation.・Mr. Bikak says:
Osiecki said part of the $6.8 million grant will also go towards the center's design, equipment purchases and some start-up costs. He said the ADAMHS board would pay the annual operating costs. MetroHealth will be the building's tenant and service provider.
Mental health services could help divert people from prison
The ADAMHS board is also in talks with county officials about including a detox center in the new space. The service is part of the county's diversion center, which is also managed by the ADAMHS board, Osiecki said. Diversion centers provide mental health and substance use treatment to people accused of minor crimes who would otherwise have been sent to prison.
If the behavioral health crisis center included detox services, the county would help fund it. County officials are also discussing opening a diversion center at the future prison campus in Garfield Heights.
Nationally, studies show that about 20% of prison inmates have a mental illness. Ishmael said he hopes the new center will help keep people out of the criminal legal system and get them the mental health treatment they need.
He said mental health awareness and diagnosis is increasing nationwide, but the number of mental health care providers is decreasing.
“So what we're trying to do is call out the providers of those services because clearly the community needs it,” Ishmael said.
St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center location lost
ADAMHS Board of Directors and Metro Health System officials said initial plans to open the center at the St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center fell through.
When the state approved funding last year, the ADAMHS board said the center would be a collaboration between MetroHealth and St. Vincent Charities. The center would be located in a building on the Community Health Center campus in Cleveland's Central District. ADAMHS board officials had planned to open the crisis center in fall 2024.
St. Vincent officials told the ADAMHS board in November that the site would not serve as space for the new center, Osiecki said.
St. Vincent health officials confirmed in a statement to Signal Cleveland that the building is in need of repairs and cannot support a behavioral health center.
State aid is a one-time grant. Ishmael said officials are looking at how best to use the money to bring behavioral health services to the Cleveland area.
“We just want to have two options available,” he said. “We are committed to making sure this project gets off the ground as it provides a needed service to the community.”