Construction of a crisis care center, a potential first step in transforming mental health care in Palm Beach County, is on the Palm Beach County Commission agenda today.
The commission is being asked to make good on a 2021 promise to provide $10 million in COVID-relief money toward a crisis center to be built and operated by the Health Care District of Palm Beach County.
The district, which is supported by taxpayers, will pay the rest. It could cost $60 million to buy land and build a center that would serve all patients, regardless of ability to pay, providing 24/7 intensive, short-term stabilization care “in a warm and welcoming environment.”
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It would add mental health beds and assessment options, centralize services and replace the county jail as a key health-care provider. It would ease the load on the court system and provide an alternative to emergency rooms that may or may not have ready access to psychiatric services.
The big picture: It would augment or replace work now done by the county’s four hospitals that admit patients involuntarily under the Baker Act: Delray Medical Center’s Fair Oaks Pavilion, South County Mental Health Center, HCA Florida JFK North Hospital and NeuroBehavioral Hospitals at St. Mary’s Medical Center.
One of its aims is to make up for the 2019 closure of a fifth mental health facility, the Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health.
That independent nonprofit specialized in low-income or uninsured patients. Its site on 45th Street remains empty, owned since 2020 by a for-profit New Jersey health-care provider.
The district’s proposal is backed by a $100,000 consultant’s report published last year that suggested the county undertake the federal “Crisis Now” model by making improvements in emergency call centers, mobile response and crisis receiving centers.
“Successful implementation will require the coordination and cooperation of all parties involved,” the consultant, Initium Health, wrote. “As an existing medical provider and a taxpayer-funded entity, the Health Care District is well positioned to leverage its resources to facilitate the implementation of the Crisis Now Model in Palm Beach County.”
It should be near urban areas, the consultant said, but no site has been selected yet. The Health Care District said it is not pursuing the consultant’s recommendation to build two facilities — one in north county and one in south county.
The agreement between the county and the Health Care District allows eight years for site selection, design and construction although officials expect it to take far less time.
The consultant pointed to similar crisis centers in Broward County (Henderson Behavioral Health Center), Arizona, Colorado and California.
Patrick McNamara, whose Palm Health Foundation has advocated for improvements in mental health and substance abuse disorder care, supports the approach.
“It just makes a ton of sense when we have a local taxing district that has pretty deep pockets that is willing to get into the behavioral health-care space,” he said.
The $30 million annual cost would be borne by the Health Care District. Among services to be offered, as cited in the county agreement:
- Screening, assessment and diagnosis, including risk assessment.
- Outpatient mental health and substance use services.
- Outpatient clinic primary care screening and monitoring of key health indicators and health risk.
- Psychiatric rehabilitation services.
- Peer support, counselor services and family support.
- Behavioral health court.
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
